Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My smaller yellow (6 ft) gave birth to her first litter yesterday. We got seven healthy babies. Unfortunately we got seven still-borns too. Four of the still-borns still had sacs attached and they were very small. The other three (the first three out) looked just like all the live ones so not sure why they didn't make it. There was only one full slug and two little slug pieces.

I'm thinking I might not have had the overall cage temps raised high enough during gestation. She had a warmer spot on the floor but the cage temp was only raised a couple degrees from normal. The reptile room is under renonvation so everything has been in a make shift location which may have allowed more temp fluctuations during winter months. Not enough to affect the health of the animals but maybe enough to effect gestation. Oh well...live and learn. The babies that made it seem to be in great shape and not too nippy for newborns. I'm hoping the parent's excellent temperaments show up in these offspring.

Here's a pic of one of the little buggers...

Congrats......I would highly recommend however giving her the next 2 years off to pack on size, 6ft is really on the small side to be breeding.....like to see the rest of the babies.
Mike

Yeah, I normally would not breed at her size either but she's supposedly old enough and had good weight so I gave it a try. I actually aquired this female from the previous owner through a mutual friend. I was told that even though she is only a little over six feet she is almost four years old. Apparently the guy did not feed her very much trying to keep her small. Duh!

I will say that after giving birth she still has pretty good weight on considering the number she dropped for her size. I wouldn't breed her again until 2010 anyway so we'll see how much size she might put on between now and then with an optimal feeding schedule.

From some of the experiences ive had with various boids, I would certainly say age has a much bigger factor in breeding success and ability for females than people usually give credit...and size has a lot less.

I would certainly take some time off, but I would probably bet your stillborns had more to do with temperature than the weight of the female.

Very nice. I'm still crossing my fingers on some nice live granite babies im thinking will come around the 4th of July.

Congrats. I raised temps a little late in my opinion so we will see how that goes too.

Great looking little guys! I'm sure they'll turn out as nice as their parents. I'm going to have to agree with Gavin on the stillborn issue.

It's hard to tell. I was talking to Kelly about it the other day and explaining my cages temps and such. He said he thought everything sounded OK since she had a warmer spot and moved on and off of it rather than staying perched on it constantly. Size and age wise....well techinically she is big enough and from the info I have, should be old enough. We sort of came to the conclusion these things just happen sometimes. Especailly in first litters.

Babies that did make it are all doing great, feeding well and I am getting ready to begin a handling schedule with them to calm them down, although they aren't too bad for three week old yellows.

DJ,
If you do breed her again in a couple of years that will tell the real story. If it was some inherent reproductive issue with the female, chances are it will happen again to some degree the next time. If it was just an anomaly due to age or first breeding, chances are excellent that the next litter will have a much better outcome.

Kelly