Reptile & Amphibian Forums

No babies at the morning check, then early this afternoon I checked again and noticed this in Lola's window...

Yup, she dropped her litter - cool!! Was deposited outside the hide on the cage floor and most were already cruising around. I started pulling babies and after a few I pulled the hide box with mom inside and noticed she had deposited the last egg sack in there with her. She was not moving so I continued with the cage. Pulled all the babies in the cage, 12, plus the one with mom = 13 right?

Wrong, when I pulled mom to get at the ;last egg sack I noticed this:

Yes, there are two heads in there = TWINS!!

And as if that weren't proof, after they left the sack they were still joined by their shared umbilical cord which they eventually pulled apart from each other.

And on a side note, last year I had only 91 babies, this year twin one was baby #91 and twin two was baby #92. Super sweet way to surpass last years count!!
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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

Very cool! It seems to me from my recollection over the years that twinning in reptiles is much more frequently documented in egg-layers. Nice to see it documented in an ovoviviparous species!
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Thanks, yes it's more obvious when you've been able to watch and count the individual eggs for some time. Still the same with ovoviviparous but the eggs themselves have a very short shelf life. Laid, hatched and left behind - sometimes in a matter of minutes.

This is my second documented (pics of twins in eggs) twinning in BRB's. I believe those are the only twins I have had in BRB since they are each 1/2 size of other babies in the litter and other than those two pairs I have not seen BRB's that small in other litters.
-----
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

Awesome!!! So very cool to see this.

Amanda

Update, they all ate including the twins. Gave the twins mouse pinkies and they both attacked with gusto!
-----
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