Jamaican Boas Breeding

I know it's been a while since I posted some pics, so here's a few. This is my most aggressive baby. He's also my messiest. I've had to completely swap out his tub three times now. (I usually spot clean the others). Today, he decided that instead of going into his new tub, he was going to perch on the rim of it and take pot-shots at me. Let me tell you, these guys have an impressive striking distance. He managed to graze me from about 12 inches when I got a little too careless filling his water bowl (which is impressive considering he's probably only about 20 inches long). I imagine that kind of reach comes in handy when you're trying to pick anoles off in the trees.

I just love the little ones with attitude. A bit late,but a very nice looking litter.

Originally Posted by allreptiles1966

I just love the little ones with attitude. A bit late,but a very nice looking litter.

thanks. I always take solace in the knowledge that they have to be healthy to strike like that. Haha.

Feeding update for this week. Today, the 9 holdbacks were fed their usual chick thigh, as were 6 of the others. The 4 remaining pinky-eaters (one was sold last week) and 3 random others were fed chick-scented pinkies. We will see if the switch over to pinkies from fuzzies entices the 3 who passed on last week's offering. I'll update tomorrow with results.

Everyone who was offered a chick thigh ate it with no issues.

Of the 4 "pinky eaters", 3 of them ate the scented pinky. This is a considerable increase in rate of consumption from last week, where fuzzies were used. In addition, one can see that the bulge formed by even "extra small" pinkies is quite substantial. I would say it is easily as wide as the bulge formed by the chick thighs and anoles, though it is considerably shorter. This indicates to me that the girth of the food item can be a major factor in both willingness to consume, as well as potentially regurging. My thoughts are that because these snakes are so long and slender, and are evolved to eat other long, slender things, they may have trouble with shorter, wider food items, such as fuzzie mice. I suspect they could handle three or four small pinkies over one fuzzie, though I have no intention of testing that theory.

The three random "others" who were offered scented pinkies declined to eat. No big deal there. They will be offered chick thighs at next feeding.

As for the three troublemakers, I have had a bit of a tough time finding them anoles. The order that I had made a few weeks ago never arrived (seller put me off a few times and is now not returning emails) so I have arranged for a new shipment that will be arriving tomorrow. These will be live, brown anoles, and since I'm purchasing 100 of them, I'm hoping that there will at least be a few smaller ones that I can offer to the two that still have not eaten yet. If that works, my intention is to wean them up to larger anoles, and hopefully anole-scented pinkies, or chick thighs, but I'm getting ahead of myself here. I have to get them eating first. If nothing else, it's good information to know that they can survive this long without food.

I will update with regard to the troublemakers after they have been offered their food.

Even if the anoles are too large you can freeze and split them in half lengthwise. Granted, live would probably elicit a better feeding response, but freezing would kill parasites. Anoles would be a better diet than the chick thighs, those have to be lacking some nutrients.

Originally Posted by toddnbecka

Even if the anoles are too large you can freeze and split them in half lengthwise. Granted, live would probably elicit a better feeding response, but freezing would kill parasites. Anoles would be a better diet than the chick thighs, those have to be lacking some nutrients.

I will most likely freeze many of the anoles, if for no other reason than the fact that I can not humanely house and care for all 100. My concern with splitting them, though, is that most of these guys, especially early on, were waiting a considerable time before consuming their food, presumably because they prefer to eat in privacy at night. A split anole could cause problems if it dried out or started to decompose, both with eliciting a feeding response, and with digestion/health issues. With live anoles, they can simply be left in the enclosure for however long is necessary. Hopefully size will not be an issue.

I mentioned earlier that I do have some concerns regarding chick thighs and missing nutrients, but these concerns are largely long-term, and I do not have any reason to believe that issues will arise before whole quail chicks are an option. I do have serious concerns about converting regular bird-eaters onto anoles, which could not only cause unnecessary stress and inappetence, but also could cause the snakes that did convert to anoles to reject birds in the future. Considering the problems that I have had locating feeder anoles just for these three troublemakers, I am completely unwilling to risk converting otherwise regular feeders to a largely unavailable food item, similar to my concerns with anole-scented pinkies. Basically, I see it as causing an actual problem in order to avoid a potential one. If I begin to see signs of malnutrition or if feeding becomes less regular, I always have the option of addressing it, but I see no reason to address problems that I do not have, especially considering the tremendous success so far.

LOL what a character. Love the shot sequence!

A baby snakes can go an impressivelt long time without food. I t always sowwries me when they do...but they can.

(I have one baby Brazilian from my last litter that also does not "get" the food idea. The baby passed on a frozen/thawed rat pink...another rat pink...then a mouse hopper...then, when I finally broke down and offered a live rat pink...I found the baby hiding from the rat pink on top of its water bowl. Sigh....)

Yeah, that's always frustrating. It makes me wish I could just explain things to them. You're an apex predator. This is your food. You're supposed to eat it. Go on, eat it.

The anoles arrived today. I have placed a small one with one non-feeder, a medium one with the other non-feeder, and a fully grown one with the one who has already eaten three adult anoles. Fingers crossed that I wake up to three fat snakes tomorrow. Even the medium anole is noticeably smaller than the adult anoles I was feeding before, so if it was a size issue, this should take care of it. If the two non-feeders still refuse to eat even the small, live anoles, then the future does not look good for these two.

I have separated out about 40 live anoles to keep alive for the time being, just in case these guys start eating anoles but give me trouble transitioning to frozen ones. The rest I have frozen for future use. With 100 anoles, I should be able to keep these three going for some time, and hopefully more than long enough to get them switched onto something more available.