Pre birth shed?

[sschind]

OK, I've bred plenty of corn snakes and kings snakes but this is my first attempt at garters. My Eastern Blackneck just shed last night and she is looking quite large. I know that when my other snakes shed I can expect eggs about a week or so later. Is it the same with garters. Do they shed a short time before giving birth?

[Stefan-A]

So I've heard. "They" say birth usually occurs within 3 weeks of shedding and towards the end, the female should become restless.

[reptileparadise]

Yup, its often seen that gartersnakes shed before giving birth. I had some records on this but I lost everything in a computercrash.
I'm keeping an close eye on everything again now.

As far as I can remember, most of my animals go trough 3 sheds before giving birth.
At the first shed, mating takes place
The second shed is around 1.5 months later and a good sign that the animal is gravid
The third shed occurs somewhere close to birth. If I remember correctly most of my animals give birth around 2 or 3 weeks later.

I might have some more info for you in a short wile...I've got a parietalis that is supposed to give birth in the second week of May. She shed a week ago
I also have a atratus that I hoped would give birth in the first week of May. At the moment, she is in her blue phase
Patience is probably the best answer...

[Stefan-A]

As far as I can remember, most of my animals go trough 3 sheds before giving birth.
At the first shed, mating takes place
The second shed is around 1.5 months later and a good sign that the animal is gravid
The third shed occurs somewhere close to birth. If I remember correctly most of my animals give birth around 2 or 3 weeks later.
Now this is useful information to me. :) My (hopefully) gravid female vagrans shed for the second time almost two weeks ago and it's been 69 days since they mated.

[garterchick]

that's good to know, my female flame has shed twice since brumation ended and is blue-phase again. she's also getting very large, so i'm hoping for a large clutch.

[Jeff B]

3-4 sheds, then stop feeding, then about 2-3 weeks later they will pace around restlessly for a day or a few and then babies usually in late afternoon or overnight. If you catch them a few hours before giving birth you will actually see female having spastic contractions mid-to back half.