Couple questions

[JennM]

This is my first time attempting to breed boas. I have a couple questions. My female has been very receptive, and it seems as if her feeding response is in HIGH gear. EVERY time I walk in the room she is following me and striking at the glass. Granted she has always had a bit of an attitude, but nothing like this. Is this normal during pairing?

Also, if she takes, how do you choose your holdbacks? What do you look for and shy away from? An example of what I'm asking is, in Ball pythons, orange on pastels turn brown age they age. Is there a way to tell if your hypo is going to be more tan/brown vs orange/red? The reason I ask is because I have one female that was gorgeous as a baby, but she has turned more tan than I expected.

Thanks!

[Evenstar]

How long has it been since they've locked? Have you seperated them yet? It is normal for a gravid female to be HUNGRY. They are eating for all those babies, lol... But if the male is still with her, she may be reacting more from hormonal surges rather than hunger. It might be helpful to give her more privacy. If staying out of the room isn't practical, you might drape a blanket over the front of her enclosure.

I haven't had a litter of boas of my own yet, but I can tell you what I like and how I would choose holdbacks - particularly with hypos as I have the thing for hypos, lol...

I like very pink and cream colors on baby hypos. My female was positively strawberries and cream when I got her and I believe her adult colors will be nice orange and rust with lots of retained pink blushing. My male has more muted coloring and I think he'll be more tan as an adult. They are begining to move to their adult colors now and they have a long way to go, but it is apparent that they both will retain a lot of their gorgeous baby colors - particularly the female.

I also go for aberant patterns. I like stripes and reverse stripes and the more complete the stripe the better. The tail pattern is worth considering too - I like evenly spaced tail saddles with the lower markings interlocking with the upper saddles. I also prefer the saddles throughout the body to appear "painted on" and not solid or blotchy. And I like a lacey "butterfly" shape to those saddles.

It's important to remember that these are MY preferences. You may have a different opinion of what you like. A holdback should speak to YOU and be what you believe is an excellent specimen for reasons that are important to YOU.

Also, genetics plays into what I would hold back. Since we're talking about hypos in particular here, I'll continue to use this as my example. In my future hypo pairing, my boas are both het for ghost. I would not likely keep a hypo from the litter since it would only be 66% het for ghost unless that hypo's pattern and color was just stupendous. I would hold back a ghost with a super pattern and hopefully a nice stripe in the pattern (my male is genetically striped). And hopefully the animal with the best pattern will be female, lol...

I hope this is helpful to you! I'm including a few pictures of my two boas to show you what I like about them. Hopefully this will give you an idea of what I would look for in their resulting litter....

Peaches (my female) as a baby. She is, in my opinion, a perfect example of a hypo. Very pink, high color, nice pattern, gorgeous tail.


Her head (pic taken in November) - nice cheek bars and silver eyes.


And her tail. Just wow.


Jasper (my male and Peaches' future mate, pic also taken in November). He is much more silver than her, almost lavender. Lovely stripe which I hope will show up in his offspring and nice black pinstriping bordering the tail saddles.


Closer up of his tail and head. Nice head structure - quite masculine while Peaches is distinctly feminine. And his tail is l-o-n-g...

[JennM]

Thanks so much!

The male seems to be a timid breeder. Every time he saw me, he'd stop and loose interest. I wound up taping paper over 3/4s of the front of the cage. I've read not to say they've locked if you don't actually see "it"; BUT, it looked pretty promising around the 8th of this month. I separated them to feed about a week ago, but I put them back together today. No interest as of yet.

Your male and female are good looking! I wish I could get some nice funky striped tails or something cool out of my litter. I don't really have any background info on the female as far as genetics go unfortunately. Here are a couple pics of the two I'm currently trying to breed.

[Evenstar]

Both of them look really good!! It's common for a first-time male to be timid. He won't be next time, lol...

Your female has really nice color. I think she'll produce some really great high pink/orange colored offspring. Is that the male in the last pic - in the blue tub? If so, he has very nice color too. Looks like you'll get a nicely colored and patterned litter from that pair. Are they het for anything??

[JennM]

Yes, the male is in the blue tub. He used to be MAROON! He's changed the past year or so.

The male has a slight chance of being het Albino. I'm unsure of the female's genetics. She was a pet before I got her, and the past owners couldn't tell me anything.

I'm hoping I can get a really colorful baby out of this pair. It's hard to capture in pics, but you can somewhat see the female has a pink stripe down her sides. She looks better in person.

The male keeps burying himself completely under the shavings. Guess he doesn't want to deal with her lol.

[Evenstar]

Gotcha. I really like how they both have very clean patterns with little to no black speckling. They should produce clean, clear colors and patterns in the babies. Best of luck - hope they produce a nice litter for you!!

[boadaddy]

Sounds like she's just hungry, don't be afraid to offer more food lol. I'd also put something for them both to hide under if possible, help them both feel a little more secure. You really won't see any actual locks until the female actually ovulates, how long have you had them together? I keep my males with my girls for 5-6 months to make sure the job gets done and only seperate to feed and thats it. As far as holdbacks go I would look for color reduced/funky patterns IMO.

[JennM]

I've only had them together for about a month. The male decided to come out and start courting this morning.

How much food do you offer and how often? I feel as if she's already close to being overweight, and I don't want to overload her system. I've been feeding her once every two weeks.

[Jason Bowden]

For the female I'd go with a smaller meal every three weeks. I wouldn't feed her for the last 4 to 6 weeks before due date. A big meal late in pregnancy could push the babies out early.

Read as much as you can!

Hope you get some great looking babies!

Addition: I think you will find that every one does things a bit different with feeding. Nothing is written in stone about the subject. $100 book "The Complete Boa Constrictor" by Vin Russo is worth every penny!

[JennM]

Thanks! I've been giving her small meals every two weeks for about 2 months now. I'll go ahead and make it every three weeks. LOL I constantly research! I'm pretty sure I annoy the B/F with all the random facts I think are interesting. I'll have to check into getting the book.