After weeks of worry and a lot of sleepless nights my albino jungle boa gave birth today.
Several months ago I ultra sounded her and saw she was gravid. I also saw some unfertile follicles. There appeared to be a lot of these unfertile follicles, and this can cause a female to deliver prematurely. So I worried she might have her babies early.
Most of my boas will eat occasionally while they are gravid, but she did not. In the last month she has not been looking so good, not eating had taken a toll on her. She was getting very thin where she was not carrying the babies, and her color was getting pasty. I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking about what I could do to save her. Tube feed her a little something, give her something so she would have the babies. Take her out to move about or,,,,, I just didn’t know what I could do for her. And then there was the babies. The babies I not so long ago prayed she would not have early, I now wanted her to have early.
There are parts I have not told you yet. First I lost my male albino jungle a couple months ago from pneumonia . I didn’t know he was sick and then he was gone. Second she was bred by my IMG azabachi boa I got form Pete Kahl for $7500. Yea I was really wanting these babies. But I didn’t want to loose her either.
This morning when I woke up, being at my last straw. I figured when I was done in the rodent farm I would do something. I got a bottle of ensure and can cat food all my tub feed stuff and went in to check on her. I had just been feeding some of the animals in the other room and had a few extra live mice. I figured I would try a live mouse first, thinking something live might get her interested. Mind you she is a big boa and generally eats jumbo rats. I found the forceps and offered her the mouse. Bam, She took it, omg Thank you, thank you, I thought to myself. I looked at her coiled around the mouse and thought, She had the babies. Where are the babies?
After removing her out of the cage I found them buried under the paper in the back corner. Only 5 slugs and no dead babies yea, 9 albinos and 7 normals. I can tell which ones are IMG in the normals but not the albinos. Below are some pics.
Thanks
Lynn Kubic
Boas and Balls.com
PS, Mom is now eating, and I am sleeping.
Male Azabachi boa
