Albino dropped litter

It happens, slugs are common in almost every boa litter, as is the occasional stillborn. As for losing an entire litter, it happens, and when you start breeding 6-8-10+ females, those chances of you experiencing it go up.

To give you an example, I read Frank Martin had 20 gravid females this year, 2 slugged out and I think 2 died in the process. As you start breeding more females, your chances of experiencing slugged litters and even losing a female goes up. I'm sure Frank did the best he could with all 20 females, somethings are just out of our hands.

He had 2 females that were birthing that died?

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Originally Posted by jglass38

He had 2 females that were birthing that died?

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I think they died during gestation, I'm not sure if it was while giving birth. Carrying a baby for 3 months or 9 months and giving birth is not easy!!

You guys should try it sometime...:O

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Originally Posted by ssscales

I think they died during gestation, I'm not sure if it was while giving birth. Carrying a baby for 3 months or 9 months and giving birth is not easy!!

You guys should try it sometime...:O

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Oh hell no. :)

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Originally Posted by ssscales

I think they died during gestation, I'm not sure if it was while giving birth. Carrying a baby for 3 months or 9 months and giving birth is not easy!!

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Which is why it is SO important to make sure your females are big enough and healthy enough to endure a pregnancy. I'm not saying Gerry or Frank Martin did anything wrong, but experiences like that can show that even healthy females can have complications. And the risk of severe complications skyrocket for underweight and/or immature females. (Of any species!)

Makes me sad when people push so hard to find the bare minimum age and size for breeding and so many chime in with "Well, I bred mine when she was 2 years old and 1200grams...she did fine." Trouble is, the losers who kill their females usually disappear and don't stick around to inform others how dangerous it can be.

:soapbx:
Sorry....I'll get off my box now.

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Originally Posted by JLC

Which is why it is SO important to make sure your females are big enough and healthy enough to endure a pregnancy. I'm not saying Gerry or Frank Martin did anything wrong, but experiences like that can show that even healthy females can have complications. And the risk of severe complications skyrocket for underweight and/or immature females. (Of any species!)

Makes me sad when people push so hard to find the bare minimum age and size for breeding and so many chime in with "Well, I bred mine when she was 2 years old and 1200grams...she did fine." Trouble is, the losers who kill their females usually disappear and don't stick around to inform others how dangerous it can be.

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Absolutely, I agree 100%!

You rarely see threads with failures or dead snakes caused by breeding, but I can guarantee you they happen every year to some extent! Most likely breeders just dump these litters, black bag the females and pretend the breeding never took place. All you read and hear about is all the successful litters and great experiences we all have.

What I've noticed is, with Boas there is more information in general that most breeders agree on. For example: females should not be bred until 3yrs of age, 6ft in length and be well muscled/thick/mature bodied. Usually people stick to this rule of thumb with the exceptional knucklehead power feeding, pushing growth, etc. But the basic information is out there and most/all breeders have agreed to it!

There is a lot of misleading information out there on BP's. For example: I've read and spoken to breeders that claim BP females can breed at 1200g-1500g-1800g, which is it? I'm still trying to figure this one out! I've read posts of breeders getting 1000g females to breed and thrilled to have gotten 2-4 eggs! What would happen if that female became egg-bound?

Some breeders claim 1200g is good to go, some claim no less than 1500g, others claim no less than 1800g. As for age, I've read from 2yrs to 3yrs, which is it? I'm still trying to get the beginner facts on breeding BP's.

So far, I'm going with 1500-1700g for my BP females as a guideline weight for breeding.

What we were told Gerry for female BP's was a minimum 1,500 grams, with that being a minimum of 500 grams per linear foot and approximately 3 years of age. Therefore a 4 foot female BP that is 1,500 grams would be considered underweight to breed by that calculation. I know when I talked with Adam he said also it's about knowing the snake, about experience....sometimes even if she fits all the requirements but just doesn't feel ready to go...you pass her by that year. For Mike and I, even with our limited number of BP's, if we feel in our gut that a female or male is just not quite "right" we'll wait a year. It's been said that BP breeding is chess not checkers so we'll just play it slow and thoughtful.

Just curious how the mom is doing?

Mom is doing great, she just took her 2nd meal after dropping her litter. She'll go into shed in a few days and once she sheds she'll go back to Jumbo rats every 14 days. Thanks for asking!

Great to hear Gerry! Hope the other projects work out well...