Boa Breeding Question

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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. :)

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.

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. :rolleye2:

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.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...nake/isis5.jpg
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...nake/isis4.jpg
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...nake/isis3.jpg
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...nake/isis2.jpg
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...nake/isis1.jpg

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.

Oh yea, that muscle is definitely developing. She squeezes my fingers so tight when she wants to hang on. She's going into shed now which is why she is so dark in those pictures.

I love albinos, arabesque, super jungles, sunglows, motleys, and ghosts. (I found a site with boa morphs on it. I think I'm in love!) So I am definitely wanting to work with boas in the future. Do you think boas will ever have as many morphs as ball pythons?

Boas are quickly catching up with BPs, but I don't think they'll ever surpass them in the amount of Morphs. BP's breed younger and easier than Boas...of which I'm very glad, lol. A friend of mine around where I live bred one Spider BP male (a few years ago when they still fetched a good penny) to SIX FEMALES successfully! You could NEVER do that with a Boa...2 is usually the limit. Sometimes three, but usually most male Boas will only court with a single female successfully a year.

I like that. Raising your female up for several years, watching her grow, then selecting a male for her and growing him up. I think it will make it all the more worth it. Thank you so much for answering all my questions. :D