Stav.T
07-27-04, 11:01 AM
Hey there ,
I thought i would share my own experience with boas. I've started by breeding burmese pythons and soon ended up breeding boas as well this was around 88-1989 if i remember good anyways lets say 1990.....Its useless to specify that i've had my share of breedings or my share of litters in fact i dont know exactly how many boas i've bred or how many babies i've produced since then its too many. I feed my snakes when they need it not when i decide.
There is one huge thing that caught my attention in the original pic that Jeff posted..... The boa on the pic is far from being fat or obese. He seems to be just the right weigh. Maybe if this was noticed the thread would not had been what it is ....
Its important to know that there are lines that produce boas that will grow big and fast and there's others that will produce smaller boas that dont grow fast. Eitherway I experienced both and i work with both to. I have pure colombian females that are small even if they are 6 to10 yrs old that produce babies that will stay small just like them ( between 5- 6 - 6-1/2 ). And i have ones that will grow huge and fast. And they eat what they want as frequently as they want.
Its easy to differentiate both. Those that will stay small will become fat or obese without getting an inch in lengh. In contrary the ones from the larger "lines" ones will transform all they eat in lengh insted of accumulating fat.
Another thing that i've noticed in this thread and experienced during the years is the relation between females that are bred early and others that bred way later versus fertility, the # of newborns and size of newborns. If you ask me... there is many myths around those three things.
First and most important ( I think ) is that someone cannot get any reliable conclusions with a small sample of breedings or litters. 5-6-10 breedings is not enough to get any valuable conclusion. A person has to make many dozens ( if not at least a hundred ) to get straight conclusions.
I 've bred females that were 2 yrs old (in fact the youngest was 20 months old) that gave me nice sized litters from 20 to 32 being the biggest with out slugs or stillborns at their first breedings. In contrary some will give all slugs at their first breeding. I have older bigger females that gave me 1 or 2 babies and a bunch of slugs. And older females that give 99% to 100% live babies. You know what? when there is slugs in a litter its my fault. Too many times i hear people putting it on the fertility's back or on the male's bad sperm . Its hard to admit but 99% of the time when a female gives an amount of slugs its due to "my" fault not the female's. There's many factors ( again of what i've experienced ) that are in cause when we get slugs. Some of them .... cooling, high - low temps, female not bred at prime time when the follicules are a 100% ready to receive the male's sperm, not enough "fat" reserves, sperm storage etc....
For the males .....
The youngest male I've bred succesfully was 8 months old with a total lengh of about 2 1/2 feet. Generaly i like to use young males because they are way more active during breeding. Another "myth" that floats around breeding younger males is their nonfertile sperm. In my mind and of what i've experienced if a male starts to produce sperm then he is fertile. ( I've seen it in a microscope many times ). Offcourse if his sperm is viable you can make an opinion of the viability of his sperm if you check it under a microscope when he is an adult. In the opposite you will have males that will only breed succesfully once they are older in the two years range. Its not only size that matters in some cases age matters to and i dont have a clue of what is happening in those cases yet.
Its easy to see when a young male is ready to breed. Usually those young ones will not stop jerking on the female and you can usually see loads of sperm "on" the females several times at the begining of breeding until they find the " tunnel".
Many people saw this at my home people that a few years back thought that males had to be a resonable size to breed. One of them that comes on the forum from time to time is Mike Perry ( ""was"" a friend of mine )who didint believe it was possible. ( same thing as for the capability of boas to eat really large meals.) Last year i tried two males that were 5 months old and just under 2 feet to see if they were capable of reproducing , they were jerking over the females but not as usual, i never noticed any sperm on the females and i never saw any succesfull penetrations. Only tail to tail. They soon lost interest in the females. The results were 100% slugs.
I've bred quite a few species of snakes and i saw this , young males, ( which popular belief ) says that they are too young to breed that give 100% fertile clutches. The most recent one for those who follow the regius forum is a high contrast albino male breeding 10 females. You know what? When he started breeding he was around 7 months of age with a weight of around 500 grams. He just gave 4 clutches of 100% fertile eggs of 100% het albinos, no slugs. 6 females to go and i will not be surprised if they to give 100% fertile eggs.
Another thing i've noticed with boas in popular thinking and which is a wide spread myth, is the myth that says that females will not eat when gravid ( soem will eat until they give birth soem will stop right after ovulation ) or will get stunted if bred to early or they will give smaller babies or less babies.....This is not true as well. I'm always amazed to see how female boas get back all their fat reserves after giving birth. Usually after 2-3-4 meals they are top shape as they were before breeding and start to put up lengh to after they gained their losses. By the way some females can breed 5 yrs in a row and others will breed every two years. In both cases they still grow and there's absolutely no effect on how many babies they'll get or the size of them.
The only size relation i've noticed is ( what I believe ) when a female ovulates two times sveral weeks appart. When this happens you usually see difference in size of the babies in the same litter. You can clearely see babies that have big bellies full of undigested fluids and at the same time babies that have totaly or close to totaly digested all their fluids. Its a clear evidence in my mind. I'll know more about that soon because i'm about to buy an ultrasound machine to be able to see inside a female's body during pregnancy without any harm.
Well thats it for now there's many more things I would say ( my personnal experiences ) in this thread because its a really interesting topic but i have a language barrier;) I've started to write a book its a long time project, its gonna be in french first but it will be translated in english.
So my word to Jeff ...... I would breed that boa with your albino male this comming season if he hits the 2 1/2 3ft. If he is ready you will see him jerking all over the female and you will surely notice sperm on the female's body. If he dosent breed well the only thing you will loose is your time.
I hope nobody fell asleap while reading this......;)
Stav......zzzzzzzzzzzz;)
I thought i would share my own experience with boas. I've started by breeding burmese pythons and soon ended up breeding boas as well this was around 88-1989 if i remember good anyways lets say 1990.....Its useless to specify that i've had my share of breedings or my share of litters in fact i dont know exactly how many boas i've bred or how many babies i've produced since then its too many. I feed my snakes when they need it not when i decide.
There is one huge thing that caught my attention in the original pic that Jeff posted..... The boa on the pic is far from being fat or obese. He seems to be just the right weigh. Maybe if this was noticed the thread would not had been what it is ....
Its important to know that there are lines that produce boas that will grow big and fast and there's others that will produce smaller boas that dont grow fast. Eitherway I experienced both and i work with both to. I have pure colombian females that are small even if they are 6 to10 yrs old that produce babies that will stay small just like them ( between 5- 6 - 6-1/2 ). And i have ones that will grow huge and fast. And they eat what they want as frequently as they want.
Its easy to differentiate both. Those that will stay small will become fat or obese without getting an inch in lengh. In contrary the ones from the larger "lines" ones will transform all they eat in lengh insted of accumulating fat.
Another thing that i've noticed in this thread and experienced during the years is the relation between females that are bred early and others that bred way later versus fertility, the # of newborns and size of newborns. If you ask me... there is many myths around those three things.
First and most important ( I think ) is that someone cannot get any reliable conclusions with a small sample of breedings or litters. 5-6-10 breedings is not enough to get any valuable conclusion. A person has to make many dozens ( if not at least a hundred ) to get straight conclusions.
I 've bred females that were 2 yrs old (in fact the youngest was 20 months old) that gave me nice sized litters from 20 to 32 being the biggest with out slugs or stillborns at their first breedings. In contrary some will give all slugs at their first breeding. I have older bigger females that gave me 1 or 2 babies and a bunch of slugs. And older females that give 99% to 100% live babies. You know what? when there is slugs in a litter its my fault. Too many times i hear people putting it on the fertility's back or on the male's bad sperm . Its hard to admit but 99% of the time when a female gives an amount of slugs its due to "my" fault not the female's. There's many factors ( again of what i've experienced ) that are in cause when we get slugs. Some of them .... cooling, high - low temps, female not bred at prime time when the follicules are a 100% ready to receive the male's sperm, not enough "fat" reserves, sperm storage etc....
For the males .....
The youngest male I've bred succesfully was 8 months old with a total lengh of about 2 1/2 feet. Generaly i like to use young males because they are way more active during breeding. Another "myth" that floats around breeding younger males is their nonfertile sperm. In my mind and of what i've experienced if a male starts to produce sperm then he is fertile. ( I've seen it in a microscope many times ). Offcourse if his sperm is viable you can make an opinion of the viability of his sperm if you check it under a microscope when he is an adult. In the opposite you will have males that will only breed succesfully once they are older in the two years range. Its not only size that matters in some cases age matters to and i dont have a clue of what is happening in those cases yet.
Its easy to see when a young male is ready to breed. Usually those young ones will not stop jerking on the female and you can usually see loads of sperm "on" the females several times at the begining of breeding until they find the " tunnel".
Many people saw this at my home people that a few years back thought that males had to be a resonable size to breed. One of them that comes on the forum from time to time is Mike Perry ( ""was"" a friend of mine )who didint believe it was possible. ( same thing as for the capability of boas to eat really large meals.) Last year i tried two males that were 5 months old and just under 2 feet to see if they were capable of reproducing , they were jerking over the females but not as usual, i never noticed any sperm on the females and i never saw any succesfull penetrations. Only tail to tail. They soon lost interest in the females. The results were 100% slugs.
I've bred quite a few species of snakes and i saw this , young males, ( which popular belief ) says that they are too young to breed that give 100% fertile clutches. The most recent one for those who follow the regius forum is a high contrast albino male breeding 10 females. You know what? When he started breeding he was around 7 months of age with a weight of around 500 grams. He just gave 4 clutches of 100% fertile eggs of 100% het albinos, no slugs. 6 females to go and i will not be surprised if they to give 100% fertile eggs.
Another thing i've noticed with boas in popular thinking and which is a wide spread myth, is the myth that says that females will not eat when gravid ( soem will eat until they give birth soem will stop right after ovulation ) or will get stunted if bred to early or they will give smaller babies or less babies.....This is not true as well. I'm always amazed to see how female boas get back all their fat reserves after giving birth. Usually after 2-3-4 meals they are top shape as they were before breeding and start to put up lengh to after they gained their losses. By the way some females can breed 5 yrs in a row and others will breed every two years. In both cases they still grow and there's absolutely no effect on how many babies they'll get or the size of them.
The only size relation i've noticed is ( what I believe ) when a female ovulates two times sveral weeks appart. When this happens you usually see difference in size of the babies in the same litter. You can clearely see babies that have big bellies full of undigested fluids and at the same time babies that have totaly or close to totaly digested all their fluids. Its a clear evidence in my mind. I'll know more about that soon because i'm about to buy an ultrasound machine to be able to see inside a female's body during pregnancy without any harm.
Well thats it for now there's many more things I would say ( my personnal experiences ) in this thread because its a really interesting topic but i have a language barrier;) I've started to write a book its a long time project, its gonna be in french first but it will be translated in english.
So my word to Jeff ...... I would breed that boa with your albino male this comming season if he hits the 2 1/2 3ft. If he is ready you will see him jerking all over the female and you will surely notice sperm on the female's body. If he dosent breed well the only thing you will loose is your time.
I hope nobody fell asleap while reading this......;)
Stav......zzzzzzzzzzzz;)