First of all let me say thanks to all of you who gave me suggestions on incubating GTP eggs! The good news is I have a very good incubator all ready to go! 95% humidity 88 degrees!

However I am worried that my GTP may not be gravid. I bought her and her partner, a proven breeding pair, I started breeding her fri-sun at the first of Sept for 5 weeks. I saw them lock tails almost every night! The female started feeding ravenously like the book said she would and she swelled up for a day or so like the book said she would. She progressively got bigger and pretty chunky looking. She continued to feed every week on a small rat and was more than eager to get the rat, she would actually fly up out of the top of the cage and snatch the rat before I could even get it to her and she never used to do that. She passed urates once. Her humidity is 85% (fogger in tank) Her temps have stayed at 83-84 with a basking spot on one end of 92-93.

The prev owner told me and sent me photos of her mating, laying eggs in terra cotta pot and of the eggs hatching. I have a terra cotta pot set up the same way for her now. She just shed about 12 days ago and during her shed cycle she looked so plump her belly was obviously large. Then this morning she had her first bowel movement since Sept. It was a bit bigger than her usual but not much so.

I know her last clutch was 16 eggs. She has always been full bodied and still now seems a bit hefty her mid to rear but not nearly as plump as other pictures I have saw of gravid GTP's. She moves from her high perch to low perch quite often. I thought that she would beging laying after the bowel movement but she hasn't went in the terra cotta pot. Now that she has had the bowel movement, her mid section is not as huge as it looked for the last month. I know that snakes get puffy near their vent when about to defecate and after it is smaller.

Any thoughts anyone? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Take care
Jason

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]