Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm on baby watch as typical for this time of year. Right now I have one female in the "due window" with several more due to enter the window in a little over a week. I define the window as plus/minus 10 days from due date.

This female's due date was yesterday the 26th. Clearly gravid but had not been showing signs of being ready to drop. On the 25th I checked the cages in the morning and found her cage all fogged up.

and the paper to the left of the tub is all soggy...

I'm thinking cool, babies are here but wait a second.....

What's this doing in there?

She shed? Right before due date? I have had females with interim sheds before, on rare occasions even two sheds between POS and parturition. But I don't recall ever seeing a interim shed this close to parturition. BTW, this would be Tiffany's first shed since her POS. She's now active and looking like a female almost ready to drop.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Oddly enough, I experienced something very similar this year. Goldy, which just drop earlier this month did the very same thing. I remember it because it really pissed me off from a work/cleaning standpoint. She had shed out, pooped all over the place, knocked over the water bowl etc. Just about every thing she could to ruin a cage forcing me to clean it. Then maybe a day or two later she dropped her clutch.

I only remember because I was pissed that I had to clean the cage again and that she decided to drop Monday morning instead of that weekend.

I didn’t think much of it until reading your post, but now I do think that is a little odd. I am curious if anyone else has experienced this.

Admittedly I do not pay to much attention to due dates and/or POS. I am however extremely anal when it comes to cleaning and I am always irritated when I clean cages and they are dirty the next day.
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John Wiseman
www.rainbowsbydesign.com

18.30 BRBs (as of 6-20-2012)
3.8 others

Just to throw it out there, I know it's a different ssp, but when my female colombian dropped her litter earlier this year, she was deep in blue at the time.

Charlie