does anybody know what happened to this

[owlbomb]

my boa just knocked out 22 brown balls that look like eggs,,, i cut one open and they look sterile,,, i thought she was pregnant months ago and then she started losing weight and wouldn't eat,, is that what caused the babies to die ,, has anyone ever had this happen before,,

 

[bugmankeith]

Are you sure they are sterile?

 

[Mushroom Spore]

Are you sure they are sterile?

Considering that boas give birth to live young instead of laying eggs (the eggs hatch inside them first or some such)? Yeah, they're dead.

 

[pitbulllady]

Those sound like a good description of what boa breeders call "slugs", which are infertile eggs. Female boas will pass these at about the time they were due to give birth. MOST litters of live young will contain a few slugs, and of course, if there were no babies, then slugs are all you'll get. There can be many reasons why she did not conceive, among them too low a temperature during the gestation and ovulation period, mating taking place too late following ovulation, and the male "shooting blanks"-being sterile, in other words, or having too low a sperm count. THAT can result from low-grade infections, too low or too high temps during mating, or not having been cooled down or brumated long enough before mating. The male might not have actually hooked up with the female, but just went through the motions,which would stimulate ovulation in the female, but not result in the eggs getting fertilized.

pitbulllady