Jamaican Boas Breeding

[toddnbecka]

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.

 

[cguarino30]

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.

 

[cguarino30]

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.

 

[cguarino30]

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.

 

[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!

 

[cguarino30]

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.

 

[Snakesitter]

Sounds good, and good luck!

 

[cguarino30]

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.

 

[Snakesitter]

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

 

[Helenthereef]

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

 

[cguarino30]

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

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

Yeah, I've noticed something about working with these guys by hand. They tend to ignore anything attached to what they're perched on, so if you're holding the tongs in one hand, they're a lot more inclined to climb from the tongs to the hand than they might be to climb on to the other hand. In addition, they mostly tend to target moving objects that are separated from their perch. In fact, I've found that just because I can successfully get one on my left hand does not mean he won't strike at my right, since the left hand gets ignored, but the right one is considered a separate, approaching object. This obviously applies to cameras as well. I've even learned to be careful when I carry them from one side of the room to the other, as some of them have a tendency to strike at walls/cages as we pass them.

The good news is that you can rather easily switch the snake from tongs to the hand, or from one hand to the other, as long as you are careful to approach slowly, and from beneath. A friend of mine with very little snake experience was handling one of the babies this past weekend and having no issues, once I slid my hand (which had the snake on it) through her thumb and forefinger, forcing the snake to readjust onto her hand. Even the more flighty/aggressive babies acquiesce to this technique, and then it is simply a matter of letting them get adjusted to the handling before they become more tame. Obviously, since I still have 21 babies left, I don't have the time to work with all of them enough to get them all to "hand tame", but I'm fairly confident it could be done for even the most aggressive babies. Maybe I'll pick out the meanest little bugger of the bunch and start working with that one a little more intensively as a case study.

 

[cguarino30]

Feeding day today.

I tried scenting quail chicks with pinkies for the holdback group. Quail chicks weigh about 6 grams, and the chick thighs that I have been using are around 2 grams each, so it shouldn't be a huge increase in food intake, but they are considerably wider than the chick thighs, so that could be it. I have included a picture for comparison. They could still be a little too small for the quail chicks. If they don't eat these ones, I'll assume that the size is the problem and give them each a chick thigh later in the week.

The three pinkie eaters were each fed an unscented large pinkie.

The scented pinkie eater that declined pinkies the last couple of weeks was given a chick thigh.

The other non-holdbacks were all given a chick thigh.

T1 was given a small anole and an anole scented pinkie.

T3 was given an unscented pinkie.

T4 was given a chick thigh and a quail chick, mostly because I accidentally thawed out an extra.

I will update tomorrow with results.

 

[cguarino30]

OK. No luck on quail chicks this week. Apparently, they're not ready yet. We will go back to multiple chick thighs and try again in a couple months when they are eating three thighs each.

Otherwise, a great night. All three pinkie eaters ate the large pinkie with no issues.

T1 acted as expected. Ate the anole, ignored the pinkie.

T3 ate the unscented pinkie. Great news there.

T4 ate the thigh, but not the quail.

All others ate their chick thighs.

I think this weekend I might bite the bullet and try to sex a couple of these guys this weekend, as I think they may be ready. I'll update with results if that happens.

 

[cguarino30]

I tried a preliminary round of sexing today, and I think it was pretty successful. From what I could read, males should probe to about 7 subcaudals, whereas females should be closer to 3. Because of the invasiveness of the procedure, and the proven willingness of some babies to bite, I opted to use a clear plastic tube to restrain them. The tube I used is about 1/2 inch thick and about 18 inches long, and blocked off at one end. It proved to be just right for this size.

They were surprisingly easy to get into the tube. As usual, I scooped them out of their tubs with a hemostat, and while they were perched on that, I would approach them with the tube. I found that I could slowly place the opening of the tube at their nose and wait for their natural inquisitiveness to kick in. Once they started to peer inside, a gentle tickling of the body or shaking of the hemostat would cause them to attempt to escape into the tube, and once inside, they were a lot easier to manage. I will say, though, that anyone attempting this procedure should prepare for a stinky mess, as they protested as much as they could from the other end. Have a paper towel ready.

I opted to start with the pinkie eaters and troublemaker groups. I will monitor their reaction over time (whether or not they eat on Tuesday), and depending on how well they handle it, I may also do the holdbacks in the next few weeks. I opted not to do the holdbacks now, as they have missed 2 meals in a row and I don't want to risk missing another. T3 was also spared, as he just took his first unscented pinkie this week and I didn't want to risk undoing any of that progress.

T1 was surprisingly cooperative, considering past reluctance to be handled. As T1 was the first that I tried, it took a little while before I got the hang of handling the tail, inserting the probe, and applying the right amount of pressure in the right place. Also, it took a few tries before I was confident that I had my correct answer. T1 probed to 4 subcaudals, which in all likelihood puts her at female, though I feel I should follow up on another probing in a month or two just to make sure.

T4 was also fairly cooperative, and since I had a better idea of what I was doing, didn't have to cooperate for very long. T4 probed to 2 subcaudals, and barring some screwup on my part, is definitely female.

The pinkie eaters were somewhat less inclined to the procedure. There was a lot more striking at the tube (and me) and attempts to get away from the hemostat. Hard to blame them, though, all things considered. I have given them numbers (P1-P3), as they have individual information that I need to keep track of.

P1 was the easiest of the three and quickly probed between 2 and 3 subcaudals, a definite female.

P2 was considerably more difficult, but probed to 2 subcaudals and is a clear female as well.

P3 was by far the trickiest of the five. There was a lot of snapping and musking and attempts to intermittently flee and charge at me, however, even P3 was fairly easy to get into the tube once he calmed down a little and peered inside. P3 probed to 7 subcaudals, and as such is definitely male.

This worked out pretty well, as the pinkie eating group is the most ready for sale. Assuming there is not some major stress reaction from the sexing process, I'll be able to post them for sale as a breeding trio in the next couple of weeks. T1 will likely need to be probed a second time before I can confidently claim her as female, but T4 is certainly a girl as well.

I have included a picture of T4 in the tube to help illustrate the process.

 

[toddnbecka]

Is that an Eheim spraybar in the pic?

 

[cguarino30]

Is that an Eheim spraybar in the pic?

Haha. Good eye. It is indeed. I was looking around for something to use and that seemed to be just the thing. It worked out quite well, so I've set it aside and it is now an eheim boa restraining tube.

 

[Snakesitter]

Great notes, and excellent idea.

 

[Snakesitter]

Chris, have you considered trying a quail *part*, as opposed to the whole animal? Try spitting one up, and offer part unscented and part chicken-scented.

 

[Snakesitter]

Another great post. Please keep us updated on their post-sexing feeding attitude!

 

[cguarino30]

Great notes, and excellent idea.

Chris, have you considered trying a quail *part*, as opposed to the whole animal? Try spitting one up, and offer part unscented and part chicken-scented.

Another great post. Please keep us updated on their post-sexing feeding attitude!

Thanks. I'll update with progress for sure. Here's hoping that now that they are a little older and more stable, that they'll be back on feed this week.

As for the half quail chick idea, I had considered it, but I'm worried that halving a quail chick would make the item too messy to eat. Now that I've weighed them, I think a quail chick might still be too much food, even if it was easier to manage. A thigh is only 2 grams, and a quail chick is 6. Even the ones that are eating a lot are only eating 2 thighs, and some of them are opting out of the second.

Although, now, I'm wondering if there might be some benefit to feeding a chick thigh and maybe like a quail chick head or something. That way, at the very least, I know they'll be getting the chick thigh, and it might encourage them to start getting more accustomed to the quail as food. I may try that tomorrow.