This was a bummer to see!!!

[reidness]

my 8 foot plus hypo hogg gave me 33 slugs and 1 deformed still born! i realy feel for her as i looked in her cage she was using her head to push and move her slugs to get them going! it was a sad sight, the still born had a deformed upper jaw but otherwise looked pretty good, father is a dh snow, her sister gave me a couple of great boas 2 years ago but she also gave me 23 slugs! i wonder if it runs in the family? this girls slugs oposed to her sisters were realy yellow and hard and some what larger than her sisters slugs? thanx for looking. reid

[reidness]

another pic

[reidness]

last pic

[denny_rimes]

That truly is a bummer...I'm very sorry. :-/
I hope that your female recovers and gives you lots of viable babies next season!

Denny

[reidness]

thanx denny. mom is doing fine and eating like a savage!!!

[coldjoe]

My condolence, Hopefully this coming season will be better for her.

[Dr._Klopson]

dang!dang!dang!

Hey, sorry about your loss..
I'm curious. What type of water do you give your boas to drink? Is it well water, or city water? If it is well water, have you ever had it tested.
I have a theory about slugs, and am collecting data.

jason

[reidness]

Jason she gets city water, the water is pretty good here in va, i have lived in a few different states and i personaly think the water here is the best, less clorine etc. thanx

[glewis]

Reid,


It could be "in the family". Infertility has been correlated with limited gene pools in numerous animal population studies. Since Hoggs descend from a probably limited insular gene pool, and "Hypo" suggests some further inbreeding this is a possible explanation for a consistent problem. However, it is not unusual for completely unrelated boas to produce infertile clutches and I have enough experience with that. In some cases I still can't predict infertile clutches reliably and that includes 2 gravid surinames that I am waiting on at the moment.

Were there any clues to the disapointment in either the behaviour of the female or her appearance while gravid?
A photo of her while gravid would be interesting if you have it.
Glenn

Jason she gets city water, the water is pretty good here in va, i have lived in a few different states and i personaly think the water here is the best, less clorine etc. thanx

There is no "good" city water! There is no good ground water for that matter. If you read the letter they send you once a year, in very small print they recomend that you don't drink it.
I've done extensive water analysis in a lab.  There are over 500 chemicals in finished drinking water.  Cities don't purify. All they do is add chlorine to prevent water bourne disease and if people complain enough, amonia to kill the chlorine smell.

How big do you think boa kidney's are?  
Water plays a huge role in gestation. THe chemicals could prevent fertilisation, destroy sperm or any number of things. They are certainly known to do worse things in humans and humans are much better equipped to handle them.  I give my boas nothing but distilled water. I thaw out their food in it as well.  It wouldn't cost much to find out.  Certainly less than a healthy litter would bring in.

I don't know anything about the things glewis mentioned, but they sound good.

[reidness]

dj you are probably correct on the no GOOD city water thing, i will look into seeing about distilled water, i work in the dental field and we use sream distilled water for most of out steam autoclaves, also there are a couple of manufacturers that sell units that turn tap water into distilled water, if you have a big collection you might look into making your own water!, glenn she was pretty text book exept for a couple of things, about 25 days ago she got off her heat and sat on her boaphile shelf for about 5-6 days, and about this time she released 2-3 large urates{almost all liquid} and it had that just born baby smell? she had no pre birth waxy stool either? and last she didnt stay big, early on she was big but it didnt stick around she never had that side bulging thing going on, she always just looked a little swollen. thanx again

[reidness]

here is mom tonight, she is going into a shed and still wants to eat!

[glewis]

reidness,

Due to the large number of slugs and prematures at term, I expected you to say that she was on and off the heat throughout the gestation period. I don't have any concrete data to support the opinion that slug filled females bask sporadically, just alot of observations. But you mention that she was off the heat only in the last 25 days. This is normal behavior for good gestation in the last 3 weeks or so.


G.Lewis