• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Is She Pregnant?

Michael Brown

Michael Brown

Active member
Joined
Jul 5, 2008
Messages
372
Reaction score
52
Points
28
Age
36
Location
Rutland, Vermont
My salmontine was introduced to my argentine late. At the beginning of may I introduced her to my argentine male. I noticed some courting, never notice copulation. I pulled him in 2 weeks, left him out for a week, then re-introduced for another month. I've noticed her in that typical "heat conserving ball" for most of her time. Now I've noticed her rolling her stomach a bit, like un-usual behavior. This is the first year I paired her. Here are some pictures.

Also one more quick question. What will a 75% argentine male bred to a Salmontine female produce?

One other small note. Since May she has not been fed except for once last week. I offered her a small rat that she seemed sort of interested in, nothing like her normal appetite. she ate it eventually thru out the night.
 

Attachments

  • 100_2013.jpg
    100_2013.jpg
    176.9 KB · Views: 113
  • 100_2014.jpg
    100_2014.jpg
    132.2 KB · Views: 130
5 minutes later. She's turning alot.

Any advice please. This is the first time i've bred boa's. I've only bred colubrids which is obviously very different
 

Attachments

  • 100_2027.jpg
    100_2027.jpg
    174.3 KB · Views: 113
  • 100_2028.jpg
    100_2028.jpg
    174 KB · Views: 112
  • 100_2029.jpg
    100_2029.jpg
    92.1 KB · Views: 112
Well, bad news is that she's not a Salmontine. She isn't a salmon boa and I don't see any amount of Argentine influence. The next part of the question is what I tell everyone that breeds boas, I can't tell you what's going on with her. Looking at her and hearing the description, I'd bet that she has something in her, but I couldn't tell you if it's slugs or what. Boas are a bit harder to predict than other snakes.

Knowing that she isn't a Salmontine, if you bred her to a 75% Argentine male, you're gonna get a litter of Argentine/Colombian mutts.

Chris
 
at first I thought that kind of looks like the pre-ov twist (pre ovulation) however that usually only takes place in the area of the ovaries and she's on her side almost right at the neck. With her being deep in blue right now as well, that seems a bit odd.. maybe she ovulated and getting ready for POS? You may want to try putting the male back in once she sheds and see if he continues to court? Perhaps she is just feeling uncomfortable going into shed, I've seen boas lay like this randomly as well that had nothing to do with being gravid.

I thought a salmantine was a hypo argiexBCi cross? She doesn't look like a hypo at all to me. Salmontine x Argentine would get more salmontine and BCixargentine crosses.


some reading for you:
http://www.theboaphile.com/article_files/1.html
 
JCCS said:
Well, bad news is that she's not a Salmontine. She isn't a salmon boa and I don't see any amount of Argentine influence. The next part of the question is what I tell everyone that breeds boas, I can't tell you what's going on with her. Looking at her and hearing the description, I'd bet that she has something in her, but I couldn't tell you if it's slugs or what. Boas are a bit harder to predict than other snakes.

Knowing that she isn't a Salmontine, if you bred her to a 75% Argentine male, you're gonna get a litter of Argentine/Colombian mutts.

Chris
Click to expand...

1. I have paper work for this girl. of the 15 Boa's I possess I have paper work for 2 and she is of the two.

2.

3. The genetics on the snake was'nt my primary focus. My focus (since im new to boa breeding) is why my boa is turning to the side like that as I have never seen it before and I was asking for help from the community.

you're gonna get a litter of Argentine/Colombian mutts.
Click to expand...

4. Not really sure what you were implying from "mutts", but I took it as a negative comment. I don't really understand where the animosity came from but I was in no way shape or form trying to offend you from this thread?
 
Last edited:
Michael, I don't think anyone was trying to offend, just lay out the facts as they saw them. I can understand your reaction, but the defensive tone of your post might turn this an actual flame war rather than (however blunt) opinions on genetics.

I don't breed regular boas, I do Brazilian Rainbows, but if one of my girls was acting like yours I would suspect she had something going on. That said, April's point is an excellent one (man, I gotta stop saying that...I sound like such a suckup! ;-) ).

BTW, and intended only as polite advice, I'd be careful of publicly suggesting anyone mislabeled their babies without going to them in private first. I'm sure if you were in the breeder's shoes, you'd appreciate the same courtesy.

Best of luck to you in resolving this!
 
Theres nothing to really resolve.

Perhaps I misinterpreted James's tone from his first post, but to me it sounded condescending....for what reason?

I only asked for help or to be helped as I am a newbie.

I shouldn't feel like I need to defend the genetics of my boa because I asked why she's practically belly up.. should I?

I'm not mad, in anyway shape or form, and I hope that this comes out the right way, but perhaps I'll just google and browse next time before coming to these forums and asking for advice.

some reading for you:
http://www.theboaphile.com/article_files/1.html
Click to expand...

Thank you for this, I will print it out and read through it. I really do appreciate it.
 
'mutt' is a common term for crosses and locality crosses, I can't speak for Chris but I do not associate anything bad with that term although I know some people do.

I only questioned the genetics of your snake because it doesn't look hypo. Salmontine is short for Salmon Argentine (cross of salmon BCi and Argentine BCo that expresses the hypo trait). Was just trying to help.
 
Hi Michael, I wasn't trying to offend or condescend, I'm not a big fan of crosses or mutts, but do what you want. I will say that I don't care who called that snake a salmontine, it's not a salmon or hypo, which by definition makes it not a salmontine.

Now it could possibly be from a salmontine breeding and be a non-hypo sibling. I said that I didn't see anything to make me think it had Argentine blood in it, but that can hide.

The link that April provided is about as good as it gets as far as taking you through the breeding process.

Chris
 
I understand where your coming from.

But she is about 5-6 shades darker than she normally is. This is the deepest I've ever seen her in shed.

Also that light pink to whitesh belly she is showing is Barbie pink all up her lower section as well as on her stomach when she is'nt in shed.

I will post pics of her when she is out of shed,

Thanks for your time James, and I apologize for jumping the gun
 
Well, her feeding behavior is fully descriptive of a gravid female . They almost always continue to eat , but with very little interest like they used to . I will advise that you start feeding half-sized meals if you determine that she is gravid . Turning on her side is something that I usually only see when the follicles are growing -- before they're gravid , so this is confusung . Is the male still interested if they're put together ? If so, then she's likely not gravid . Most males become repelled from the female about a week before ovulation. They'll want noting to do with her .

- I also have to agree that it is not a Salmontine. I've seen plenty in shed and out . Yours does not resemble one to me at all.
 
In 2006 she was purchased as a "Salmontine Normal" , From Salmontine x Salmontine breeding. I'm not really sure what the Salmontine Normal part means. But He's a quick pick I took with my camera, as I don't have a functional scanner atm.

Like I said the picture is crap, but you'd think from "salmontine x salmontine" breeding you'd get a salmontine ;/
 

Attachments

  • proof.jpg
    proof.jpg
    43.2 KB · Views: 78
Michael Brown said:
In 2006 she was purchased as a "Salmontine Normal" , From Salmontine x Salmontine breeding. I'm not really sure what the Salmontine Normal part means.
Click to expand...

thank you, this explains perfectly. It means yours is a normal from a salmontine breeding, it's one of the normal argiexBCi babies that does not express the hypo trait, meaning it's not a salmontine ("salmon" for hypo and 'tine' for Argentine)

Michael Brown said:
but you'd think from "salmontine x salmontine" breeding you'd get a salmontine ;/
Click to expand...

Hypo x Hypo will result in approx 25% super hypos, 50% hypos and 25% normals, so that is how you get a normal argiexbci cross from salmontine x salmontine.

I hope this helps explain
 
Michael Brown said:
I've noticed her in that typical "heat conserving ball" for most of her time. Now I've noticed her rolling her stomach a bit, like un-usual behavior. This is the first year I paired her. Here are some pictures.
Click to expand...

My female has been doing a lot of this as well. She will lay in a circular pattern, on her side. She is also going in shed, even though she shed a month ago. Very strange behavior.
 
AbsoluteApril said:
thank you, this explains perfectly. It means yours is a normal from a salmontine breeding, it's one of the normal argiexBCi babies that does not express the hypo trait, meaning it's not a salmontine ("salmon" for hypo and 'tine' for Argentine)



Hypo x Hypo will result in approx 25% super hypos, 50% hypos and 25% normals, so that is how you get a normal argiexbci cross from salmontine x salmontine.

I hope this helps explains
Click to expand...

Makes perfect sense to me :thumbsup:

I appreciate your help in a topic I am clearly ignorant in :(
 
Back
Top