Reptile & Amphibian Forums

it's time to get the catchers mitt ready to catch the babies?

Greetings
I posted this on Herp Health & Breeding, but I thought I'd ask here too. We have two HUGE adult female redtails--by huge I mean gravid. They are both very swollen 2/3 of the way down their bodies. Given their contact with our now-deceased male, we think that they could have their clutches any time between now and April. Are there any physical signs which would close that window a little? I don't want to be on the edge of my seat for that long. I know when pregnant horses are close to foaling, but I have no idea about snakes, and last time we were surprised right after Valentines day. Btw, the female that gave birth last time never shed before giving birth, and did not shed until several weeks afterwards.

These girls have both shed once recently, but I think it was back in early/mid October.

Thank you for your time.
Antigone

Well, sometimes...just cant tell til theres a pile of goo. when was the male introduced? when was the shed? from there I think count roughly between 100 and 120 days? What happened to the male?

Greetings

First of all, we were NOT intending to breed anyone. We didn't drop temperatures. All of our babies (3 adult red-tails--1 male, 2 females) were suffering from URI so we had them in a walk-in closet together to keep the heat up. We were told that chance of pregnancy was slim. Someone should have told them!!
They went in together around July 17; I thought I noticed some tail-twisting as early as July 27; Freya shed around August 3 (I think) and then I definitely caught Midnight trying to breed her after that. Odin shed October 2 and I think Freya shed again October 13ish (unless the dates are reversed-- I don't have my book in front of me).
Midnight, the male, was put down because of his chronic RI. We had run through a gamut of anti-bacterials and anti-fungals and the vet had nothing new for us to try, and anything more invasive we couldn't afford. However, there was also a possibility of IBD, so we had him necropsied and tissues sent away for testing. We're still waiting for results.

Thank you for your reply. I'm hoping this means that we're now looking at the mid-end of January . If they hold out for Valentine's Day again, I'll laugh.

Antigone