Jamaican Boas Breeding

Originally Posted by GillianC

Really happy to hear this year's group is being more cooperative, particularly after their rather eventful start. I hope to read continued success! I might want a mate for Harper

Definitely. We will need to ascertain Harper's sex first (I would guess female based on eating history, but wouldn't bet the farm on it), and wait for the new babies to be old enough to probe, but drop me a line around the 3 month mark.

Really good news on the easier feeding - I certainly felt for your pains over the previous litter!

This bunch of babies figures you're already broken in on the feeding, they'll have to find something else to aggravate you with... lol.
Have any more of the escapees turned up?

Originally Posted by Helenthereef

Really good news on the easier feeding - I certainly felt for your pains over the previous litter!

Haha. Thanks. I was quite relieved to see they all started eating so quickly. I'm tempted to offer pinkies early to see if any of them take. Either way, I'm hoping this will make for a somewhat less labor intensive year than last.

Originally Posted by toddnbecka

This bunch of babies figures you're already broken in on the feeding, they'll have to find something else to aggravate you with... lol.
Have any more of the escapees turned up?

Well, I hope the great escape was all they came up with. I'd hate to see them try to beat that. Haha. No, no others have turned up yet. There should still be about 4 unaccounted for, but I'm hoping that now that they've started eating, the last remaining ferals will start to get more restless and make themselves known.

I wonder if it also has to do with moving around and/or space to range? I seem to recall you commenting last year that the escapees had better appetites than the captives….

Originally Posted by Snakesitter

I wonder if it also has to do with moving around and/or space to range? I seem to recall you commenting last year that the escapees had better appetites than the captives….

This thought did occur to me, but the vast majority of these guys were captured by the first day. In addition, the one that did not get loose ate with all the rest.

Another thing is that I'm fairly certain I had assumed reverse causality last year. While the four escapees were among the best eaters, giving the problem eaters space to range for a while did almost nothing to help their appetites. Instead of escaping helping appetite, I think it was the babies who were already the strongest who were the ones who were active enough to escape from the cage. That theory would also hold up with this year, as every single one of the babies took the opportunity to work themselves out of that tiny crack, whereas, if any of them were a little weaker, they likely would have still bin inside the tub the next morning.

Also, good news this morning. I found another baby. This one was also coiled up on the network router. That has been a popular area so far. Presumably, I have three left to catch.

Feeding update:

E3, H3, H5, H6, N1, N2, and N3 were each fed a quail chick. H3 and H6 declined.

E2, and N4 were each given a fuzzie mouse and ate. T3 was offered two pinkies and declined. I am going to try to give T3 a chick thigh, soon, as I'm concerned about the length of this fast.

H4 was fed two chick thighs and ate both. I think I will probably just stick with this as it is clearly her preference, especially since the new babies are proving to be exceptionally easy.

Speaking of the new babies, all but 2 were fed a chick thigh each and ate it. As an experiment, I gave two of them a pinkie mouse and they declined. No huge surprise, there. I might try a scented pinkie on another random two next week just to see what happens. I did not try to feed the injured one, but may try in a few days.

I took the opportunity last night to feed the two babies I experimented on and the injured baby a chick thigh each. The injured one did not eat. The other two did.

Good news on the two. Fingers crossed on the third.