Aubrey,
....Thanks. Sometimes it is VERY hard to tell if they are gravid or not. Through watching their behaviours and body shape and attempting to palpate the egg masses and later in gravidity using the fetal heart monitor I am getting better at determining which ones are gravid but still miss on some of them. The further along in gravidity the more weight the mother snakes lose from their bodies while the egg masses continue growing larger. The mother snake is losing weight from her own body while the load of babies keeps growing larger. They are not as might be surmised transfering nutrition from their bodies to the babies but are instead just losing weight from their bodies because of the energy required for their life processes of respiration, circulation, digestion and movement. While this is happening the egg masses are converting the high fat "yolk" material into growth of the baby snake. Baby snakes like baby humans have a higher percentage of water in their bodies than adults do. Fat does not contain water. The developing babies get their water through osmosis across the membrane that surrounds each egg. As this is happening the egg mass grows much larger and heavier. The babies also get their oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide through osmosis across the membrane.
Jeff

>>Congrats Jeff!
>>
>>How do you tell if your Rainbow is gavid when she looks emaciated? I ask because one of my BRBs is looking super thin, and hasn't eaten hardly anything since breeding. I finally got a small rat in her a little over a week ago, but refused again this week. She doesn't look gravid, but her sudden change in behavior, and constantly laying on the heat makes me wonder what is up with her.
>>-----
>>Aubrey Ross
>>
>>©
>>www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

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