105 Days and Counting

Well let the pacing and sleepless nights begin :D! I repeated the breeding from last year (DH Sharp Snow x DH Sharp Snow) that produced the first Sharp Snow. Everything is looking good so far - Colombia just had her Post Ovulation Shed today - yahoo! I introduced the male, Bogota, on September 19th, and he immediately got down to business - the little stud! He courted her non-stop for the past 2+ months and I witnessed multiple copulations. He got a nice big juicy rat tonight, he definitely deserved it!

She had her pre-ovulation swell on October 22nd, and ovulated on November 14th.

Well, hopefully I will have good news to report around March 13th....

It's all about the genes!

I have received quite a few emails from people asking what a litter would consist of if they bred one of the babies I have for sale with a snake that they have. So, I put together a few webpages with outcomes for different breedings to answer these questions. I decided to only focus on the snakes I have for sale, as the list would be WAY too long if I included every type of morph or combination possible! Assembling the Punnett Squares for all of the possible combinations took me back to my days in High School Biology class - I knew paying attention in school would payoff someday, LOL! Here are my two days of Punnett Square fun, and please let me know if you find any errors.

The picture above is of an Anery 66% Possible Het Sharp Albino (Het Sharp Snow) from my July 8th litter. She has been sold and is on her way to Florida - I wish I was on my way to Florida! More pictures of her can be found here.

Love Is In The Air!

Well, it's that time of year again! I'm repeating the breeding last year that produced the first Sharp Snow - Colombia (female) x Bogata (male) - both are DH Sharp Snow's. Hopefully I will have similar lucky results! Colombia rebounded extremely well (15 pounds empty weight, 7 ft), after her pregnancy. Bogata was eager to say the least - as soon as I put him in with her he got down to business :). They've been going at it for a week nonstop - love is in the air! I quickly snapped a few pictures as I didn't want to disturb them too much - I don't think they even noticed...

I will not be breeding my other female, Cartagena, this year as she is still recovering from her litter born in July. Colombia will be taking next year off as I will have no reason to breed her, and she certainly deserves a break!

Well, my fingers and toes are crossed, and I will of course post updates as Colombia progresses.

A Sharp Snow Comparison

My second Sharp Snow finally shed a few days ago, almost 2 months after she was born on July 8th. I noticed that she (affectionately named Snow White by my beautiful wife) does not have any yellow coming in. Her entire body is white, while her markings are an off white. She even has a white tongue instead of pink like the first Sharp Snow. Her tail color also is a light pink compared to the lavender color of the first Sharp Snow.

When the first Sharp Snow shed for the first time at almost 2 months old, he already had some yellow coming in (he's now 5 months old). She's definitely different, and hopefully Snow White will stay white - Yellow Snow White just doesn't have the same ring to it, lol. Only time will tell, and I'll be sure to post updates as she gets older.

Above is a picture of both of them together along with another baby from the July 8th litter - the normal from my July 29th Blog entry. You can find more pictures of her 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!

The Waiting Game.....

Pictured here is one of my Female DH Sharp Snow Boas, Cartagena. She is due any day now, and it's driving me crazy! She has been maintaining her heat conservation position like a champ throughout her pregnancy (as in the picture above which I took yesterday). She also has been gradually losing weight in the front half of her body over the last few weeks which is a good sign of a healthy litter to come....

Unlike Colombia who had a Post Ovulation Shed (POS), Cartagena shed mid-way through her pregnancy - 43 days after her final ovulation. So, I can't calculate her due date by the POS date, which is usually 105 days (give or take 5 days). Colombia had her litter 102 days after her POS, so I had a good idea of when to expect babies.

Since Cartagena didn't give me a POS, I have to calculate her due date from her final ovulation date. Cartagena's second ovulation occured on 2/20/07, so 123 days puts her delivery date at 6/23/07. Give or take 5 days puts her right on schedule for a nice healthy litter any day now. She also had a waxy stool yesterday (don't worry I won't post a picture of that, lol!), so she should hopefully go within the next 24-48 hours.

I'm wearing out the carpet in front of her cage constantly checking on her! I'm hoping for the best, and I just hope she makes it through her first litter OK. I'll of course be posting an update here as soon she has her babies!

One more thing, if all of the above info is Greek to you, or if you want more information on the breeding or parturition process of boas, I highly recommend you check out the article that Jeff Ronne submitted to Reptiles magazine in November 1996. You can also find an excellent chapter on breeding boas in the book The Boa Constrictor Manual.