Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just a question for whoever may have an answer... My rubber boas were paired during late april (last week I believe) and my female is now looking preeetttyyyy large and has gained over 20 grams.

Does anyone have good information on when I should expect her to drop some babies?!?

Also do they have a pre shed even though they have live young??
Picture makes it hard to see how large she is

My understanding is that young are usually born in August. My female did not become gravid this year, even though they have been together since last fall. She is marginal as far as size though.

Is your female still eating? Usually they will stop eating if gravid. Mine is still eating regularly which is why I don't think there will any babies this year.

Here are pics of my pair. Good luck with yours.

-----
Kent

1.1 Hypo (het lavender, striped) cornsnakes, 2010
1.2 Gray-banded kingsnakes, blairs phase, 2008
1.1 Oregon rubber boas, w/c 200?

Colossians 3:17

She cease feeding about a month ago and has still been gaining weight. If you look at here back end she looks stretched (you can see between her scales).
Last year I had a female unsuspectingly have babies. I had her with a male but never saw breeding and a couple months later wha la. I saw these ones copulate this year.
What locality are yours from?? Also, do you plan on working with breeding them in the future??

Mine are from Oregon near Corvallis. I plan to breed them when they decide they are ready. They will be together year round most likely. The only exception to that will be if the female does become gravid next year. Then I will separate them, as the female will need a little more heat than the male.

Check out Ryan Hoyer's website if you have not already. Lots of good info. Maybe his dad, Richard Hoyer, will offer some info on this thread also.
Link

-----
Kent

1.1 Hypo (het lavender, striped) corn snakes, 2010
1.2 Gray-banded king snakes, blairs phase, 2008
0.0.10 Gray-banded king snakes, 2011
1.1 Oregon rubber boas, w/c 2000 and something

Colossians 3:17

gmpyro:
You do not impart near enough information in order to even produce an educated guess. But you may in the best position to answer that question if you had another female produce a litter last year. When did she produce her litter and do you have your current female under the same gestation conditions as the female last year?

As for your female boa not feeding at the present time and you mention she has been gaining weight, under such circumstances, the only way that can happen is by the boa's intake of water. Over the length of the entire gestation period, the boa will eventually loose weight if she is fasting during that period of time.

Richard F Hoyer

I have both females still and the one that had a litter last year was not planned.... I never saw them breed but they were shipped to me in the same container and had been together.
I was told they were captive born but both have tons of scars on body and tail, Therefore I have no idea as to timing of breeding and gestation.
My current female appeared to be losing weight at first but now has gained 30 grams. I have only fed her two or three times eating 3 fuzzies at a time.
When I first got her I weighed her, she fed the couple times, then cease feeding. Since then I have weighed her and she weighs more. So whether the weight gain is from the couple feedings, water intake or babies??? I do not know. Thats why I posted here for the pros to provide opinions.
I also have a non eating male that I have attempted to feed several times for months with no luck and was attempting to get some voles from that website. No response to my email yet though and I am worried about the thing. he weighs about 23 grams and does not appear to be losing.

gmpyro:
Your information is to fragmented and incomplete to offer you much of any advice. I have only been involved with the Rubber Boa from a research angle so don't know much of anything about the pet trade and what has been circulating about the care of the species. This is in spite of the fact that one of my sons has been in the pet trade for a number of years and has a web site, www.rubberboas.com you might visit.

If you would wish, you can contact me at charinabottae@earthlink.net If you can provide more detail, perhaps I can give you some advice. I have been breeding the species since 1969 but am far from knowing all there is to know about maintaining and breeding Rubber Boas . I only know what has worked for me but others have had good success with the species using a different set of conditions.

The information on your current female's weight make absolutely no sense. Since your male is an adult, at 23 grams he has to be extremely thin. I suggest soaking him in shallow water for about 10 minutes every week to insure he remain hydrated and keep him as cool as possible.

Richard F. Hoyer

Sorry, one more question.... I live in AZ and the house is at 74 constant.
Their cages are around 74 all over but cold moist moss hide can get 69-70 during the night. I have never provided heat because I was told they had to be cold and being AZ I have worried on this subject.

Should I have heat??

Keep him cool and seperate from the females. Offer him live pinky mice if you can get them. I would put the pinkies in a dish out of the aspen and let them find them. I am not sure why, but over the years I have had a few that would not eat in the aspen. My current male, a wild caught will only eat pinkies and will never eat fuzzies. he will eat six or eight at each sitting too.
Keep in mind that seeing the animals copulate and marking the date of copulation has very little of no bearing on when they may drop babies. If you happen to see her ovulate then you can be somewhat accurate if you keep track of date and temperature.
Complete gestation in live bearing animals is not very differnent from egg laying animals. You just have to add the time of egg development to the equation. I have some notes somewhere that I have compared from ovulation in corn snakes to ovulation in sand boas with showed me that it was about 90 day depending on temps. Corn eggs hatch in about sixty at 83 degrees, add any where from 20 to 30 days(depending on basking temps)for egg development and you'll find they are very similar. You just get to see one of the steps sooner in egg layers.

only gravid females need the warm basking area. In a large enough set up you can offer it to both, but I have had males which loved the hot spot and did not do well. When I cooled them down and did not offer the basking temps, they started eating again and gaining weight. The cool side of there tank was low 70's with an 83 degree basking temp.
I will add however that when ever I have had a boa where the scales are seperating with stretching I have recieved babies. I also know with mine that it is not food causing the rapid frowth.
-----
Steve Perry
North Idaho.

Do you have any local info on your Rubber Boa? It appears to be lighter colored and have larger scales. Kind of hard to see in that pic.

the scales look funny in the picture because the animal had babies inside of it which are now out and in deli cups... Tiny little things.

They are san mateo.