Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I think my female is Gravid...if so, how long do they take till they give birth? I cannot find this information anywhere. I understand that it would not tell me when SHE will give birth, since I have no clue how far along she is. But at least it will give me an idea so I will know when the time has passed, if she has not given birth, so I will know she is or isnt.
Hope I make sense. lol
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Crazy ZooLady

I hope you're right, but more likely she's just "consipated". This happens a lot with Wagler's and they look like they're gravid for months before they leave you a big prize in the cage... (soaking will sometimes loosen things up)

Here's the best Wagler's page I've found: http://www.kingsnake.com/viper/

If she's wild caught, and a recent wild caught, she may be gravid. A lot are coming in gravid now.

She is a wild caught. Recent as far as I know. The guy picked the one he thought was most certain to be gravid.
I am still wondering how long I shouldgive her before giving up the idea?

>>If she's wild caught, and a recent wild caught, she may be gravid. A lot are coming in gravid now.
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Crazy ZooLady

Well if you soak her and she poops and passes gas then you will know right away that she is not gravid as she will go down to normal moderate snake size. These snakes must have a drip system for hydration as misting is not enough to be successful with them and a pearch for them to sit and feed from. And soaking them does not mean they will always poop. You need to put them in a bucket with 2 inches of water and let it struggle to get out and that usually makes it poop. If it does not poop in a few nights, then try later. An elevated water bowl is also a method to drip the water in and permit them to drink from it.

Dan

Yes, I keep high humidity, at the same time I have good ventilation for it, and a water dish. I sprayed it with water tonight directing it to the water dish and it drank for like 10 minutes non stop!

I still need to know, though, how long is gestation?

And i will try the water soaking thing.
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Crazy ZooLady

Gestation is a hard one. Not many people have bred them in captivity so I do not know for sure but perhaps look at that wags page and it might have some information? And since you do not know when it bred, its not going to big difference at this point. Personally I see dozens come in as imports all fat and all looking gravid and they take a poop within a month and shrink down to normal over night.

Dan

I have read the Viper page on them about 5 times now. Soaking in as much as I can. Unfortunelty they dont say anything there either about gestation period. hmmm. Surely SOMEONE has bred them and knows? lol
She has been soaking since yesterday morning. Still no poop. lol
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Crazy ZooLady

Yea, it seems like they have to struggle to get out of a bucket of water in order to make sufficient movement enough to poop.

I checked an additional reference book I had on breeding snakes. A book by Chris Mattison about keeping and breeding snakes published in 1988. He said

"that sperm retention is well developed in this genus, making any attempt at recording gestation periods meaningless."

Don't fret if you one of the thousands of people who received a wags and though it was gravid and only ended up with a poop. And I think half that big belly is gas as they never lets out that amount. If you can get it to feed off thongs, I suggest injecting the rodent with a few milimeters of water for good measure as they dehydrate rapidly.

Dan

>If you can get it to feed off thongs, I suggest injecting the rodent with a few milimeters of water for good measure as they dehydrate rapidly.

If you get it to feed off THONGS, post a picture too...

Sorry, couldn't help it.

>>
>>If you get it to feed off THONGS, post a picture too...

ROFLMAO!!!!!
WILL DO!
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Crazy ZooLady

>>I have read the Viper page on them about 5 times now. Soaking in as much as I can. Unfortunelty they dont say anything there either about gestation period. hmmm.

Sorry, I thought I remembered reading about gestation periods on that site, but now I don't see it.

http://www.thomas-jaekel.homepage.t-online.de/index-wa.htm is the only site I can find that even takes a guess, and the say 6-8 months, but they're not sure...

I actually have a (very thin) book at home, on keeping Waglers. I'll let you know what they say (if anything) when I get home.

I guess my mind was on thongs at the time but since we naturally think about it about 20 times a minute, it was natural? lol.

Yea, I have that eyelash and temple viper book and it says nothing about gestation under temple vipers. However, if one is indeed gravid, they will not look just very plump, they will more than likely look like they swallowed a football and be overly fattened and that earlier picture does not look like that yet. This takes into consideration the typical fat and bloated appearance they usually have and the dozen or so babies that would in there.

And I would take back what I said and respectfully suggest to use tongs, not thongs to feed em. With my wags its hard to open the cage without it going nuts and biting the screen or glass. Once it smells a mouse, its nuts and only feed your wags once or twice a month as more will only fatten it up as their activity plan to sweat out the calories is nil.

This gal just engulfs the entire mouse with its force when taking food off the tongs.

Dan

Here she is drinking despite the elevated waterbowl to the right. Thats a soap dish plugged with aquarium cement and stuck on with the suction cups it came with. If I drip water in the dish, she will usually go over to it eventually and drink for several minutes several times a week.

Dan

Here is a baby male of different blood line but same locale (Malaysia).

Dan

Dan, your Waglers are both so pretty!!! I LOVE thier colors!
If you ever have babies from them, please please let me know. I would be very interested.
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Crazy ZooLady

OK, but I am fearful that female might engulf the male the way she goes nuts for anything that moves. I am going to have to stuff her with food and mist her well and then introduce her to his cage and hope I do not find a bigger female the next day. The wholesalers down here often hold back Wags they believe are gravid and only a couple ever drop a litter but I will let you know about them also. Babies are very time consuming. They seem to have to be kept on a branch above water and misted almost daily to prevent dehydration. I have a drippper now that I use to keep them happy and hydrated.

Dan

>>This gal just engulfs the entire mouse with its force when taking food off the tongs.

Aww, but that might be fun? lol
I did read only to feed them once or twice a month. I have not attempted feeding her yet. I like to wait about 2 eeks before trying to feed new WC snakes.
And thank you for the info.
And thank you to everyone else for your help and imput.
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Crazy ZooLady

thank you larry
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Crazy ZooLady