Strange Jelly Behavior...

[EasternGirl]

So...for a few months now...Cee Cee and Sadie have been having this weird phase of taking turns looking and acting gravid and then a bunch of jellies pop out. First, I noticed Cee Cee looking gravid about 4 months ago. I thought.."Oh, no...here we go again...how much sperm could she possibly have stored?". Then she started doing her pre-birth ritual of trying to escape and burrowing...and then she popped out about 30 jellies...which is about the same number of scrubs she has given birth to in the past. Then about a month ago...Sadie started looking gravid...and then she popped out a bunch of jellies all over the enclosure. Right after that, I noticed strange jelly looking smears around on the substrate...I think it was from Cee Cee...and I wondered if it was because Sadie had just had jellies. Now, Cee Cee is acting like she is about to give birth again...climbing all over the tank like a wild woman and burrowing...although she does not look gravid at all...and I am seeing jelly like smears again. I felt her abdomen and near her vent...no lumps. These girls have not been anywhere near a male snake. I'm starting to wonder what the heck is going on...is this a thing like when women's periods get in sync? Any thoughts?

[guidofatherof5]

I suppose it could be a hormone acting on one or the other or both.

[jwolfe152]

wow someone else was asking something similar but it had to do with shedding. maybe there is something to this?

[d_virginiana]

I have no idea what's going on with that, but I do definitely think that garters pick up on hormonal signals from other snakes. I was the person who posted about the shedding; they just sync up way more often than coincidence should allow.

Can you quarantine one of them for a week or two? If they are reacting to the others' signals, that should break the feedback loop. If it's something different, then at least that's out of the question.

[chris-uk]

'Tis the season when if they had been near a male that they would be dropping litters. Maybe they are just in their prime and when they weren't fertilised they will need to dump the jellies, and they could both have geared up to breed twice. If it happens again this year I'd start wondering, I'd go with coincidence so far as I can't think of a natural driver which would develop the sort of feedback loop where one female prepares to get knocked up as another gives birth (or throws jellies), it could be that the environmental conditions have mimicked spring twice?

[jwolfe152]

it could be that the environmental conditions have mimicked spring twice?

that is a good point i know the outdoors conditions here in wv have been more like spring than summer but then again its been like that all year it went from winter to spring and stopped except a few days that were in the 90s its been raining a lot and cool

[EasternGirl]

It does seem like all of my garters are going in crazy breeding mode. I have a male in a tank with two females in a tank above him. The male is constantly trying to figure out how to get up to the females and vice versa. I know that my snakes seem to be able to smell food if I am getting it ready all the way at the other side of the house. Do you think maybe the females can smell the males near by and that is throwing them into breeding mode?

[jwolfe152]

im sure they can smell each other. in the wild i know they usually dont have to go far to find a mate because they were all in the den but i am sure different snakes from different dens can small the females and find them.

[chris-uk]

If they can smell food being prepared on the other side of the room, they can smell a potential mate a short distance away.