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I have a BRB that I believe is gravid. She would be about 4 months now, but she doesn't have the big bulge near her vent. She has a bulge but not as big as I would think, and it is a few inches away from her vent. I know from experience that most boas will stop eatting when they are expecting, but she still eats...alot! The main reason why I think that she is gravid is that she was always the nicest friendliest snake I ever owned, but she has been a wicked biter since I took her away from the male. She has also become a lot more reclusive and I've noticed her drinking a lot more water. Anyone have any suggestions??

Hello,
All I can tell you is what my experience has been, and frankly it's just not that much. I have had only 2 liitters, but I am pretty observant of my creatures.
My female does not eat while gravid, although I offer her a rat every week or two. She will not even eat a smaller prey item during that time. Her temperment stayed relatively the same until the week before she actually gave birth. She sought out warmer places and positioned herself differently during the last 2 1/2 to 3 months. She layed on her sides more often during the gestation. Almost everytime I took a temp gun to her she was 80 degrees, no matter where in the enclosure she was. She was obviously larger starting about 1/3 of the way down from her head to about 6 inches up from her vent area. She seemed more inactive than usual meaning that even in the wee hours of the night she didn't become active as my others did. She did everything else a bit more slowly like take longer soaks when she soaked, stayed in the same position for days, and changed places in the enclosure much less often.
She took longer to shed, and the actual process of the shed took much longer also.
I live in Texas, and it seems to me that if your female is gravid you must live far, far away from me because it would be a really off time to have a 4 month gravid female at this time. That would put her about end of December to lay, and that is far off the time babies would be born. I have a pair of BRB's that must have been born in Nov or early Dec '03 so it's certainly possibly but unlikely.
The appetite alone makes me think that there is sometime other than being gravid going on. When was her last bowel movement?
Are her urates being expelled regularly? Has you husbandry changed recently? Could anything else account for her situation?

Linda

Thanx for the info. She eats once a week, same as usual, but she has been quicker to take the food. This will be the first time a bred her. She is very young for breeding, she's only about 2 1/2 years old, but she is already 6 1/2 feet plus. She shed about a month ago. Does this give you any other ideas to help me out?? I also noticed tonight that she had positioned herself so that her vent and tail is hanging off a low brach, and I know that this is a position that red tails make right before they give birth.

My guess would be that she is not gravid, and needs to or is having difficulty in passing urates or stool. When my female is gravid she completely refuses meals for the entire time. I checked my records from last year and she ate 12/31/03 and then not again to the day after she gave birth which was on 6/8/04. That's 5 months and 1 week since she last ate. Maybe others can correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that gravid females do not eat with the exception of possily eating a smaller than normal prey item once somewhere during that time. I know nothing of BCI and BCC so I cannot comment on the positioning of your BRB in regards to the other species.

Sorry I can't be of more help. Good luck.

Linda

>>My guess would be that she is not gravid, and needs to or is having difficulty in passing urates or stool. When my female is gravid she completely refuses meals for the entire time. I checked my records from last year and she ate 12/31/03 and then not again to the day after she gave birth which was on 6/8/04. That's 5 months and 1 week since she last ate. Maybe others can correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that gravid females do not eat with the exception of possily eating a smaller than normal prey item once somewhere during that time. I know nothing of BCI and BCC so I cannot comment on the positioning of your BRB in regards to the other species.
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>>Sorry I can't be of more help. Good luck.
>>
>>Linda
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Something else I haven't read about here is her scale appearance. While many larger brb's have scale seperation it becomes extremely exaggerated during late stages of being gravid. I remember mant times looking into the cage and thinking to myself that she was literally going to tear apart. The pic below is about 1 month prior to delivery. Her litter dropped on valentines day, my earliest litter. I live in the midwest and with a basement have been able to get temps low enough in Aug., so for a first time snake I think any time could begin her cycle.

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Signature file edited; oversized banner removed. Please update/correct. [phw 8/31/04]

>>Something else I haven't read about here is her scale appearance. While many larger brb's have scale seperation it becomes extremely exaggerated during late stages of being gravid. I remember mant times looking into the cage and thinking to myself that she was literally going to tear apart. The pic below is about 1 month prior to delivery. Her litter dropped on valentines day, my earliest litter. I live in the midwest and with a basement have been able to get temps low enough in Aug., so for a first time snake I think any time could begin her cycle.
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>>If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a soldier.
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>>Signature file edited; oversized banner removed. Please update/correct. [phw 8/31/04]