Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A couple of years ago my ex husband got 3 etbs, we know they were probably imports from the wild because we had to take them to the vet several times becuase of mites and worms.

My husband and I divorced and he let me keep the snakes because I got attached to them. They were all supposed to be females and I had them in a 75 gallon tank with lots of branches. Well last winter I saw two of them mating, their little tails were tangled up togeher hanging down. They did this for several weeks off and on, mostly at night.

Then Gracie, (mommy etb) got very fat and I knew she was pregnant so I took her out and put her in a 40 gallon tank so the others wouldnt eat her babies. She stayed right under the heat emitter and got fatter and fatter. Then it happened, last July I looked and she had only one live baby, two dead ones and 4 red egg things ( looked like giant jelly beans) the live baby was dark red, one dead baby was dark red and the other was pale yellow. Both of the dead ones looked like they were the same size as the live one and I dont know what happened with them.

I flushed the 4 red things and the two dead babies down the toilet before my daughter woke up and saw them. I knew it would break her heart, I left the live baby in with Gracie until my daughter got up and when she saw the little baby she screamed like it was Christmas! She named him Flick, ( we call him a he but not sure of gender). I kinda wish I had froze the dead babies so I could ask a vet what happened.

I dont know if the pale yellow one was really an albino or if it was just a genetic defect since there was obviously something wrong with her litter, but I have looked and looked for pictures of baby emeralds and I cant find another like it. I know albinos are more uncommon but my daughter saw a yellow albino ball python at the pet shop and she flipped over it and I told her one day that Gracie may give her a yellow tree snake.

Ziggy ( the male adult) is chasing Angel (presumed other female) around the cage this season and I haven't saw mating yet but you can tell he wants to. I am hoping for more babies and hopefully another yellow one! Gracie is still by herself because I read that you shouldnt breed emeralds two years in a row. One more thing, Gracie was almost friendly, I could pet her a little bit but ever since she became a mommy, she tries to bite, I have to hold a cutting board with one hand while I change her water or clean her mess with my other hand. I am afraid she thinks I hurt those two dead babies. How can I get her to like me again?

One more question, Flick, the baby, is very sweet, I let my daughter pet him if I am holding him, ( the cages all have locks on them so she doesnt get tempted to stick her hand in the cages). She begs me all the time to let her hold him but I am afraid he may bite her though he has not bit me since the day he was born, will he stay sweet since he has had human contact since birth or do you think he will get unpredictable and moody like his mother has? We are so excited because he is changing colors I just keep hoping he doesnt get mean when he goes all green!

Picture of the stillborn pale yellow baby, It did have little pink eyes, bless its heart. I snapped this with my camera phone before I flushed him/her. I know its skin looks wrinkled but it was sticky and I had to pick newspaper and some slime off it. It looked fully formed to me and was the same size as the only surviving sibling that was the dark red color.

I hope to get more babies from Gracie, when I breed her next winter and hopefully I will get another yellow baby and then can watch it grow up to see if it turns green or stays yellow.

Can't wait 2 see the next litter from this pair of adults. Good luck with it!

Unfortunately some baby emerald that are born dead look like this and it is not an albino.
Congrats on the litter!!!
Ed Marino

that is awesome and congrats on producing some baby emeralds (even though only one lived it is still cool). If in fact you do have a pair of wild caught adult het albino emeralds the monetary value of them increased quite a bit and please don't let anyone sweet talk you into selling or even breeding loan on those originals. Hopefully how attached you are to them this won't happen but like I said if they do produce a living albino they are/will be worth ALOT( I do think the baby you produced that was still born is an albino ). Keep us updated and I hope you get more babies again soon.
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Josh & Krysty Hutto

Various Ball Pythons, boas, dogs, cats, fish, a couple sulcatas and a few other odds and ends.

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrier as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

Sweet heavens my friend, you may be the first and only person ever to see an albino emerald tree boa even if it was deceased. I am GREEN or WHITE with ENVY right now as I am sure everyone else is! Definitely looks like an albino to me and you said it had pink eyes, that is a GOOD sign! I agree with Josh, oh don't get me wrong, I would definitely make you an offer on the parents but you really should hang on tight to them and the juvenile, if you can get a living albino, I couldnt even dream of what you could sell it for! Honestly, you should get in touch with Rico at signalherp (DOT) com or Steve Volk at amazonbasins (DOT) com, they are both extremely well known for the best of the best in the emerald world.

About your mother snake being snappy, have you changed the branches and scrubbed down the tank, if she can smell babies, she might be snappy about that, or since it takes an etb so long to recover after birth maybe she is just very hungry, as long as she poops after every 2nd meal (that is important and definitely no more than 3 meals without a poop) , you could probably give her a rat pup every 10 days for month or so and see if that helps with her attitude. And the only other thing I could think of is that you probably didn't mess with her much once you saw she was gravid, (pregnant), so she may just need to get used to you again. I got a patternless etb that was wickedly aggressive at first and I left her alone for a while and then when she stopped acting upset when I opened her enclosure I gently touched her just a few seconds to get her used to me, a few months later I was able to handle her and she hasn't snapped since.
I think its safe to assume that your baby etb will stay calm as long as you don't decrease the frequency that you handle him and if you do decide to let your child hold him, I would wait till it was a warm sunny day and have her sit down and gently hold him (maybe even on his perch or a branch) while you supervise. Tell your child not to put her hand in front of the snakes face and not to make sudden movements.

Definitely keep us all posted, so excited for you and Thank you for sharing this awesome discovery!

Thanks for the kind words. I've spoken to her a couple times via email and what a kind person and she truely loves the animals. Soo good to see something like this happen to such a nice person.

Still not 100% convinced it's an albino, very well could be and probably is but really difficult to confirm with that photo. There could be a couple other factors going on... the animal may have died near term prior to pigmentation. No doubt though, it is different. Let's hope it's not a one off and can be repeated. She definitely needs to hang onto them and try and repeat the success. Moving those adults now would only delay the process and possibly ruin it entirely. Stable healthy emeralds don't need to be moved about. I'm looking forward to helping her any way I can as this could open new doors to the emerald community. Let's all wish her the best of luck!

Rico
Signal Herp

First off - congrats on the awesome, albeit deceased, albino looking ETB! - truly gorgeous!

I want to know if you could post pics of the sire, dam, and surviving baby though? Even if they don't look anything special, I'd love to just see them!

~Chris
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Chris
Chris Carille Photography
http://nyexotics.blogspot.com/

super huge congrats to you!!! You have done something special! I hope you have more success in the future and I REALLY hope that baby was something special. Too bad you don't have better pics. I second the other request for pics of the adults and the one live baby from last year!!!!

Good job!
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Ike Lightner
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Small, private, hobbyist level collection of SPOILED breeders, hold-backs, and future breeders. Working with 5.8 high end, captive-bred animals from well known bloodlines. Currently focused on:

-Hypomelanistic BRBs
-Striped BRBs
-HIGH Orange & Red BRBs
-Trophy JCPs

4.7 BRBs - "Dugo, Sultan, Diego, Nando, Roxxy, Lucille,
Rasheena, Liddia, Ireena, Juitta, Brazitta"

1.1 JCPs - "Truman & Tammara"