Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Every so often I find my gravid green (Anna Banana) completely relaxed and slightly rolled like this. Until now I haven’t been able to get a decent photo. On Wednesday night, June 3, at about 10:30 I was making my last round through the reptile room and was able to get these shots and had to share them. When she relaxes like this it really exaggerates her girth. I estimate that she is about one month from parturition. Watching this unfold over the last few month has been a great experience. I’ve been fortunate to work with a number of species, but working with greens has to be one of the most rewarding experiences a herper could have.

Looks fantastic!!

What size cage do you have her in.
Thx Mike

Hi Mike - She is in an 8' x 3' cage. She also spends about 25% of her time in a vision tub. There are pictures of her and the tub on the forum: Water Enclosure Option (2/7/09).

looks good bro. post on here when you get some babies...i might have to take one off your hands

Karl,
That's really incredible. I have never seen a gravid green swell up to that size. It will be very interesting to see how many she has. Going by her appearance, she must have between 30 and 40 in her.

Kelly

She doesn't look quite this large most of the time. She is very relaxed here and it really makes her look huge. I bred a few Peruvian Rainbow Boas a few years back and they got proportionately larger compared to what she shows in this photo. Their litters were in the low to mid 30s. I think that one litter was as high as 37. I don't know what to expect out of Anna Banana. This is her first cycle, so to be honest I'm tad concern about her size. At some point I'm sure it can become too much. I'm hopeful for a nice litter and a healthy, hungry mother.

With my rainbows I started daily misting of the cage so that there was no chance of the babies getting stuck to the newspaper or substrate. Have you done this in the past with greens? I want to make sure that they can get away from their mother once she starts moving. I'm typically out of the house for 12 - 15 hours per day so I think this will be important.

What time of day have you seen parturition with greens? The rainbows that I worked with typically popped in the early A.M. I would find them finishing up at about 4:30 in the morning. Back in the day I bred quite a few yellow anacondas and they seemed to have their babies at any time of the day. Although my memory could be bad. Have you seen any patterns with the greens?

Thanks, Karl

Karl,
I have noticed that there is a very strong correlation between the size of the female green and the number of ova she produces, more so than with most other boids. The numbers that get fertilized varies, but the total number of ova produced in a reproductive cycle, young plus unfertilized ova, is very consistent. Females between 12 and 13 feet seem to consistently produce 25 to 30 ova. Greens in the 13 to 14 feet range 30 to 35 ova, and greens 14 to 15 feet produce between 35 and 40. In our litters, we have been seeing from 10% to 15% of the total as unfertilized ova. These are the numbers Jud and I have seen with females from three different bloodlines. I would be curious with your female, as she looks a little more swollen than other gravid females I’ve had. One thing that may account for her size is a high fertilization percentage.

I’ve never moistened the substrate prior to birth, but the amount of fluid that is expelled usually completely saturates the newspaper substrate of the entire cage, so I have never seen an issue with neos sticking to anything. However, I would not hesitate to do so if you feel there is a concern. I have not seen any pattern whatsoever with birthing in greens. I’ve had females drop at night, early morning, and late afternoon. You would think there would be some pattern, but I haven’t seen it.

The other interesting thing about greens is that the females always ingest any unfertilized ova that are produced. This usually takes place right after birth, and so the number of unfertilized ova produced with a litter will never be known unless you are right there at the time of parturition. Can’t wait to see the results,

Kelly