Jamaican Boas Breeding

I really love the bright colors on her, will she darken as she grow larger? Is there a wide range of colors among the adults? She doesn't look anything like either parent.

there is a wide range of variation among adults, but none of the babies look like adults. They undergo an ontogenetic color change from drab red to whatever color they eventually have. There is also a bit of a progression with the pattern and shading with regard to the blacks. It's fun to watch them develop over time.

Feeding day today.

All holdbacks were fed quail chicks. As far as overall weight of the food item, this should be no trouble at all for them. A couple of random snakes have eaten a quail chick as early as 2 months of age. The limiting issue is going to be the girth of the body. However, I feel that at this size, they should be able to manage it, so we will see.

All non-holdbacks were fed the usual chick thigh.

All pinkie eaters were fed two unscented pinkies.

The snake that ate the chick-scented pinkie two weeks ago and refused the unscented pinkie last week was given another chick-scented pinkie. This one also shed last night and is quite stunningly light. I will try to get some pictures in the coming week.

T1 was fed a f/t anole.

T3 was fed a lightly anole-scented pinkie. I intentionally didn't do a very good job of scenting, in order to help transition to unscented. If he takes this one, I will try unscented next week.

T4 was fed the usual chick thigh.

I will update in the morning with results.

Not the greatest night ever. Not a single holdback ate the quail chick offered. From the looks of things, the majority of them were not even touched. I intentionally placed each food item on top of the cardboard tube hide, and most of them were still where I had left them. I had assumed that any animal eating a chick thigh would automatically be willing to eat a quail chick, but I'm starting to doubt that theory. I may need to take some steps to scent the quail chicks with chick thighs/heads. I haven't decided whether I will try scented quail chicks next week or go back to double chick thighs.

All pinkie eaters ate both pinkies.

T1 ate the anole.

T3 ate the lightly scented pinkie. I think this one is ready to try unscented next week.

T4 ate the chick thigh.

All non-holdbacks ate their chick thighs.

The baby that was offered the scented pinkie refused it. I may go back to feeding this one chick thighs. On the plus side, the fact that it refused its food gave me the opportunity to snap a few pictures of the reduced blacks I was talking about. This is probably the baby with the least amount of black of all of its siblings.

Gorgeous photos!

> "whether I will try scented quail chicks next week or go back to double chick thighs"
I'd go with chick thighs, so that you don't run into a two-week stretch of not feeding…but then again I'm very cautious, and wish you luck either way!

Originally Posted by Snakesitter

Gorgeous photos!

> "whether I will try scented quail chicks next week or go back to double chick thighs"
I'd go with chick thighs, so that you don't run into a two-week stretch of not feeding…but then again I'm very cautious, and wish you luck either way!

I had the same thought as well. I was actually thinking I might try one chick thigh (maybe a small one or something) and one quail chick. I'll need to weigh each and see if that's too much of an increase in food.

Sounds good, and good luck!

T4 shed last night, so I had to snap a couple of pictures. He was looking pretty willing to climb out onto my hand, but was intensely aggressive to the camera, so he kept coiling back up and snapping at it. Oh well. Colors are coming along nicely on this one. He's maintaining a lot of his red. I'm guessing this one will emulate his maternal "Red Phase" lineage.

Likes the hand, not the lens? They can be such characters…!

Haven't heard of "Camera aggressive" before - learning new things with every post!