Boa Breeding - How-To request

I checked and there is not a topic in this yet. So I am wondering how you go about breeding boas.

  1. What temperatures are your enclosures
  2. Do you have a night drop, if so how much?
  3. How do you set up hatchlings?

And feel free to share any answers for anyother questions you feel I missed.

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Normal temperatures during the day, 10 degree night drop. I set neonates up in IRIS shoebox racks with paper towels as substrate until the first shed. After that I switch them to single-ply cage liners. They receive daily misting until the first shed, after which they are misted approximately twice a week (more when they start their next shed). I offer food for the first time when they have all finished shedding. I try them out on f/t mice first. The size of the prey item is based on the size of each hatchling. Usually, only a small number of them eat f/t on the first try. I don’t think I’ve had an instance when more than one third of the litter took f/t right off the bat. The rest are offered live, and I continue to work on switching them to f/t. Once an individual animal has taken at least 3 consecutive meals (live or f/t) unassisted, and in general seems to be growing well and in good shape, I will begin to offer that animal for sale.

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I think you’ll find a fair amount of variability with technique from start to finish with breeding Boas, from person to person.

My breeding of Imperator and Sigma are different. I don’t provide a temp drop seasonally or night time with my Imperators. I do a cool down period with the Sigma though. (My basement does cool off a bit on its own, where my animals are kept, but it’s negligible. )

Forgot to include hatchling set up.

I pull them once mom has finished and keep them all together in a tub with damp paper towels, water bowl and 2 hides. I keep them all together until they shed. Once shed they’re set up individually on paper towels and offered frozen thaw mice or rats. Ive had high success getting them to take ft right off, although the Sigma tend to be more finicky than imperator with their first couple meals.

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I should state that I have never bred sigma. The methods I have described were used for imperator and constrictor.

It will be interesting to see the variability in this thread. :slight_smile:
I am new to breeding, but as of now I pay attention to the cool side temps more than the hot.

I do a night drop, along with a room cool down.

I live in TX, so my room in the hottest time is 83/84, and that is what the cool side gets up to as well.

During winter I.E about now, my room drops to about 70/74 at the coolest. The cool sides on the cages might dip to 74/75 during the night/early morning.

Some cages are a few degrees different.
Ideally, I’d like them to be around 75 though.

Now for the hotspot temps…
All year except during the night drop, they are between 92, and 95.

They drop to about 85 during the night.

After proof reading, I notice it looks like I too have a 10 degree drop. lol

I should have just agreed and said me too to @westridge lol

Forgot to say that I don’t have a set way of setting up babies.
I’ve only produced 2 litters, and done each a little different.

What I can say is they have a hotspot of 92/95, cool side of 78/82.
I use unprinted paper as bedding. Extremely simple set up.

I do like @westridge does on feeding, and I’m glad to see have about the same F/T rates.
I thought people had better success, and I just was struggling to get them slamming food. :slight_smile:

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I personally would not like for a baby boa’s enclosure to reach 95 degrees. 92 would be fine; I personally shoot for a 90 degree hot spot. I don’t think 95 is dangerous, but I don’t feel it is ideal.

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Yeah, 95 is my cut off.
Most tubs don’t hit 95 often, but a few do.

I have no problems bumping it down a bit.

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