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.