Bloody Salmon Pics

I hear you Laura about the sure thing. But, if I breed the possible hets together and get no blood boa babies(assuming a normal sized litter) then that means one of two things:

1. Neither of the parents were het or
2. One of the parents was het and the other was not
.....which proves nothing, and the babies then cannot be sold as pos hets(at least I could not in good conscience sell them a poss hets).

The only reason I had put the Pewter Litter parents together last fall as pos hets was because they were the only two that I felt were ready to breed at the time. Now that they have proven out it kind of complicates things or simplifies things, depending on how you look at it.

If I take the known hets and breed them to pos hets, and a normal sized litter is produced with no Bloods then I have determined that the pos hets are in fact normals, and the babies can then be sold as 50% chance possible hets because one of the parents was a proven het. That is worst case scenario. Best case would be that one or both of the het to pos het breedings would score some more Bloods and then you would hear my shouts of joy all the way in Georgia!!! LOL

So the dilemma is do I possibly forgo the production of Bloods next year to test out some more of the group in a more conclusive manner or do I definitely make some more Bloods with at least one litter and let the chips fall where they may with the other litters which could or could not include more Blood Boas?

I guess there are benefits and draw backs to both methods. Maybe I will lay it all out in a another post and add a poll to it to see what some other opinions might be. That could be an interesting little exercise.

PS I will do my best to put up some more pics, still can't quite get the lighting figured out. Out of like every 100 pics, I get a few that a pretty good. I seem to be okay at breeding boas, but as a photographer, I still need some work!!

Did you list the Sire first, or the Dam?

If the sire is the TH, then you could put him to the DH again, AND the Poss female too. Then you would have a better chance of proving out your poss female, AND get some more goodies to boot.

That just leaves the one male unproved.

Thats true Rick, but I have never been a big fan of switching males between females and I have never tried putting a male in with two females at a time. If by TH you mean Triple het(Blood, Anery, and Hypo), then yes, the male was a Salmon DH Blood/Type II Anery.

Has putting a male in with two females worked out for you? Or are you talking about switching the male out between the two females? How about this? Does the female produce egg follicles on her own or does the male stimulate her into producing egg follicles by getting on top of the female and spurring her. If you are of the philosophy that the male stimulates the female, then it is possible that being in with two at once, he might not stimulate either enough. At one time, I had been convinced that males stimulate the females but now I am not so sure. In the wild, how much time would they have to hang out for the male to stimulate her? It seems more logical that the female, being ready, would attract him to her, they would do their thing, and then they would be on their way. I have talked to some breeders that have told me that they always plan on like only 25% to 30% of their breedings being successful, which tells me that it is not an exact science. I have known of breeders getting entirely blanked every now and then. I had one female breed for me 4 years in a row, with two different males. I have also had one female(a 2003 het sunglow) that has not bred for me in 2005/2006, 2006/2007, or 2007/2008, also with two different males. So I don't know man, what do you think?

Yeah, Triple Het is what I meant.

It works. As long as the male is healthy he can service two ladies at the same time. When he loses interest in both, put the one female back in her cage, the male back in his.

Werked fer me!




Both nice litters too.

Meant to also say, I have had females develop follicles, and reabsorb them, and some who ovulated, and only had males in the same room. The big Albino above ovulated on me in '04, and I didn't own a male at the time.

I personally believe it has more to do with seasonal change, (light cycle), more so then cooling. But some people can't get them to successfully reproduce without the cooling. Light is the only thing that changes in my cages, and mother nature does that, not me.

That is one lucky male in with those two females!! Ya, you know you hear so many different things from different people, I guess it all boils down to what works for you. That is real interesting about your female ovulating that one year when you didn't even own a male, so I guess that is another vote for the females ovulating on their own (unless she kind of dug you LOL!). I might try a 1.2 in a cage and see how it goes. You are not the first person that I have heard of having success with a 1.2.

About the cooling issue, could it be that your boas are at least minimally cooled with out you even trying? For example, even if you kept your hot spots at the same temp all year round, wouldn't the ambient temperature in your cages cool down somewhat in the fall and winter? Or are the temps in your actual breeding breeding facility that consistent year round?

I'm in the same boat. I still have 1.1 poss hets to prove / disprove and that male is not a super active breeder. If he doesn't look to be doing what he needs to I'll swap the males to at least prove / disprove the female with the one that did prove.

So your gonna go 1.1 in a cage instead of 1.2 correct? Just curious, have you ever tried 1.2 at a time, if so, how did it go?

We're going 1.1 this year. If my other poss het girl proves then we can rotate them to produce Bloods every season with a year off in between. The last time I used 1 male to 2 females I was swapping him from cage to cage and didn't get the numbers I could have. I ended up with more slugs than babies but that also could've been the way I bred them.

Originally Posted by Boa4u

About the cooling issue, could it be that your boas are at least minimally cooled with out you even trying? For example, even if you kept your hot spots at the same temp all year round, wouldn't the ambient temperature in your cages cool down somewhat in the fall and winter? Or are the temps in your actual breeding breeding facility that consistent year round?

I'm sure it is possible. I might even go so far as to say it's possibly likely. But it's not something I've ever tried deliberately.

But I AM gonna try it some time. I got my heart set on trying all sorts of stuff. I just have an interest in what works, and what doesn't. (For me that is) I also think geography has a major play in things too. We'll find out when I ever get my butt in a position to move to Oregon. That will be such a 180° turn in climate, it should shock them into not doing anything for a while.

I am reading a lot where different localities may need certain conditioning to succeed, or locales that tend to go later in the season for everyone that successfully produces them. So far, all the Honduran breeders I've talked to, say they don't even get heavy into the courting mating game until Dec/Jan. But these are people who live in Florida too. That Caribbean climate may play a role being so close.

I still have lots to learn though. Maybe in some years I'll write a book on my findings and be famous like Ronne and Russo.