Do boa retain there eggs

[Joeuk]

I was reading in my local news paper about a local zoo having some baby boas born, I quote the director of the zoo he says "all reptiles lay eggs, most of which are laid and hatch after a period of time. Boas however retain there eggs within their bodies until they are ready to give birth to live snakes."
I already know that boas give birth to live snakes but do they retain there eggs and if so when the babys are born are there broken egg shells there aswell.

Just wondering [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img]
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[storm]

As i understand it, Joe, boa's eggs do not have a hard shell, like a bird's eggs would. When the boa gives birth, the babies are in a small sack filled with their equivalent of amniotic fluid, or "baby slime" as the pros call it. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] That, i believe, is the boa's "egg".
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[Heather]

now my new friend had bought a female boa & he did not no it was raedy to give birth. 2 days after he got her she had a lot of little babys. some were in these slime pouch. but some reason one baby had a egg over it. I mean a egg. he took it & open it, it had yellow goo all in it. I gess it was a boa that did not develop.
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[eddie]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font class="pn-sub">Quote:</font><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT class="pn-sub"><BLOCKQUOTE> but some reason one baby had a egg over it </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>

That wasn't an egg.
It was the non developed fetus in the placental pouch.
In other words, a slug....

For the original question though, not all reptiles lay eggs.
many do lay eggs while others are just a little bit like us, having live births.

I'm not saying that eggs aren't there at all.
Most animal life does start out in an egg form, even humans.
The extent of or lack of species development determines whether we fully develop the fetus inside the womb, or whether it is expelled in a shell casing for development outside the parent.

[Kim]

The information you received about &quot;all reptiles' being egg layers in incorrect. Common and true redtails, Sand, and Tree, Boas are live bearers as well as anacondas, ribbons garter, and many venonmous snakes. Pythons, harmeless colubrids and their ilk are are egg layers.

Egg layers do not hold eggs per say. The &quot;shell is produced only as the the embryonic contents passes through their reproductive systemand out the cloaca. Then a calcified coating surrounds the tissue (or yolk) and hardens after deposition. They can however, retain these egg masses, either on purpose ( some reptiles and at least one egg laying mammal will retain their eggs until conditions are prime for laying, sometimes over the course of year. Retained eggs are also caused by illnesses and are a frequent problem for iguanas, chameleons, and many snakes.
Kim
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	Iguana Iguana

	Cloaca is the posterior opening that serves as the only such opening for the intestinal, urinary, and (usually) genital tracts of certain animal species.All birds, reptiles, and amphibians possess this orifice, from which they excrete both urine and feces

[trinitywolf]

Glad to see that someone got in here to clear that up. I tired to post to this all last night and could not get in. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_evil.gif[/img]
I waited all day to come home and check this post. LOL [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
I understand where Heather's mistake was, but of course, almost every boid gives birth to live young.

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[Ed_r]

As was stated boas are live bearers. The embryos do live in a embryo sack much like a human fetus does. When the sack and embryo dies the sack gets thick and hard(a Slug) I suppose if you want to get technical you could consider the embryo sack as an egg. Gravid Boas have been known to absorb the embryos from too much stress or improper care conditions.
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	Gravid Gravid term used in biology to describe the condition of a female oviparous when carrying young internally.

[JuliusSqueezer]

viviparous eggs have a thin membrane for an &quot;egg shell&quot; that is held inside the mother untill the fetus is mature enough to hatch....they hatch either during birth or within a few minutes after birth with no need for external incubation. technically these are still eggs as they are an individual &quot;packet&quot; for lack of a better term of yolk and fetus....animals born in this type of egg still have to cut their way out. For all practical purposes though..viviparous eggs are more like a placenta than an egg.

oviparous eggs are laid with an undeveloped embryo and have to be incubated outside the mother's body for a period of time that the animal inside can fully develop before hatching out.

root word vivi=live
root word ovi=egg

as a rule: all boas give live birth including anacondas...pythons lay eggs. there are arguable exceptions in that calabar pythons are more closely related to sand boas and even a species or two that are considered sand boas, lay leathery eggs that require incubation. personally, I think anything in the sandboa/calabar family are more an evolutionary link between boid and colubrid anyway. there is nothing boid like about them other than skeletal similarities like pelvis and spurs and I think they should be in their own little group anyway.....but....who am I to say? If I had a vote in this...I would start a new group for the little guys....so what if they have spurs....so do cowboys and roosters...and we don't call them boids.

	Oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that lay eggs, with little or no other development within the mother. <br> This is the reproductive method of many fish, amphibians and reptiles, all birds, the monotremes, and most insects and arachnids.

	Spurs A pair of claws on each side of the cloaca which assist in mating. A spur is much more defined on a male

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font class="pn-sub">Quote:</font><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT class="pn-sub"><BLOCKQUOTE>When the sack and embryo dies the sack gets thick and hard(a Slug) </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>

Actually the slug is not hard, it is quite pliable.
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[Dr.Oviparous]

Hence my 0.1 CCP's name: Dr. Oviparous [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] -Juggalo
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	Female Female