To be Gravid or Not to be Gravid???

[Jon-e-Boy]

I have a het. albino female that I can't tell whether or not she is gravid.  She shed on January 28, after actual copulation was observed in December.  I went  out of town for a week and a half starting december 22, so I might have missed her ovulation if this was in fact the POS.  She appears to have put on a little weight since then, or it might just be wishful thinking.

Because this is all I have to go on, my question is:  Do some gravid boas twitch often to produce body heat like pythons?

My boa has been doing that a little. Also, I attached some pics to show her status. Her progression is hard to judge since I see her everyday, but feel free to comment on her size if it looks a bit larger than normal. Thanks.

                                                                               Jon

[Jon-e-Boy]

Here's another pic just to give a better reference. Let me know what you think; all input is appreciated and welcomed. :-[

[Randy_T.]

she looks HUGE I would guess that from all that you said she was, but not to get yourself too excited I would try to live in doubt.lol.

I hope she is for ya, keep us all posted

[oOSpOOkYOo]

I think I do recall reading boas do similar thing, but the more noticable is the "heat conservation position" that jeff originally observed. I'll let the boamaster go more into detail if he wants. -sTEVE

[Jon-e-Boy]

Thanks for the input guys. She stays curled up most of the time, but not so much in the heat conservation position as just merely a "spiral positioning." I'll keep a close watch on her. s19.gif Please, anyone else who would like to comment feel free. Thanks.

Jon

[Jon-e-Boy]

Hey guys, look how I found her tonight. Is this the "heat conservation postion" that you were refering to? I've seen pictures of the position on past posts, but I would just appreciate a little support. As we all know, these days are hard on us breeders! I've been doing this for 3 years and it never gets any easier on me. ;)

[tatdaddy]

That looks like the heat conservation position to me good luck :'(

[oOSpOOkYOo]

yeah that looks about right, did you raise her temps a tad to help out on keeping warm? -sTEVE

[Jon-e-Boy]

Well I had the temps at: DTH of 87 and NTL of 78.  But now that I see she has a good chance of in fact being pregnant, I keep the temps at a steady 84-85 degrees 24 hours a day. I also dramatically raised the humidity levels to keep her and her surroundings moist. She seems to be doing fine and that's ok by me!  ;D

[Panama_Red]

As far as the twitching goes I have seen gravid boas twitch there tail, but my geuss was because they were irritable.

[Jon-e-Boy]

No, she twitches the majority of her body, but I've only caught her doing this a few times over the course of the past two weeks. Well, I guess I can only hope she's taking after my burms! :P

[oOSpOOkYOo]

I think it was panama red who saw this a couple months ago or so, they ended up being like... contractions... but not birthing contractions, just tensing and releasing of the muscles right? We never did figure out what she was trying to accomplish. -sTEVE

[Jon-e-Boy]

Were the contractions he observed coming from a gravid boa? If so, yippee for me!!!

[oOSpOOkYOo]

yeah it was a gravid female about to drop i believe, she kept streching herself along the backwall of his cage and doing that. -sTEVE

[Jon-e-Boy]

I looked at the het. female when I got home today, and she looks somewhat larger than she has in the past few days.  I actually went to move my humidifier away from her and she hissed at me.  Granted this could be because I haven't touched her in the past few months, but she is a sweetheart, so this could also be a sign of pregnancy.  This might in fact be her ovulation, however, I don't think I would go that far. I think the previous shed was her POS and now she's showing signs of pregnancy. Oh, I hope so. She should throw some killer albinos because the father is from Kahl's striped line (100% het. albino striped). Awesome :)

[Ritchie]

give her a basking spot.
90 is good for a basking spot. in fact it is recommended

[Jon-e-Boy]

The intial shed took place on January 28 and now its been about 3 days after I observed her get a little larger, and she is opaque. This is throwing my predictions off a bit and I don't no what to think now. Everything else seems to be appropriate, however.......forget it....I'm so confused :-/