I remember when I first started keeping and breeding boas I would google questions like this all the time. Surprisingly there is not a lot of information out their about keeping and breeding boas. The information you do find seems to be a matter of opinion, what I mean by that is you will find conflicting information from different breeders. The moral of the story is that there is not one way that is 100% correct. Different breeders all do different processes to get to the same result. I have found that some of these things are somewhat ritualistic, if it worked well and had good results for one litter or one breeding season they continue doing it to get the same results they got before, but what works for them might not work for you. I am going to share some basics here and what has worked for me while breeding boa constrictors.
1) Proper age and size. this sounds simple but your boas need to be in the right physical condition to breed. Age minimums I have seen the most is a minimum of 18 months for the male and a minimum of 2.5 years old for the female. These ages are examples of animals that have successfully breed. But this is animal dependent, and for me I have found about age 2 for males and over 3 years old for females. Females need to be over 5 feet and have a good thick body. Not fat, but they need to be girthy and healthy. Below is an example of a nice bigger girl, she is a Kahl Albino.
2.) Husbandry. In order to breed boas properly you need to have them in the proper cages, temps, and humidity. I know this seems like simple reptile keeping information but it is important to note. I find that this is where a lot of breeders are ritualistic in the changes they make to husbandry before and during pairing boas. I personally keep my hot spot the same, I keep my hot spot about 90 degrees. I do lower my ambient temps though. Where I live it gets naturally colder and the days aren't as long and so I let nature do the ambient temperature shift for me, as well as the natural light cycling shift. You will read some breeders mist animals, some do more intense light cycling and temperature changes I don't do that but that is partially due to where I live. I do lower the humidity in my room during breeding season. I also feed my females heavier the month or two before I pair them.
3.) Pairing. this can be the fun part. As breeders we love to dream up morph combinations and try and make beautiful genetic art with our boa constrictors, ball pythons, and other reptiles. As stated before how breeders pair is different but this is what I do. During pairing I put my male in with the female I want him to breed. Sometimes when you introduce your boas to breed you will see some immediate courting behaviors. I leave my males in for about 5-7 days at a time. I separate them and feed them and give them a couple days of rest and to digest and I reintroduce. Most of the time after a few introductions you will see courting behavior. The male will lie on top of her, then he will start riding on top of her and using his tail and spurs to tickle the female boa. She might seem agitated by this but its all part of the process. This courting behavior is another thing that sparks the female boa to start developing/growing her follicles. Sometimes, after several introductions you will not see courting behavior, and the male seems not interested. You can do things like add the shed of another male in the cage or even introduce another male in the cage to spike some competition, usually one of the males will start courting her if you do this, make sure if you are putting a second male in it is one you wouldn't mind being the father of the boa litter because it happens.
( Example of courting behavior in boas. FIRE MOTLEY x SUPERFIRE )
4.) Start looking for signs, Your female, if she is building those follicles, will start to show some signs as she gets closer to ovulation. You will see her midsection and tail begin to swell, she might be leaning in weird ways, or at some point even start to refuse meals. I feed the females as long as they will take meals up until ovulation. Another good sign is if you see a visual lock where you can tell the male has his hemipenes inserted into the female boa's cloaca. If you do not actually see the confirmation of this lock sometimes you will see the males tail waiving in the air or can visually see him "thrusting" or ejacul*ting in the female boa. At this point it is important you keep pairing the female boa with the male boa as a lot of people mistake the females swelling to be an ovulation. not yet but we are getting close.
5.) Ovulation. Ovulation most of the time looks like the female boa has swallowed a football. It is a large pronounced swelling... most of the time it is really obvious. I always say, "Damn it looks like she is about to POP!" After ovulation most of the time the males will lose interest and move to a corner of the cage away from the female. I leave the males in for an extra 3-5 days just to make sure. Here are a couple good pictures of ovulations.
(Super hypo arabesque het kahl Albino, Ovulation 2021)
(VPI het Anery 1, Ovulation 2021)
6.) Post Ovulation. Now is the waiting time. Take the male out. You are going to be looking for the next shed, should be in about 10-15 days from the ovulation. From the Post ovulation shed you can calculate approximately 105 days until she gives birth if everything goes well. Disclaimer, it is not uncommon for boas to have slugs or stillborns so either way prepare yourself for any outcome. It can be hard sometimes. After the shed I offer two meals one shortly after shed and one about 3 weeks later. After that I stop offering food and wait and wait and wait... for what seems like an eternity. Be patient. You can temp gun her during this time and she should be temping about 88 degrees.
7.) Pre Birth. When your female boa is close to having birth she will begin moving about her cage more. She will look uncomfortable and can be leaning on her side etc. A few days before she is going to give birth she will pass a "Waxy Stool" most of the time this looks like a smaller normal poop but with a waxy film over it. She might release urate here and there and some stuff that looks like bird poop. Try to not disturb or mess with her too much. From here you might get lucky enough to witness the miracle of a boa constrictor having a live birth which can be exciting. Depending on how successful the pairing is you could be looking at 3-25+ babies! This is exciting. I will do a separate blog post on what to do once the babies are born. This is exciting and I wish you the best of luck in breeding your boas this year.
Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have as I am sure I didn't type every detail.
-Devon
SKULL REPTILES
