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| Sire: Salmon-hypo |
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From the day she ovulated until the day she gave birth she looked like she
had swallowed a few dozen tennis balls!
| Dam: 25% Suriname Normal (Groovy Coral Bloodline) |
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This same pairing had produced a 2006 litter of very colorful and interestingly-patterned Salmon-hypos including
the male pictured below, so we were hoping for more of the same.
| A male Salmon-hypo produced by this pair in 2006 |
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We
knew that she was going to have a big litter, big babies, or both - and it was......BOTH! She had 23 Salmon-hypos and
22 normals - all of them perfect, big and robust - and 1 slug for good measure!
| July 6, 2008 Litter |
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| July 6, 2008 Litter |
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As it happened, Mama had positioned herself
in the back left corner of her Vision 633 with her 45 babies laid out in front of her - not a convenient or safe scenario
for getting Mama out of the cage! So, we decided to - VERY CAREFULLY because she is VERY LARGE AND INTIMIDATING
- see how she would react if we started scooping babies out of the cage. Well, she was a total sweetheart the entire
time! She sat very calmly watching me remove her babies from right in front of her, and surprisingly she didn't
try to kill me a single time - LOL!
| Everybody out?......... |
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| .......Not quite! |
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Now, many of these big robust babies were on
the move right from the start, and by the time I was removing the last few, a couple of them had wandered off and strategically
wedged themselves in behind Mama. I was reluctant to try to move Mama with a hook for fear that she might reflexively
thrash and injure the two babies.
| July 6, 2008 Litter |
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| July 6, 2008 Litter |
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A quick analysis of the geometry revealed that,
even with the long reach of my chimpanzee-like arms, I would have to be inside the cage up to about mid-chest level to
have a chance of extricating the little ones from behind Mama (a Vision 633 is a full 3 feet from front to back).
I found the prospect of being virtually immobile half inside the cage and my face level with Mama's face while stretching
out to push her rather sizeable bulk aside in order to remove the two babies from behind her to be....unappealing.
Failing to come up with an approach that didn't endanger me, the babies, or both, we decided to leave them in with Mama until
a more suitable opportunity for their removal presented itself.
| July 6, 2008 Litter |
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These two little
boas spent the next 6 days hanging out with Mama, never once leaving her side and Mama never once leaving that spot in the
back left corner of her cage (that filthy cage that we couldn't get into to clean -LOL!). It was the cutest thing watching
these tiny little babies camped out with their enormous Mama - we would shine a flashlight in once in a while to get a better
look and invariably Mama would start to edge forward with "that look" in her eyes, and the babies would immediately duck
down behind her! It was clear that Mama and babies were perfectly content with the situation as it was.
| July 6, 2008 Litter |
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| July 6, 2008 Litter |
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| July 6, 2008 Litter |
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So, we decided that in
the absence of opportunity presenting itself we would have to create the opportunity to remove these last two
baby boas which we felt sure that, if not for a lack of thumbs, would have been thumbing their noses at us this entire time!
Predictably, the 2-pound f/t rabbit dangling from my 4-foot Pillstrom tongs at the opposite end of the cage proved to be of
considerable interest to Mama, and she was soon wrapped enthusiastically around it leaving the two babies exposed behind her
tail back at the left end of the cage. A bit of slick maneuvering with a small hook to reach over Mama's tail while
she was otherwise occupied made easy work of removing the last two babies and reintroducing them to their 43 other siblings!
From the removal of the first 43 babies under Mama's watchful eye all the way to finally getting
the last two babies out from under Mama's strategic defense system, this was easily the coolest, most rewarding litter
experience we've had this year!
Oh, and the babies are STELLAR! Great color, lots of broken or missing saddles, striping
- one of the Salmon-hypos has a perfectly formed number "00" on its back!
| July 6, 2008 Litter |
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| July 6, 2008 Litter |
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| July 6, 2008 Litter |
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| July 6, 2008 Litter |
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Even after separating the 45 babies (well, 43 at first and later 45!) into two large rack boxes it was clear
that misting them down and changing the paper towls a couple of times a day was not going to get them cleaned up any time
soon. So it was off to the bath tub, first with the Salmon-hypos and then with the normal siblings!
And a few photos after the big clean up!
We really like the color and pattern on this normal sibling!
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