More Sharp Snows Born Today & HR669 Defeated!

Wow, what a day! HR669 was defeated today at the Insular Affairs Subcommittee hearing - WOOHOO! A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to write those letters, and call/email those Representatives!! A big thanks also to USARK for getting the word out and keeping people motivated. Tom Wolfe also did an excellent job getting those letters to the right people in D.C. and helping get this defeated. It's only a matter of time though, before this will be presented again in some form or another...Hopefully we will continue to be able to keep reptiles as pets!

As for my great news - Cartagena had her litter this morning at about 6:30am. Whitesnake did a great job - the little stud! There was 1 Double Het Sharp Snow, 1 Anery Het Sharp Albino, 4 Sharp Albinos Het Anery, and 8 Sharp Snows! There was also 7 sweet potatoes and 1 not-fully-formed baby. Holy cow what terrific odds! She was nice and calm when I took her out of the cage this morning. I was able to get her out about 15 minutes after she was done with her contractions/delivery. She went to one end of the cage away from the babies, so it made it a little easier. She looks great and took a rat with no problems which is always good. She went 111 days POS and had been cruisin' around her cage for the past couple days so I knew she was close. With her going full term, none of the babies have yolk sacs and they all seem to be in great shape. I had put a tub in the cage, but of course she decided not to use it (which is why there is a dry spot on the corrugated cardboard in the picture of her). Below is a "pile of snow" and additional pictures of the litter can be seen here.

Boa babies - finally!!

Well, after 135 long and agonizing days for me, Cartagena finally had her litter today! She had 7 babies, and one of them was a Sharp Snow - the second one to be born in the world! I definitely got lucky with the odds, that's for sure...

According to the Punnett Square, the probability for having a Snow from a breeding of a DH Snow to DH Snow is 1 for every 16 offspring. Since she only had 7 babies, I definitely got lucky! She also had 1 Sharp Albino which has a 66% chance of being Het Anery (Het Snow), 2 Anerys 66% possible Het Albino (Het Snow), and 3 Normals that are 66% DH Snow (Het Anery and Het Albino). She also had 1 stillborn (an albino), and 5 unfertilized ova (slugs). For more pictures of the litter, click here.

Cartagena and the babies are doing great. She was a little feisty when I went to remove the babies, but she calmed down quickly. I weighed her and she lost a little over 4 pounds during her pregnancy. She will get a small meal tomorrow night to start the process of recovering the lost weight from her pregnancy.

Now that my worrying can officially end, I can finally get a good night's sleep!