Living Gems Litter

[Snakesitter]

Living Gems Reptiles is pleased to announce that on Wednesday, September 14, one of our senior females “Alexandrite” dropped her litter. This is our second and final litter of the year, and in marked contrast to the first litter, was all that we could hope for.

The babies arrived a few days earlier than anticipated. I thought Alex was due Sunday, but she dropped four days before that, depositing her litter around 10:30AM Wednesday morning. Coincidentally, this was the only day all year I’d happened to come home for an appointment, and I happened to glance in Alex’s viv as I was getting ready. I noticed a suspiciously thin Alex out of her viv, and spotted the first baby right after. From that and the mess in her hide, it was pretty clear she had only just deposited the squirming mass.

I had no time to process them, but did manage to try a quick count -- over ten -- and snap a few pictures before time ran out. The following images are a mixture of those images, the few pictures I took after the appointment but before returning to work, and the many, many images I snapped later that evening as I was processing the litter.



Parents

This is the mother of the litter, Alexandrite:
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6173/6160561668_fdab571c3d_b.jpg

This is the sire of the litter, Hills:
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6064/6160600202_af0c8c5df8_b.jpg
Unfortunately, due his recent passing, this will be the only litter he can ever pass his amazing color on to.



Overview
These three images are an overview of Mom’s viv. They show the whole box and each half in more detail. They were taken just before I had to go back to work, so show the whole litter about 90 minutes post delivery out cruising with Mom -- each and every one of them searching for that magic hole out of the viv.

Whole
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6176/6160689020_0fb21ae34b_b.jpg

Left
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6191/6160689024_36f98011d4_b.jpg

Right
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6065/6160689026_80de89f137_b.jpg



Maternal Confusion
Alex, while polite, seemed a little skeptical of all the attention towards her babies. She kept dividing her time between checking *them* out (“where did these come from?!”) and checking *me* out:

Do I look at Them…
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6168/6160689032_d90653cf5a_b.jpg

…Or Him?
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6199/6160689038_104fe1bf39_b.jpg

That evening, while processing the babies, she made an amusingly determined effort to escape her viv herself, as if six hours alone with a litter of hyperactive babies was more than any sane boa could take:
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6203/6160689042_e8891a3a16_b.jpg

[Continued below due to forum picture count rules]

[Snakesitter]

[Continued from above]

Babies
And, finally, the babies themselves. This was the dispersing pile shortly after I first discovered them and took the first set of photos:

Slime Pile
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6171/6160725972_b58dd43a29_b.jpg

“The Door’s Around Here Somewhere!”
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6082/6160725988_e8582b9b3b_b.jpg

Ah-ha!
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6163/6160725992_3b846d8539_b.jpg

Following are some image of individual babies, both as they were discovered and as they were later processed.

I spotted this baby as it was making a break from the hide to explore:
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6072/6160725998_36c287b241_b.jpg

This little one found its very own piece of moss, and wanted to show it off and say hi when I opened the viv:
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6187/6160726008_12c12283f2_b.jpg
(For some reason, it came across as very dark in this one photo.)

Jailbreak!
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6087/6160726016_0c531df1d9_b.jpg



Afterbirth
This is the hide where Alex dropped, just before I cleaned it up. Mom was very polite to make cleanup so easy for me:
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6190/6160220977_ce4355894a_b.jpg
(and)
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6160/6160220987_eba5aebe6f_b.jpg

[Continued below due to forum picture count rules]

[Snakesitter]

[Continued from above]

Details, Details
I’ve hinted already that Mom did well by herself and her late husband Hills. I’ve spoken with many breeders over the years and carefully tracked birth weights, both reported on the web and averaged over the cards of the babies I’ve acquired. The average litter seems to be around 15-16 babies, and the average baby clocks in around 31 grams. Alex beat both stats: she delivered 17 viable babies with not a single stillborn or slug, and the live babies averaged 32.7 grams in a very narrow range, with the smallest at 31 grams and the largest at 34 grams. There was not a single baby with unabsorbed yolk, and every one of them was already showing bright pink bellies.

Mom herself was in great shape. I’ve seen reports and pictures of many recent mothers showing loose folds of skin after dropping (Topaz was this way), but Alex was both tight and muscular. It amazes me, because after I weighed the babies I checked her too, and found that she had dropped from a pre-delivery weight of 2342 grams (August 31) down to 1390 (September 14) -- a loss of 1033 grams, or 44% of her body weight. Yet she looked like this:

Left Side
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6166/6160220993_e52685fb9d_b.jpg

Right Side
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6206/6160220999_b217174742_b.jpg

I gave her 36 hours to recover and rest, then offered her a medium rat. She took it with gusto, and seems to in great shape and spirits. I’ll probably up her feeding slightly to every other week for the next two meals before going back to her regular pattern of every third week.



And, The Sad News
There was one small bit of sad news from the litter. As I was taking pictures during my second set, I noticed one of the babes was…different. And not in a good way. One of little ones pressed against the front of the glass was acting alive, alert, and trying to climb the front of Mom’s viv just like her normal bothers and sisters. Unfortunately, she had a severe spinal kink about 25% of the way down her body. It was bad enough that I doubted she one would be able to eat. A vet I know offered to try and fix her spine by separating the fused vertebrae. I was not optimistic about the chances for success, but it was (very generously) free, and at least offered her a shot, so I gave the go-ahead. The vet did his work, and I placed the little one in her own moist little drawer before I headed off to work. The last thing I did that night was to check again on her, and found that unfortunately she had not made it. RIP little one. You have a very cool father waiting for you on the other side.

I took some photos of her, but will place them in separate thread here tomorrow so as not to spoil his one. I’d be curious to get other breeders’ opinions on what her chances would have been if I’d allowed her to try and make it without help.

Note she was not counted in the above totals of viable babies. So, there were actually 18 live babies with no stills or slugs, 17 of which made it.



Details on genders are still to follow, as are some more individual baby shots.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

[stephanbakir]

Grats! awesome litter!

[youngster]

Aww Hills :(, he was bound to make some beauties of babies!

[Nismo89]

Awesome looking litter! Hope I can get one of them babies for a future project and pass on them awesome genes

[SnakeyJay]

Congrats on an awesome litter... shame about the kinked one but atleast the majority are healthy fat worms :D

[Snakesitter]

Thanks Stephan!

I agree, Youngster. I'm eager to see what they look like post-shed.

Brian, you're on the list, so have a good shot.

Jay, very true -- thanks!

[millertime89]

Can't wait to see how these guys turn out. That's a sad story though, too bad she couldn't make it. How long are the little ones? They look to be a decent length.

[CK SandBoas]

Congrats on the beautiful litter! Love the pic of the little one that decided to come out and say hi to the camera, too cute!:)

[MoonlightBoas]

Great looking litter Cliff!!!

[Snakesitter]

Can't wait to see how these guys turn out. That's a sad story though, too bad she couldn't make it. How long are the little ones? They look to be a decent length.
Me either, Kyle! It is sad, she was so full of life, but the kink was pretty severe...not sure she would have made it anyway. I'd estimate around 12-14 inches, but it's hard to say -- they're much more interested in attacking my fingers than sitting still for a ruler.

Congrats on the beautiful litter! Love the pic of the little one that decided to come out and say hi to the camera, too cute!:)
I thought that was really cute too, KKgal. He/she was so curious and calm!

Great looking litter Cliff!!!
Thanks Paul!

[millertime89]

Me either, Kyle! It is sad, she was so full of life, but the kink was pretty severe...not sure she would have made it anyway. I'd estimate around 12-14 inches, but it's hard to say -- they're much more interested in attacking my fingers than sitting still for a ruler.

Lol, not gonna lie, I do wish my little guy was a bit more aggressive when I first got him. I can make him jump but I only ever got 2 strikes out of him the first week I had him, and those were both closed mouth. Its something I feel would benefit me in the future as I plan on buying more snakes and I'm bound to run into a bitter or two.

[shaunyboy]

great thread,thanks for taking the time to put it together

i'm sat here with a big grin on my face,looking at your litter of breautifull snakes.it's a very cheery sight...!!

the colour of the sire was so rich looking,its sad that he passed away.i'm glad he got the chance to sire a litter and hopefully some will carry his color

thanks for sharing

cheers shaun

[Snakesitter]

Kyle, you're the only person I've heard say he wishes his Brazilians bit him *more*....

Thanks Shaun, I appreciate that. Hills' passing was a real loss, but I'll hold back a few of his kids in hopes his color will live on through them.

[millertime89]

Just saying, I would rather get bit with one of the first, than get used to a very mellow snake and then end up with a living chainsaw later on down the road. Other than Alexandrite's fantastic color is there anything special about her pattern? Doesn't appear so.

[Snakesitter]

No, her pattern is average. She's got good color and excellent feeding sense though, she only eats when hungry, unlike some snakes that will eat their way into a coma if they can. Hills would always take food...it will be interesting to see which babies inherit which trait.

[marvelfreak]

14634 Congratulations! Glad to her mom and babies are doing good. Sorry to hear about the one. No doubt they will have some really sweet color.

[Snakesitter]

Thanks man, for Hills' sake, I really hope so!