crispysnakes:

From the Boa Constrictor Aficionados group:

Posted by Chase Baker.

WARNING THIS POST IS GRAPHIC…

Today some friends of mine witnessed some of the negatives to breeding boa constrictors (or any animal for that matter). With their permission I am going to share this with people. Not to make a negative heartbreaking post, but to show the TRUE reality of the things that can happen while breeding live animals. You very rarely here about this side of breeding animals as it is normally kept hush hush.
This season Zach Clapperton and Hayley Alexandra paired an amazing Junlge het VPI T+ X Red Pastel Monstertail Hypo het VPI T+( a repeat pairing they did in 2013 I believe.) The female cycled through normal follicle growth and then ovulated, everything was TEXTBOOK PERFECT. She had perfect weight, size and girth. A few months in she was still looking perfect! She would not take any meals during her gestation which, can be fairly common amoung female boa constrictors during their gestation. Days are counting down and she is still looking superb. She is now one month away from giving birth and she’s starting to look quite slim up front but over all appears fine. Then over the following week she really starts to lose weight, and start declining quickly. Within a week she has really declined and at this point all 3 of us agree silently within our self that she is probably not going to make it the following 3 weeks.
Today while cleaning boas I get a phone call from hayley that the female has died. I heard over there and they had cut the babies out. None were alive when pulling out. they were kept in the sac for a while and then after seeing 0 moment we knew they were already still born. We decided to take a look at them and put them away in the freezer until they can be disposed of. This is the sad truth of breeding live animals is things like this do go wrong, but the best thing to do is stay positive and know that these things do happen to everyone at some point during breeding. Things can not go right all the time.
Any ways I felt this is a good thing to share with new people coming into the hobby. I feel everyone should see the good with the bad.
Have a good night everyone.
Zach and hayley keep your heads up. Positive thoughts you way. the rest of the season will be killer.