Pregnant Thamnophis

[ConcinusMan]

She's about the shed, does that mean she's close? She shed about a month ago as well.

I've seen my snakes shed in mid to late stages. It doesn't indicate anything except that she needs to shed. The need to shed can be because she's expanding and her old skin is just too tight. That could be the reason she's shedding so close to the last shed. So no, it doesn't mean she's close but it usually means she's getting bigger.

Try to see her when she's somewhat stretched out, not curled up. Are her scales in the last 1/3 or so of her body separated, with skin in between? In other words, scales don't touch each other? When she gets that far expanded, it won't be long.

Oh, also, if you cool her down at night (you should for a few hours) down to 65-70 F, you might notice some muscle twitching in that area of her body in the morning. That's her attempt to generate heat to warm up the babies. You see separated scales, twitching around 70 F, you know it's getting close and it's time to remove the water dish. She may begin to act strangely and twitch a lot, 12-48 hours before birth, even when it's warm.

That's just my experience. Experiences vary.

[hitsurfer]

When you say "bark" - do you then mean brown, moist repti-bark for example?
Sorry for my questioning - but I really don't want to screw anything up - it's my first time:-)

So to be sure: when it's getting close, I remove her to a box about 70x40x15 cm. (escape-proof) with an inch or so repti-bark as substrate, a shallow dish or not a dish at all, a hiding spot and a temperature gradient of 22-30 degrees.If i keep the substrate moist, it won't be necessary with a moisture box. Did I get it right?

I really wanted to post a pic of the giant but i don't know how to do it. Not only for boasting but maybe some of you could tell whether she's up to gave birth or not.

Greetings from Denmark

[ConcinusMan]

make sure it's well ventilated. I use zoo med reptibark, but any brand will do as long as it is fir bark pieces for reptiles. I still wouldn't moisten the bark. If it's new, it will be moist.

Perhaps maintain a dry hide, and a hide with moist paper towels in it. You want dry substrate for the most part. If they need to retreat into a moist place, the box with moist paper towels will be there for them.

I upload my images to imageshack and let imageshack resize to 640X480. Once the image is uploaded successfully, I click to view full size. Right-click the pic, then "copy image location" (using firefox, IE might use different words, like "copy url")

Then when you make a post here, you click the "insert image" button. right-click and paste the url in the box that pops up. go advanced and preview your post and you can see if it was done successfully, then post. It's not hard once you get the hang of it.

[bkhuff1s]

There is alot of skin showing between the scales, here. It's almost as wide as the scales themselves.