Reptile & Amphibian Forums

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I feel like pulling out my hair. Don't know what to make of this one.

I never caught her ovulation, put she shed on 5/1 and started to really look gravid not until mid-June...As of now, it has been around 3 weeks that she has looked like she could drop. I am just hoping there is nothing blocking the way like an oversized slug...but to be sure i am getting a sonogram done this week to see what is going on. I have felt underneath her to feel for anything hard, or unusual, but all seems normal.

What is the longest anyone has seen a female go before giving birth...and how successful were those litters?

Could the shed have been a false POS?? and she had just retained sperm that fertilized her eggs after this date??
...which would mean she never had a P.O.S., but i also had a female that birthed 50 this year that didn't have her POS until right before birth.

Any thoughts?

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Kevin Ivens
BCI Exotics

They know what they are doing. She'll drop when she's ready. I have heard of them going almost 160 days, but the book says they can go 180. So for whatever it's worth.
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Richard Carew
Sunset BCI
You laugh at me cuz I'm different! I laugh at you cuz you're all the same.
Stop Inhumane and Illegal Practices

I think that you may have read her signs wrong and your numbers may be off - that's not uncommon. Also , I've had gravid females without any pos sheds, and I know of other who have as well. My advice would be to stop holding her, or even feeling her belly, and just give her some privacy. Invading her space can cause her to hold them too long and producing a litter of fully developed stillborns that suffocated inside of her. I'd tape some newspaper to much of the area that she can see thru to reduce stress caused from outside movements . Just try to make her feel secure, and they'll come when the time is right. An ultra-sound would've been better when she wasn't so far along. Moving her now may be a big mistake.
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I'm just the snake room janitor

I have to kind of disagree -

I was in the same boat earlier this year. My suri female showed all the signs, had a POS, didn't shed again until after her due date, but I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting...

She eventually shrank back down. She turned out to not be gravid, even though she acted like she was (thermoregulated, laid on her side, etc - many boa breeders here were sure she was gravid from her pictures as well).

The thing is, with snakes that are so far after their due dates, you get into a hairy situation - how long do you wait for her to drop before coming to the conclusion that she might not be gravid? What if she's not, and you could be feeding her again? If she didn't take and is just showing false signs, you could be missing out on feedings to get weight back on her.

If you can't wait any longer, you might want to take her in and get a sonogram or xray. I was going to with mine, but she shrank down. My vet said it's best to get a sonogram just to make sure there aren't any retained unfertilized ova that might cause problems.

However, if you'd like to keep waiting - might want to try a very small meal, if you're worried about her losing too much weight. No one can really tell you for sure if she's gravid or not unless she either has her babies, or unless you take her in to a vet, unfortunately otherwise it's just all guessing.

It's terrible - I was checking twice a day and was so nervous about having to be away from the house for more than a day, it does get so nervewracking to wait on an overdue snake and not know what's going to happen.
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.0 Ball Python, 1.0 Hog Island Boa, 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC