Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, was cleaning last night and weighed in all my females. When I compared to their prior weights I confirmed my suspicions. I had never tracked their weight closely before and thought that some were not just looking larger but actiually gaining weight. This with NO food intake whatsoever.

As typical for my females, they would eat small meals sporadically after breeding season began and soon quit eating altogether. I weighed them on 05/13 (they may still have had some digestion going on. Again on 07/16 (definately purged all digested materials. And lastly on 08/10. Somehow I missed writing down the 07/06 weight on one female....brain fart I think. So I only have full weight history on 6 females.

Results:

Average weight loss from 05/13 to 07/06 was 6.6% of body weight.
Average weight loss from 05/13 to 08/10 was 5.7% of body weight, yess that is an overall increase in weight from 07/06 to 08/10
Average weight GAIN from 07/06 to 08/10 was 0.9%

Of the six I have weights on, 1/2 gained weight in the last month. The largest gain was 139 grams and the largest loss was 66 grams.

Might be interesting to correlate this to litter results. Once those darn females pop. BTW, 4 or 5 of the 7 have recently shed with onother blued out now.
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
10.22 BRB
10.15 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Dave,
....Good observation. Obviously this late term weight gain which I have also measured in the past is from water. That is the simple explanation......... At a little more complicated level.............As you know, baby snakes develop and grow inside individual membranes in large fatty masses that look very much like the yolk of hen's eggs. They are actually a lighter yellow color and are denser than hen's egg yolks. During gestation the baby grows as the fat is converted through the krebs cycle to sugars then to amino acids and adenosine triphosphate which are then converted through geneticly coded cell differentiation into the various structures of the baby snake's body. The ATP provides the required energy for the life processes of the developing baby snake. The membrane around the fatty mass can pass fluids, as well as gases through it and the mass grows in size as it absorbs water during the growth of the baby snake. Baby snakes like baby humans have a higher percentage of water in them than adult humans and adult snakes. The baby's body tissue plus the absorbed water inside each membrane are larger and heavier than the original fatty mass fat that they developed from and so the gravid snake gains weight. Most of this weight gain comes lateterm because the snake grows more rapidly late in development. BTW The most rapid cell differentiation occurs early in the development. This is why x-rays are more likely to produce birth defects early rather than later in the development. If a gravid snake is carrying 20 babies and each of them grows inside a membrane which grows and gains 10 grams that would equate to a 200 gram weight gain for the mother snake. Of course some of this weight gain would not show up as the mother snake converts her own body fat stores into energy (again via the krebs cycle) for respiration and circulation. It amazes me that a snake can carry babies for 5.5 months and lose so very little weight during the entire process. BTW, many eggs from egg laying snakes grow and gain 20-40 percent in weight as they absorb water during incubation.
Jeff

>>Hey, was cleaning last night and weighed in all my females. When I compared to their prior weights I confirmed my suspicions. I had never tracked their weight closely before and thought that some were not just looking larger but actiually gaining weight. This with NO food intake whatsoever.
>>
>>
>>As typical for my females, they would eat small meals sporadically after breeding season began and soon quit eating altogether. I weighed them on 05/13 (they may still have had some digestion going on. Again on 07/16 (definately purged all digested materials. And lastly on 08/10. Somehow I missed writing down the 07/06 weight on one female....brain fart I think. So I only have full weight history on 6 females.
>>
>>Results:
>>
>>Average weight loss from 05/13 to 07/06 was 6.6% of body weight.
>>Average weight loss from 05/13 to 08/10 was 5.7% of body weight, yess that is an overall increase in weight from 07/06 to 08/10
>>Average weight GAIN from 07/06 to 08/10 was 0.9%
>>
>>Of the six I have weights on, 1/2 gained weight in the last month. The largest gain was 139 grams and the largest loss was 66 grams.
>>
>>Might be interesting to correlate this to litter results. Once those darn females pop. BTW, 4 or 5 of the 7 have recently shed with onother blued out now.
>>-----
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Dave Colling
>>
>>www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com
>>
>>0.1 Wife (WC)
>>0.2 kids (CBB)
>>
>>LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
>>10.22 BRB
>>10.15 BCI
>>And those are only the breeders
>>
>>lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats