Boa breeding questions...paired today....good signs...?

[Warren_Booth]

Boa breeding is very different than ball python breeding. Indeed, many try to get into it, and ditch out because unlike their ball projects which almost always result in eggs, boa breeding is very very different. Courtship lasts weeks to months on occasion, and very rarely do I ever use a male on more than one female.

Her is what I do.

1) Starting November I stop feeding. This continues until late February/early March. In March, feeding resumes and I will feed males every 3 weeks and females every 2. I feed slightly smaller than normal sized meals, and continues feeding meals if she will eat during gestation.
2) I do not alter my temperatures, however, two things happen in my snake room. 1) My house is 100 years old, and while the actual living part is fully modernized, the basement is the standard, partially finished basement (walls, concrete floor, light. That's it. In the summer the ambient is in the mid 70s, in the winter, it is in the mid 60s. This natural drop in room temperature means that the front of my racks or the cool end of the cages changes from the low 80s in the summer to the low 70s in the winter. I find that my snakes spend an increasing amount of time in these cooler areas in the winter. 2) I have two small windows in my basement. Come November 1st, I seal these with styrofoam sheets and heat reflective material. They are a major heat dump, so I try to minimize loss that way. As such, my snakes are now in a room with zero natural light. I only put on the artificial lights when I am there working with snakes, or doing something else in my basement. The snakes are very inactive at this time.
3) Come January 1st, I put the male into the females cage. I will monitor them hourly to see what activity is happening. If the male is hiding in the corner or under the water bowl, I remove him after a day, and try again a few days later. If again that happens, I will put him in a larger cage or tub on his own for a few days (depending on the size of the female), then introduce the female to him. If I see no activity, I separate, and retry a week or so later. After 5 or 6 failed attempts, I will split the pair and consider either a second make, or simply waiting another year. One thing I will do at this point is palpate the females. I do not use an ultrasound, but instead use the old fashioned method of letting the female move across my finger tips that are depressed into her ventral surface. If she is developing follicles, these will feel like pearls on a string. Once they are the size of marbles, or maybe slightly larger, then I know that she will be receptive. If I feel none, then it is unlikely that she will breed that year. I monitor this weekly
4) If locks occur, I will keep the animals together for 5 days, then separate for 2 to 3 days. I will continue this until an ovulation is observed. I will palpate females to see if follicles are increasing in size as the weeks progress. Continual growth is what I want to feel.
5) Once I am happy that a female has ovulated (noted by both a horizontal and vertical swelling), I will leave the male with her until she has her shed. It will be a prolonged shed, normally in the range of 17 to 21 days. At this point the male is done and he is removed and returned to his cage.
6) I then want to see that the female is basking in a beehive position, with her body temperature in or around 86.4oF. Once I see this, I am happy and sit back and wait the 95 to 104 days or so that gestation lasts. My CAs often go early, the earliest being day 90 for a sonoran boa I had (that was a very healthy litter with no unabsorbed yolk).

So, to your first questions, the tail in the air is simply a sign that he is receptive to mating. The tail twisting is a sign that she is also. Not seeing copulation is normal. Many will miss it, but I always make a point of checking when pairs are tail-twisting for a long period of time. I have pairs that will tail twist and lie motionless for days on end. Regarding the orientation of the male, it is not uncommon to see them switch around a bit. Finally, semen deposits near the tail can result from two things. Simply over-spill after copulation has ended, or premature ejaculation without intercourse. Some also mistake urates deposited by the male or female as semen.

Good luck.

Warren