Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The female was maintaining a temp of 88-89 and I was sure the female was gravid and this morning she swelled down a little and her temp dropped to 84. she nener did shed. is this normal for a gravid female to drop her body temp?

She knows what she's doing. Females don't stay on the heat for the full gestation. They do still thermal regulate themselves, periodically leaving the heat. Or maybe she just guzzled some water. ??

Just provide her what she needs, and she'll do the rest.
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Sublime Boa Constrictor

So what your specifically asking is does a gravid female maintain the 87-89 temperature range all through gestation or will she still fluctuate from 84 or whatever your lowest ambient is to the range stated in the boaphiles breeding section?

yes thats what im trying to get at, thanks

This is what I can say from my current experience.

I have one female that I saw a guaranteed ovulation. 15 days later she shed for me. This was the POS for sure. Now about heat. Lemme just say she has a 92-94 degree belly hotspot. The ambient in the cage is 84-85. The remainder of bottom of the cage not heated by flexwatt stays about 86-84 degrees. Now given that she is gravid I rarely see her in the heat conservation pose or even on the hotspot very often. When I do see her on the hot spot it's usually just the area of her body where the babies and or slugs would be. I temp my female quite often and she seems to prefer to stay about 86- 86.5. I have seen her as cool as 84. Something I have noticed is that her body temp is usually at least 1 degree warmer than the surface temp of the cage where she is resting. I hope these observations give you the answers you seek.