Boa Breeding Question

[Jay_Bunny]

How old/large should a female be for breeding. With ball pythons we have the 1500g "rule" and at least 2 years old. What is it with boas? I have a boa that had some feeding issues for a while so she is extremely small for her age. She is a 2008 normal. If I can get her to calm down for handling I would like to keep her and eventually breed her one day. So I'm just wondering what is the "rule" for females. What about males?

[AndrewGeibel]

I've also wondered this. We'll just have to wait for Jimi to jump in here and grace us with his knowledge.

[JimiSnakes]

Haha...I usually like the female to be around 3 years old and a healthy 6 foot minimum. Although, if a female is over 2 1/2 years and already a sound 6 foot and eating jumbo rats...I'll give her a go and see how she reacts. It's just always a good thing to wait the full 3 to 3 1/2 years and produce a bigger litter...not to mention the much healthier mom after the birth.

[Jay_Bunny]

Thank you for the reply. What about a female like mine? She has had some feeding issues and as a result is not as big as she should be. She is a 2008 female (Late May 2008 is when I purchased her) and she weighs 350g now. She's putting away 2 mice/1 rat wean every 7 days. She will hit 2 years old this spring and she's so tiny still. I will try to get some pictures of her tonight. Tomorrow is feeding day and when I went to refresh her water she got into striking position, so she's a hungry little girl tonight. I'm worried I may have stunted her growth.

[JimiSnakes]

Some females take 4-5 years to get up to "breeding size". I have a few here that I've given an extra year because they didn't seem big enough to me. Best thing I can tell you is if you're unsure if she's big enough when she's 3 years old, give her another year.

[Jay_Bunny]

I know she won't be big enough by the time she's 3 years old. I took some pictures of her. I'm just worried her growth was stunted. She's only 350g right now. She's eating like a machine now (might bump her feeding schedule up to once every 5 days since she usually seems hungry by then) and gaining weight pretty steadily now. What about males? I'm not getting any reptiles until I pay off my credit card debt (its what got me all these snakes) so that gives me some time to grow her up and decide on a male to get for her.

Thanks for answering my questions.

[JimiSnakes]

No problem. Males can breed around 2 years old. Again, this is only on the average. I've had males breed as young as 14 months and some that are pushing 3 years and haven't even tried to cuddle, lol.

[Jay_Bunny]

Thanks so much! I love albinos. I think they are beautiful. One more question and then I'm done, I promise (maybe hehe). How much do male albinos normally cost? I got my little normal female for $100, so I'm pretty sure albino males are quite a bit more.

[Jay_Bunny]

Here is Isis as of yesterday. I really am worried I may have stunted her growth. Almost 2 and she's not even 400g yet.

[JimiSnakes]

She looks to have nice muscle growth in the last pic. She doesn't look to stunted, I wouldn't worry too much about that as long as she's eating good now. Male albinos (kahl strain) were going for around 200-300 in 2009. The price dropped considerably from the last few years because so many were and are producing them...I'm not complaining, just stating a simple fact is all. That's the way things go in the snake morph world, lol. I would see them around 200 for 2010 born albinos.