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Here's the situation, and I will try and post some pics of her later today. Late May I picked up a pair of ATB's. Female is around 4-4.5' long. They both ate 2 f/t mice the day I brought them home which to me was a great sign. They both ate again the following week, which was May 29th. After that, my male kept eating on a regular basis (and continues to) but my female has stopped. Now please keep in mind I am 36 years old and have been keeping herps since I was 7. I have a couple of years experience with ATB's, but never had a successful breeding (back in the mid-90's). Their conditions are good (identical) with proper temps (mid-80's daytime down to 77-78 nighttime) and humidity (70-80% on average). My female now looks ready to shed and amazingly seems to have gained some girth after not eating for almost a month. Just the last two days I have also noticed her laying in a much looser coil than usual. She also has been spending 100% of her time on the ground where she used to spend about 50% up on her branches. There is no ground heat as the entire room is the same temp. Again, keep in mind that I have the male and another small juvie female being kept under the same conditions and they have not missed a meal. So my question is, does it sound like she is gravid? Obviously, I will wait and see what happens after she sheds, but for the experts, does this sound like the pre-birthing sequence of events? Is there anything I should do to prepare for some unexpected arrivals (other than the obvious one of setting up some neonate enclosures)? Anything else I should be looking for with regards to confirming or denying if she is indeed gravid? Thanks in advance! Billy

Hi Billy,Just in case she is,im not a Breeder or have no experience with gravid Female's either,but you might want to give her a Basking area in the low 90's,i recently sold a Female that i think was gravid and she stayed in the 90's a good part of the time.
Have A Good One ! !
Kenneth

np

Billy, I think what you are observing is at least an ovulation. So, do not remove the male yet and add a heat pad. As Kenneth said, she will need this to have as many live young as possible. You had not said whether or not you observed copulation, but I imagine you had. Do you know the last observed date of copulation? If not, start paying attention to these dates, as well as sheds and defecations. I think you will see some young, so be prepared! Try to post some pics, and I'll give you my opinion.

Good Luck!

Here's the thing, it's not an ovulation since I just got the pair on May 15th, and they were being housed communally with several other (smaller/younger) ATB's so I did not observe any copulation. The guy I bought them from said he had them for several months and they were both in great shape when I got them. The thing that threw me was how she ate like a pig the first two times I offered food and then just stopped. Then 3 weeks after she stops she goes into shed AND if she was knocked up in Dec./Jan., she would be at the right number of days. Anyhow,she did shed last night so I will offer food again tonight or tomorrow night. If she eats then I will figure no babies, but if she refuses again, I'll keep my fingers crossed for another week or two. We'll see. I will get some pics tonight as well.
Billy

>>Billy, I think what you are observing is at least an ovulation. So, do not remove the male yet and add a heat pad. As Kenneth said, she will need this to have as many live young as possible. You had not said whether or not you observed copulation, but I imagine you had. Do you know the last observed date of copulation? If not, start paying attention to these dates, as well as sheds and defecations. I think you will see some young, so be prepared! Try to post some pics, and I'll give you my opinion.
>>
>>Good Luck!

Billy, sometimes I have females that are gravid that continue to eat. So if she eats, that does not mean that she is not gravid. I had one particularly large female eat 3 days before laying. At that point I thought she would have stopped, but she had not. So, just watch her and who knows what might happen. One other thing I have done on females I was not sure about is to have a vet do an ultrasound. You can usually see either developing follices, or maturing babies. It will probably cost you about $50, but I think it is worth it if you are not sure.

Good luck!

Howard
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