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Breeding Newbie asking some questions (we all have to start somewhere!)

R

redtailboa12

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Hey,
So I have a 6 foot, 04 white group pastel female from Jesse Van Atta (great guy btw). I was debating breeding her once just for the experience, but I have only owned snakes as pets my entire life. If someone can point me in the right direction to a really good book that could help me, or even give me some pointers here that would be great. I know about the cooling process, separating the mother after she is done resting from birth, ect. I am looking for a nice male under $400 to breed her with and then keep as a pet. I know a little about genetics, I love the albino coloration, but was wondering if 100% het for albino babies would sell. Again, I am kinda just starting out and dont want 10 or more babies that nobody wants. Thanks! :D

Ashley

Pic of my baby:
Picture020.jpg


Picture038.jpg


Her as a neonate
13.jpg
 
She is a beauty, Jesse has a sweet bunch of animals, as your girl attests too. Regarding good reading material. Honestly you won't find anything more accurate then the stuff in the Boa Manual (haven't seen that around though in awhile). You can find Jeff Ronnes breeding information on his site www.theboaphile.com it is accurate (haven't looked at it in probably 7 or so years). Here is the link directly to it http://www.theboaphile.com/article.html

As far as a male to pick, go with what you want, 100% hets won't sell for much, but you should be able to move them fairly easily, even if it means wholesaling the entire group.
 
Boa Breeding, Theory and Practice By Gus Rentfro, Rio Bravo Reptiles

More reading on the subject.

Best to read all you can on it, as opinions will differ. For an example, I do not cool my Boas, and they breed just fine. These practices and techniques people use differ may differ according to your geographic location. You may end up trying different things until you find what works for you.

IMO, you follow these rules. Make sure your female is healthy, not fat. Make sure she is mature, and not just grown fast. (Size and maturity are not the same thing) Put the male in, and let nature do, what nature programmed them to do. Keep her warm after he's done his thing and been removed, and keep her water FRESH! She'll need it.

Some people who have been doing it a while, do not share this luck, and don't get litters if they don't cool. I don't know why exactly, except maybe their geography. So absorb all you can, because the first attempt may not work, and you might have to change a few things the next time.

Good luck.
 
crotalusadamanteus said:
Boa Breeding, Theory and Practice By Gus Rentfro, Rio Bravo Reptiles

More reading on the subject.

Best to read all you can on it, as opinions will differ. For an example, I do not cool my Boas, and they breed just fine. These practices and techniques people use differ may differ according to your geographic location. You may end up trying different things until you find what works for you.

IMO, you follow these rules. Make sure your female is healthy, not fat. Make sure she is mature, and not just grown fast. (Size and maturity are not the same thing) Put the male in, and let nature do, what nature programmed them to do. Keep her warm after he's done his thing and been removed, and keep her water FRESH! She'll need it.

Some people who have been doing it a while, do not share this luck, and don't get litters if they don't cool. I don't know why exactly, except maybe their geography. So absorb all you can, because the first attempt may not work, and you might have to change a few things the next time.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
I've tried breeding without turning off the heat but it ain't happening. As long as my heat is turned off for at least a few hours a night, mine will breed like crazy.
 
Wow, thanks for everyone's help!

She is 'mature' as far as I know, I haven't ever powerfed her and she is really nice and muscular. Are they any noticeable differences to tell if she is mature?

And if I get a male, could I keep him with the female and just feed them separately? I am somewhat strapped for space, but if it will hurt my girl then I wouldn't keep them together.

How much would 100% albino hets sell for? I just basically want to break even on any new costs of caging for the male, or even recount the cost of the male. I also just don't want a million babies that don't sell and I have to keep the rest of their lives.

What would be a good morph to breed her to? (I will go up to $500 for a male)

Do you NEED to buy an expensive rack for the babies? Again I'm not looking to get into a business, just breed a litter.
 
If you are only going to do it once, I wouldn't choose the expensive route for housing the babies. Albino boas are pretty cheap now, so the marketability of hets is down. Add in the fact that there is a lot of competition, and you aren't an established breeder; and you'll probably either be sitting on them for a while, or selling them dirt cheap (maybe even both, depending on your approach). As has been mentioned, given your stated goals, you would probably be better off planning to wholesale the babies as a group or in lots. The price per boa won't be much, but they're gone...and you don't have to house, feed, clean, and try to sell them individually.
 
That makes sense - so how would I find a wholesale buyer? I don't want to like, sell them to a pet store, but I would want to sell them to a good reputable buyer. And if I go wholesale, would I still be able to break even on costs? I would love to breed, but I do not have money to just throw away. Unless there is another morph I could get (or is there such things as a 'stud' boa?). Thanks again for helping!
 
You can find people to do breeding loans with, but imo they all too often result in headaches more then positives. You can find wholesale buyers fairly easily, putting up an ad if/when you produce neos that you have lots for sale and they will find you and then you can use the boi to decide whether they are someone you want to sell to.

Regarding breaking even or not, that depends on the quality of the offspring (nicer parents usually result in nicer neos, but sometimes it doesn't work out and you can end up with a bunch of ugly babies.) It is a crap shoot to break even in the hobby let alone end up with a profit. Gotta go with the mindset that you are willing to eat the cost regardless, to begin.
 
redtailboa12 said:
She is 'mature' as far as I know, I haven't ever powerfed her and she is really nice and muscular. Are they any noticeable differences to tell if she is mature?
Click to expand...

You said she's an '04, that's your best indicator that she's a mature adult. Anything over 4 years old is of an appropriate breeding age, as long as she's healthy. Some would say 3 years of age is good, and some have had success at 3. To me, that's the "teen" age, and although they can breed at 3, so can a 14 yr old girl. But she probably shouldn't be.
 
crotalusadamanteus said:
You said she's an '04, that's your best indicator that she's a mature adult. Anything over 4 years old is of an appropriate breeding age, as long as she's healthy. Some would say 3 years of age is good, and some have had success at 3. To me, that's the "teen" age, and although they can breed at 3, so can a 14 yr old girl. But she probably shouldn't be.
Click to expand...

I use 3 years as a minimum but that doesn't mean they'll breed at 3 years either. I have some that wouldn't breed until 5 years. I leave it up to the animal. If they go , they go. If they don't, there is always next year.

With me using 3 years, I still go by the body build/ weight before thinking of breeding. If I have a 3 year old that hasn't put on the muscle size yet and is still quite lanky, she waits another year.

I'll still use the 3 year minimum but i'll continue adding common sense to it as well.:thumbsup:
 
Agreed, common sense is a major factor. Some have it, some don't. Knowing you the way I do, if you said a female was ready at 3, I'd trust you. There are a whole lot of others that I would not.

I might make an exception like that for my '06 Honduran female. She's 3 now, and at least dbl the size of my '05 male. LOL So later this season, I may just decide to go for it. :shrug01: We'll see.

BryonsBoas said:
I use 3 years as a minimum but that doesn't mean they'll breed at 3 years either. I have some that wouldn't breed until 5 years. I leave it up to the animal. If they go , they go. If they don't, there is always next year.

With me using 3 years, I still go by the body build/ weight before thinking of breeding. If I have a 3 year old that hasn't put on the muscle size yet and is still quite lanky, she waits another year.

I'll still use the 3 year minimum but i'll continue adding common sense to it as well.:thumbsup:
Click to expand...
 
Alrighty, and yeah I'm fine with taking the risk of losing some money (hopin for that tax return!)

What does a hypo/pastel breeding produce? I am just concerned about selling the babies to good homes.

And can the male and my girl be housed together even when not breeding if they are about the same size? She is in a 4' boaphile cage.

Do I need a rack for the neonates? What can they be housed in while caring for them?

Thanks :)
 
A pastel hypo produces a mix of hypos, pastels, pastel hypos and normals, all of varying grades. Pastels are a polygenic trait so you end up with varying degrees of appearance as well as numbers in a litter.

As far as housing, some people have kept boas paired without a problem, but with the potential of injury to one or both animals as well as transferal of illness you will be best served to use an enclosure for each of them. (figure with quarantine you will need individual housing to begin with, to make sure the new animal is healthy.) You could go with a 2' or 3' enclosure and figure, barring extreme size, it will house the male for his entire life. Regarding keeping neonates, you can make make shift racks that will work perfectly as the need arrises. My favorite ad lib rack was 2 12 dollar plastic racks from wal mart with 11" heat tape put along the back (so it was wide enough for the 2 tubs per level) and then reflectix wrapping the back and sides. It worked extremely well holding the shoebox tubs for the neonates.
 
They should be in their own individual cages unless breeding. Snakes are not social animals.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
redtailboa12 said:
Alrighty, and yeah I'm fine with taking the risk of losing some money (hopin for that tax return!)

What does a hypo/pastel breeding produce? I am just concerned about selling the babies to good homes.

And can the male and my girl be housed together even when not breeding if they are about the same size? She is in a 4' boaphile cage.

Do I need a rack for the neonates? What can they be housed in while caring for them?

Thanks :)
Click to expand...


they will produce brightly colored snakes. Your snake is a mutt like most....odds are they will appear to be hypo or common...but there is an off the wall chance you could get a albino...a sunglow....without knowing involved histories of animals...its all a gamble.

Yes they can be housed together for awhile....I wouldn't do it indefinitely.

No you don;t need a rack....but you need to guarantee they stay warm and moist.
 
crotalusadamanteus said:
You said she's an '04, that's your best indicator that she's a mature adult. Anything over 4 years old is of an appropriate breeding age, as long as she's healthy. Some would say 3 years of age is good, and some have had success at 3. To me, that's the "teen" age, and although they can breed at 3, so can a 14 yr old girl. But she probably shouldn't be.
Click to expand...

Getting used to my male dwarfs being so much smaller than my females took some getting used to. My females maxed at 42 - 48 inches while my males hit the wall at 32-36 inches and wayyyy leaner.
 
What are the genetics of a sunglow?

And this may be a stupid question - but how does one monitor the heat tape and make sure it is at an optimal temperature? Do you need a thermostat for each box in the rack?
Randall - haha I like your idea of a makeshift rack!

Another stupid question - is there a 'breeding season' for snakes, or this there an optimal time when they should be bred?

And is there a good morph (of any price) that will produce babies that I can easily sell to at least make up the cost of the pretty male morph? I know nothing is certain with breeding, but anything that would be really cool with a pastel female

Thanks again everyone - I am not going to breed immediately as I have yet to find the lucky bachelor for my female. But thanks for the information!
 
You can find several reasonable morphs that will make nice offspring combined with your girl. A jungle would go well with her, or an arabesque. Both of those morphs benefit greatly when paired with nice mates.

Regarding monitoring the heat, you can pick up probe thermometers at most reptile websites that sell thermostats (such as beanfarm, bigappleherp etc). You do not need a thermostat for each individual box in a rack, a single thermostat is all you will need. I do suggest though when using a rack, that you use multiple thermometers, as the lower level will often be drastically cooler then the upper levels, so always a good idea to have the ability to glance at the temps to make sure things are good to go.

Boas will breed year round, but seem to be far easier to breed in the fall/winter months.
 
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