Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My last gravid female of the season had her babies last night (or rather, this morning). I was having trouble sleeping, and since I saw her getting restless the night before I decided to check on her at about 4am. What did I find but a BABY EXPLOSION!

Normally my mommas curl up in the corner or in the moss hide and have them all in a pile. Mauve decided to have her babies 'on the go'. There were some in the water, some here, some there... and after I thought I had the total count, I found 7 more in the back corner! She also still seemed to be having contractions while cruising around, though appearing empty.

This is my largest litter to date with 29 live, 1 still, and 3 slugs!

After pulling out 28 babies, I left her the still born and the one slug that was not in the water as she seemed interesting in nomming something.... nosing and 'tasting' her live babies.

When I checked her again at about 6am (still having insomnia) I found the 29th baby (guess she wasn't empty), the stillborn missing, and her working on eating the slug. Looks like she was trying to wrap it... fail.

So this caps the baby season for me! What a way to finish it off... with a HUGE litter of healthy babies!

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Aubrey Ross

www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

Awesome litter!!! Congrats, the really big ones are fun in the "when am I going to find the last one" way!!!
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Thanks Dave! Yeah, that is a fun game to play!
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Aubrey Ross

www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

Then comes the next fun game, where to put them all!!!

Followed by how to feed them all, how to clean them all etc. etc.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Congrats Aubrey,

That is a huge liter!!! I have never seen my females eat there slugs. I have heard it is common, just never saw it myself.
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John Wiseman
www.rainbowsbydesign.com

18.30 BRBs (as of 6-20-2012)
3.8 others

Thank you John. Same for me. I had heard of it, and seen evidence of mine eating them, but this is the first time that I can remember actually seeing it.
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Aubrey Ross

www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

When I found my BRB litter in process of being born this year, she was about 2/3's of the way through giving birth and eating slugs without slowing down...no trying to wrap it though, lol, just grab it up and swallow while pushing babies out the back end at the same time.

Charlie

In this pic.....

Towards the back is BRB clearly different from mom and not a baby.

Did you keep this breeding pair together the whole gestation time?
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Yes, they were together the whole time. I have had zero success trying your method of figuring out when they are ready to mate, introducing the male for a month or two, then separating. Had 3 years in a row with no babies, trying very hard to do it that way, lol! I can do it no problem with my colubrids, but these boas aren't as easy to read.

Ever since I've just left them together, they do what they need to do in their own time. I know some say to not leave them together for so long, but I have produced many babies with this method and the male never seems to get in the way of the gestating female or any babies.

Funny thing, the extra 7 babies I found were perfectly nestled in the male's coils.
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Aubrey Ross

www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

After having some daddy bonding time...

Funny, your timing for having babies seems to be very similar. I watch for visual breeding events including tail wraps, ovulations (rarely seen) and sheds. From all that I put together the timeline for each female.

For example, Tawny and Billy had tail wraps on 7 different days between February 28th and March 22nd. Had a visual ovulation swelling on March 3oth. Next she shed on April 19th, her POS. She was still with Billy for some time after that to make sure she was actually done. Then 111 days after her POS shed she had her litter of 15 babies.

The total picture only becomes clear afterwards when you put together all the details.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

...everyone has to figure out what works best for them. As much as I generally try to emulate what I see the other people in the hobby do most of the time, especially those I have a lot of respect for and trust, if something just isn't seeming to work right, then sometimes you have to find what does work.

That being said though, all the people in my...lets just call it loosely, circle of friends...from the past who I knew worked with rainbow boas, either brazilian or colombian, always kept breeding adults in large community cages, usually groups of 2.2 or 2.3. The anery/het litter I had, I never pulled the male. I only put him in a different cage while I was pulling babies so I wouldn't have to try to watch out for him trying to sneak out on me too. My colombians I did remove the males once I was sure the female was gravid, but that is because I have a couple of very enthusiastic breeders that just absolutely would not leave her alone. I haven't seen them combat, I don't know that they do or would (I don't think so?) but I have seen two males both with their tales all wrapped around the females at the same time together in a big knot and I don't have a clue inside that mess of snake tails who was actually breeding...lol.

The only other time I'm used to seeing rainbows housed individually is if it's a young one that wasn't wanted into the breeding mix yet, or soon after birth putting a female by herself if she's being fed a little more often just so she'll already be separated.

Which ever way ya'll are doing things, I say keep at it because you're obviously getting some great results!

Charlie

The title line to that post was supposed to say "I've always been a firm believer in..."

for some reason I'm having a horrible time posting in threads and getting errors when I first try to post, usually trying again it goes through but it resets the title line to what it was before...grrr....

Charlie

Congrats on an awesome litter! Great pics too!

Thank you!
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Aubrey Ross

www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

Wow, nice big litter deserves a Big CONGRATS!!!

A BIG thank you!
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Aubrey Ross

www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

Thanks Cliff! LOL! I love your narration for that pic... too funny!
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Aubrey Ross

www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

That would definitely mean one male per cage. I didn't totally think through that far until after I'd posted to take into account the amount of diversity in genetics there are today and even the number of separate lines or control in keeping an exact pedigree like I know many of you all do now.

Charlie