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Gravid? Or just being weird?

ChaosCat Jul 29, 2003 04:30 PM

I'm leaning towards gravid, but since the other boa that gave birth didn't act anywhere like this, I'm not sure.

So far in the past few months, she has started showing signs of aggression whenever I attempt to take her out of her enclosure, and her body started swelling (VERY slight-you can only tell if you notice the scales are so stretched out you can see the skin between them-otherwise she just looks normal, just larger than my male).

She's still eating-but yesterday she began the hissing, which she has only done while in shed. Then this morning I go downstairs to find her stretched out almost conpletely under a curled-over piece of newspaper, bottom-half over the UTH, and the middle of her body on its side. She made little attempt to roll back over when prodded slightly, just hissed at me.

She's definitely NOT constipated-she's been pooping out large, tapioca-looking stool, with only one normal stool. I've been debating for awhile on if she is gravid or not-but since she was still eating, I wasn't sure. I've talked to a few other people and have been told theirs ate all the way up to the due date.....

Here's some pics (sorry they are bad, but I don't want to disturb her)

On her side:

Being able to see skin between her scales (tail end of her):

Looking lumpy:

Any ideas? She doesn't look NEARLY as chunky as all the other gravid boa pics I've seen-but then again, she is a dwarf species after all. The other female, when she was gravid, had no side-turning, just hissing, looked fat, and wouldn't eat.

-cat
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http://chaoscat.lowerground.net/herps/
My collection and herp photography

http://www.lowergroundreptiles.net
Lower Ground Reptiles

Replies (1)

AbsoluteApril Jul 30, 2003 10:50 AM

of course it's hard to say with any certainty, but looks
gravid to me. My girls have been laying on their sides
all during the last month of being gravid. Good luck!
(oh, and don't feed all the way thru, feeding during the
last month could cause premature birth, just fyi)

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