Best Temp Range for Gravid Boas?

[Craig_T]

I am curious to find out from all you other Boa breeders what you feel is the ideal temp range for a boa once she has become gravid? I have talked with several people who go by the temp of the Boa's body mass as read by a Raytek Temp gun. What do you do?

[redtailboas]

Hey Craig,

All I do is raise the ambient day temp to 84 degrees. I do not actually temp the female. I provide the heat gradient at both ends and the females seem to regulate themselves.

It may be that more accurate control will actually produce better.

Jeff would better answer that from his experiences.

[Mark]

The first year I bred boas I had an 8 foot female that was never bred before. She bred with a large male and went on to have 30 babies and 1 slug. She was in a large cage where she spent most of her time laying right on top of where the heat tape was under the cage. The heat tape was on the entire time and the temp where she spent most of her time was over 100 degrees. I have averaged 1 slug a litter when providing high temps for the females.

[dragons182]

I have not bred my boas yet but I have done a lot of reading on the subject. I looked in my book "The Reproductive Husbandry of Pythons and Boas," and it showed several temperature ranges but the best one looks like a temperature gradient of 82-90.

[Mark]

That is a great book but a lot of the information is now out-dated. A lot has been learned since then!

[redtailboas]

I agree Mark,

That temp gradient (82 to 90) is now widely accepted as the normal environment for everyday husbandry, but I definately think the temps should be raised during ovulation/gravid/partuition periods with females.

[dragons182]

I learned something today. Anyone going to write a new book on the reproduction of boas and pythons? Thanks.

[cb76]

there is a book called " the reproductive husbandry of pythons and boas" by ross and marzec

its a real good book to have!!

[Craig_T]

Hey Clay,
How are you making the ambient temp in the cage 84? Are you using heat tape or adjusting the room temps to get the desired temps? To get the ambient temps in my Vision cages I need to heat the floor up to about 92 as read by gunning the newspaper, even then the ambient might not reach 84. But it does get the body mass heated up to 86 to 88 degrees.

[dragons182]

That is the book that I have. Is it out-dated?

[redtailboas]

All my heat tape is controlled by thermostat devices, so I just raise the temps on the females cages when I need to.

[Chris_@_C.H.S.]

Hello and greetings from the home of the olympic gold medal winning hockey team! I've just registered and thought I'd try to add my two cents worth to a question posted re: temperatures for gravid boas. I have noticed an improvement with my girls when allowed access to a source of belly heat around 95 deegrees or so. I have also spoke to other breeders in my area and most have echoed this "belly heat thing" with improved results so...
There's my 2 centz! Hey this is fun!!!!!!! Good luck!!!!

[redtailboas]

I agree with that statement as well. When I raise the "ambient" temps to 84 or 85, the floor heat is raised to approx 95. My boaplastics cages are heated on the bottom with 2 feet of flexwatt heat tape. So I agree with the belly heat. Although my last female spent the majority of her time away from the heat source in the heat conservation position.

[The_Boaphile]

I keep the room temperature at 76 degrees. The ambient temp of the cage is up to 85 or 86 by evening and since I turn the heat off at night the temp drops down to about 80 at night without a hotspot at all. The "hot spot" is between 90-95 degrees. I physically turn the heat or hotspot heat on every morning about 6:30 AM and off about 6:30 PM. This has resulted in better litters with fewer deformities especially in litters that contain Albinos which seem to be prone to more problems.

[sambasoccer]

Well if you are using more than 90 degrees your wasting your time and money. I have temp gunned several gravid females and I can tell you for a fact Ive never seen one over 90 degrees. And Ive never seen one under 85. I can tell you that if they were 85 they were soaking up heat. When they hit 87-88 degrees they move away from the heat. If you temp gun a female that just moved from her heat source because she is hot enough and feels comfortable you will find her at about 88 degrees. So with that said the average and most prefered range for a gravid female is 87-88 degrees. Therefore any heat source over 88-90 is just a waste of money.