BREEDING CANDOIA

Unfortunately, the Solomon Island Ground Boa that I thought was gravid passed a litter of 19 stillborn babies. Nineteen fully formed babies just missing the spark of life.

I have spoken to a Canadian breeder with 20 years experience with Candoia c paulsoni (who, by unfortunate coincidence, has had the same thing happen to him this year), who has advised that the issue may be a result of a lack of a moist hide box; if a female cannot find what she considers to be a suitable place to give birth, she will not give birth at all and will hold the litter until the babies die.

So, a moist hidebox is advisable if you are not breeding, and essential if you are. Take a large plastic tub (big enough for some damp moss and the snake), and cut a hole in the top and/or side. I use a souldering iron to keep the sides of the smooth. Fill the tup with damp sphagnum moss (or sheet moss) and you have your moist hidebox! Place it over or near the heat source so it stays warm (85F) and humid, and spray as needed.


Sexing is the easiest part of breeding Candoia. No probes, no popping necessary. Males have large spurs on either side of their vents. Females do not have these.

Breeding Age and Size

When I first began looking into breeding my Candoia carinata paulsoni, I could not figure out if my males were old enough. I read 2-3 feet for males, 3-4 feet for females, and at least three years old for both before attempting breeding. I had very little history on any of my snakes, so I did not know how old they were - all I knew was that the males seemed small compared to the females. While the females were a good three feet long, and fat, the males were barely two feet and as thick around as a dime or nickel. They seemed very small; I thought that they might even be yearlings, even though one of the males was purchased from a lady who said that she had had him for at least a year. I was unable to find much information as to just what size a male should be, except for a few references to "2-3 feet long". No one was really able to provide a photo of a breeding sized male with something for size comparison.
I was, however, able to find pictures of neonates. Earthworms are a good size comparison! Neonates are tiny - about able to wrap around three fingers and not much else. That, and a few photos of copulating snakes portraying obviously small males on larger females, was enough to convince me that if they weren't old enough to breed, they were at least two years old - old enough to try to breed and not be crushed by the females or something.

Multiple Males

If you research breeding Candoia c paulsoni, you'll find a lot of references to multiple males. The general idea seems to be that because these snakes are from an Island cluster in the pacific - and not all from the same island or region - that there may be some incompatible supspecies lumped together in the "Candoia c paulsoni" species. Or it may just be that another male's presence is helpful in getting them in "competitive" breeding mode. Either way, multiple males seemed to work well for those who had attempted breeding, and some even suggesting having at least two males for every female. That said, copulation without multiple males is more than possible; multiple males should simply be considered another tool if you have access to it.
My small group of breedable sized Candoia consisted of 2.2, so I figured that that would have to do.

Preparation and Introduction

Cooling them is not really essential as winter temperatures in the Solomon Islands are very similar to summer temperatures; but they should experience a normal winter drop in nighttime temperatures when the weather gets cooler. Some recommend a 70F temperature at night during cooling season, but I did not cool mine that much, for the simple reason that I live in an apartment, and the Candoia room (also my bedroom) is shared by Amazon Tree Boas and Crested Geckos (and two humans who hate being cold), so the lowest it gets to is around 75F. I left the heat pad on, of course, for a warm spot of about 84F, but with a general cage temp of 75-84F. I reduced lighting by a few hours per day - pretty much corresponding to the shorter days of winter. I introduced the females to the males in late December, but some suggest to do it later than that - around early January. As I was using multiple males and females, I just put all four of them together in a three foot tank and let them do their thing.

Copulation Behaviour

And not much happened. The males showed no signs of aggression or sparring; at times, they even curled together in a corner of the cage. The females did not respond to their presence, either. It took a couple weeks before I began to notice copulating activity. At first, the males didn't seem to know quite how to "get it in", although they had the tail intertwining thing right. They more or less paired off - the grey male always with the dark red female, and the orange male always with the orange female.

The males really seem to "dote" on the females, and can usually be found where the female is. They seem to mate day and night, for several hours at a time. Over a period of several weeks, I had noticed the orange pair copulating every few days. The red and grey pair have not shown any activity (that I've noticed), since the first time I saw them entertwined.
Anyway, hopefully the copulation was successful. Females gestate for about 8 months, so I have a while before I know for sure.

Gravidity and Gestation

After communicating with Genevieve, a fellow Solomon Island Ground Boa lover from Quebec, she provided me with a list of observations she made when her own female was gravid, and I've compiled a list of behaviours that a gravid female might exhibit. Note, however, that these may not occur until the last few months of gestation, and apparently the ovulation "swelling" only lasts a couple days and is easily missed, so you may not have confirmation of gravidity for over 5 months.

Photo of gravid female provided by Geneviève Gagné
Note the difference in size just before and just after the vent as well as the "ripples" in her body.