Some might say over-fed (for Marshell)....

Jeff_Favelle · 07-21-04, 04:09 AM

Hey Chris, I finally got a size pic of one of the albino het females from your FINE stock!! Over 6 feet and HEAVY. The rat is a jumbo rat. I'm holding her almost head-height, and she is JUST nicking the ground, with over a foot of coils to spare. Not sure of the weight, but I could only take 2 pics and then my arm got tired.

Insane eh? All three of them are like that, and the other 2 new ones are soon to follow!!! Crazy. No wonder I have zero rats all the time!

Clownfishie · 07-22-04, 12:06 AM

Holy crap man, she's HUGE!! LOL... I remember seeing her when you first got her, it's crazy how much she's grown!

BOAS_N_PYTHONS · 07-22-04, 01:10 AM

JEFF:

Geez man let the boa eat in peace, lol.

She may be almost 6 feet but you gotta spend some coin on a larger rubbermaid tub dude, lol.

Are they 2003 or 2004?

LOL.

Cya...

Tony

Jeff_Favelle · 07-22-04, 01:17 AM

Late 2003. I wuz gonna try them this year, but I figure if I wait until the following year, I'll get 30 babies per litter x 5 litters = 150 babies (1/2 albino)!! Holy crap! What was I thinking......????

Anyone got a warehouse for rent? Tony, wanna go halfers on one? Ha ha!!

BigDan · 07-22-04, 01:26 AM

Jeff

You have to be kidding

You were going to try an breed a female boa at 1.5 years of age???

Are you actually thinking about the animal at all???

Something to ponder.

Dan

BOAS_N_PYTHONS · 07-22-04, 01:50 AM

DAN:

I got to agree with that, much to young.
As you know on my collection my girls got to be 3 years old.
It sucks when you want to see the offspring and try and get some return in funds to support this hobby, but the animals come first and true enough a female should be mature for the over all gain of it. She being mature means a better success rate and a very healthy momma for many more years. I see lots of people pushing there females real early and then hearing bad litter rates of slugs and dead young and in a few situations with lots of problems for the female. I am not surprised people do this cause the wait period is not in there head only the idea of banking on it. I hate the wait but I have no choice when it comes to having healthy mature females, my main goal.

So far my success rate is:

CLEOPATRA (Colombian Boa) x RAMSES (Colombian Boa) = 24 babies - 1 slug, 23 live healthy babies.

MOON (Colombian Boa) x MARS (Colombian Boa) = 18 babies - 1 deformed dead, 17 live healthy babies.

ARES (Guyana Redtail Boa) x ODIN (Guyana Redtail Boa) = 19 babies - 19 live healthy babies.

MINHA (Surinam Redtail Boa) x COUTO (Surinam Redtail Boa) - 21 babies - 21 live healthy babies.

EOS (Brazilian Rainbow Boa) x SATURN (Brazilian Rainbow Boa) - 13 babies - 13 live healthy babies.

Right now all these females are 3 - 5 years old and the wait was well worth it, all became proven with there mates.

Cya...

Tony

Jeff_Favelle · 07-22-04, 02:13 AM

Pretty sure it was obvious I was joking. Why would I be talking about getting 150 babies, a warehouse, and all that jazz. Clearly joking around.

I've never even heard of someone breeding a colombian at 18 months (female that is). Can it even be done?

Guess we can't joke around anymore. If you want to question my commitment to my animals, give me a call or email anytime. I'll be glad to discuss it. More than glad. If I wuz in it for the dough, do you think I'd still be messing around with Honduran Milksnakes, dwarf monitors, Jungles, Rainbows, etc etc?? Obviously not if it was just about the money. I could buy ONE pair of Ball Pythons and make 2x what I make with ALL my animals combined. Heck, I could add the already over-populated Leopard Gecko market and breed those too.

BOAS_N_PYTHONS · 07-22-04, 03:26 AM

JEFF:

:medsmile:

No burn or insult on my part, just said my 2 cents and I knew you were joking, but incase a few newbies read into this and thought wow breed early cha ching cha ching. Although my girls at 1.5 years are not even close to 6 plus feet. I know many thoughts on that idea of over feeding / under feeding but I grow them slow which puts me last on the market when I breed mine but that is my system slow, strong healthy long living boas. I have been burnt and insulted by a few people on this idea for a few years now that I should feed more but a good size rodent for the right size boid is fine, they seem to like the schedule and for the ones I breed my success rate was good. I am no where near the population that you and big name breeders are at with multiple babies, but sooner or later all my females will grant me some offspring in the years to come.

So again no burn or insult to you, just put my 2 cents from Dan' s reply because the newbies need to know that waiting is better than thinking how big the bank roll will be. I know you were joking because you usually are in most of the posting you do (a real character - lol). Even I do it at times with the rubbermaid crack on the boa in this post, lol. But remember lots of newbies will read lots of posts and judge from there and if someone cues in money, multiple litters and early breeding they assume, wow easy fast cash and not bother researching further in the best interest of the animals. I have seen lots of posts of people jumping in way to early and once I email them. I see the main questions and focus always aim towards how fast a return they will get from it. Not saying all do it but a few do and like in 1 of your past posts about a new crop of newbies gone next month - not qoute to qoute but something like that. Then you know what I am saying is true about some jump in way to early.

Jeff again its not a burn or insult on my part just trying to clear things up a bit for newbies.

Keep up the good work Jeff

:medsmile:

Cya...

Tony

Matt_K · 07-22-04, 07:49 AM

HOLY CRAP DUDE!!! That thing is friggin HUGE!!! Hard to believe she's the same age my female.. Mine's at 4'+ right now, putting back large rats, but WOW.. Maybe i'll start feeding her every 3 days??? LMAO.. Looking bro, how big are the others you got in 03'???

Quote:

I'm holding her almost head-height, and she is JUST nicking the ground, with over a foot of coils to spare.

So that makes you, what, 5'4???

Jeff_Favelle · 07-22-04, 10:04 AM

I hear ya Tony! No worries mate!

Mattie, I know man. And the POOP is just as big!! (or damn close!).

I have 2 others the exact same size, and I have 2 more that are slightly smaller, and 3 others that are way smaller. No feeding schedule, just feed them as they poop and shed. 3 of them took off.

Ha ha yeah, so what's wrong with short people?? LOL!

Optimus Prime · 07-22-04, 10:47 AM

Huge is an understatement how much you feed her like every other day?

Don Patterson · 07-22-04, 11:03 AM

congrats jeff for some awesome animals and especially CHRIS MARSHALL for producing GREAT BOAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BigDan · 07-22-04, 01:12 PM

Jeff

I figured you were joking hence my first question. But do you really think it is O.K. to grow her to 6 feet plus in a year and a half.

I did the same thing Jeff with some of my first animals and it did not turn out well. I now wait longer and grow females up over a 3 to 4 year period.

These animals are not meant to grow like that so quickly. Boas take a longer time to mature and develop.

Don it has nothing to do with the quality of animals, I know Chris produces fine animals. It is to do with pumping animals up to immense sizes so you can breed them as soon as possible.

Is that the DON PATTERSON way of doing things??

I guess I have a different outlook on how things should be done.

Dan

Jeff_Favelle · 07-22-04, 05:43 PM

I'm not sure if its ok, and it definitely wasn't pre-meditated. I would just offer successively larger food items and as I make my rounds every night, I always check for sheds, poops, blue eyes, etc etc. So if they look like they're gonna bite my face off, I just feed 'em. The three biggies LOVE the heat and all they want to do is thermoregulate and eat. I don't know enough about snakes to tell the snake what is best for it. For all I know, the ones that are smaller are underfed, and these ones are on the "right" schedule.

I'm in no rush. I even wait 3 years to breed Hondos, LOL! How can that be "in a rush"? And when these female het boas were purchased (7 in total back then), I did not own a SINGLE male colombian boa. I wasn't even sure what I was going to breed them to. So to suggest that I was gunning them up to breeding size too fast is kind of funny, considering I just got baby male albinos like a month ago. Unless baby males can breed at 6 months of age, I'm pretty sure these girls will be 3 or 4 (or 5?) when they get bred.

Of course, if anyone were to actually just ASK me about it, rather than assume, they would get the facts first.

Boas take as long as they take to grow and mature. I don't put an artificial time frame on it. Some take 3 years, some will take 6. I don't tell them how to grow, they tell me.

I don't have an outlook at all on how things "should be done". My boas tell me how to do it. That's why they are so fun to own. They know best.

BigDan · 07-22-04, 05:56 PM

Hey Jeff

I have raised close to 100 boas from neonates to adults and subadults here in the last 3 years and they do not grow to 6 feet in a year unless they are absolutely stuffed with food.

It just does not happen.

Those are the facts.

Dan