Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I'm still waiting for my Fiji boa to give birth, but in the meantime friends (on Taveuni Island, Fiji) have had a wild caught female produce 27 live babies (and no slugs. The came in three colours ; grey/brown, orange and almost black with orange bellies.

Most are being released, but other friends are keeping some and I'm unable to resist a pair of the dark ones - it's the red eyes I think...

Hope you like the pics, sorry we can't export.....

Here are Momma and a selection of 8 day old neonates

Here are the colours

And finally the ones we're keeping....

Very nice! Crazy how big they are compared to other candoia babies. Thanks for sharing those killer pics!

Dan

Simply amazing..... Keep us posted with their progress. Thanks for sharing!

Orlando
-----
Dr. Orlando Diaz
LEGACY REPTILES
www.legacyreptiles.com

Size wise, I weighed and measured 8 of them at 8 days old, and they were all between 32 and 36 cm long (around 13 or 14 inches) and between 10 and 11 gms (less than 1/2 ounce). It's hard to believe such tiny snake are boas, but when you see them grapple with (equally tiny) geckos, they are all constrictor!

Hi Helen!

They are absolutly stunning little guys! Very jelous of you out there!!

How is your female doing? do you think she is definatly gravid?

Cheers Matt
-----

Thanks for looking!

The two dark ones I've kept (possibly both female, still hard to tell) both ate f/t house geckos straight from the floor of the tank, so I'm a very happy camper today. I'll post some more pics later.

My female is still either gravid or doing a very good impression of a pregnant snake. She fasted for a month and is now accepting small meals, but eating a lot less than normal, and in the past 4 weeks moved from her normal hide to a taller shelf in her tank.

These neonates were born at the end of June, so if she was gravid for 9 months she would have mated at the end of October last year, which is when I put my female in with my males, so we're still on schedule - even if it's getting a bit nail biting now...

It has to be a real pleasure to be able to work with an indigenous boa like that. Keep the pictures coming.

Thanks,
Jeff
-----
Jeff Murray
www.boa-subspecies.com
http://s352.photobucket.com/home/boidsonly/allalbums

Thanks! it is fun working with these snakes, but also continually surprising, as there is so little available information. Members of this site have been very helpful and supportive when I've had questions, it's been great.

So far I've had babies from wild-caught gravid females, so I've had no way of knowing how long the gestation period is or anything about the genetics that produce these colours, but the female that is currently pregnant was bred to my own male. Once she gives birth I'll actually have some concrete information to go on, and you can be sure I'll be sharing it, and more photos.

For the moment here's a few more of one of the dark orange neonates - only 33cm long, but looks so dragonish I'm going to have to find a fire-breathing kind of name for her (and her twin sister).

wow, great looking snakes!