Behavioral Changes in Gravid Females...?

[Will]

My female CK has recently taken to refusing both food and mate.... Do females do this when they are gravid...? Hope so, but not sure, thought I'd ask.

She looks a little plumper lately to me, I think but I can't tell for sure. I keep putting her in with her mate and nothing seems to happen now. She was easy as... well, I won't finish that sentence... But now, she's a little prude, lol. I've got at least 3 matings that I have visually confirmed since her first shed, but no mating or feeding in 2 weeks.

I also threw a nesting box in with her and she won't come out of it at all, granted it takes up most of the back 1/3 of her cage(over the heat)...

She also "lets loose" all over my hands when I pick her up, she never did that before - heightened defensive responses maybe...? Dunno...

Just curious if these could be signs that she is possibly gravid. And approx how long before I can visually tell for sure...?

Here's a pic of her from tonight...

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2033Untitled-7.jpg

[vanderkm]

Not sure about the other signs but the refusing of normal prey was certainly the case with our females about at the time of the pre-lay shed. We dropped prey size down and had some accept smaller rats or mice. Sounds like a good possibility - my impression is that if you have good breedings with these guys, you can be pretty confident that you will get eggs - best of luck,

mary v.

[Stockwell]

Yeah, she looks pretty knocked up... they take on a sharp high back bone appearance, which is evident in that photo
If you let her slide slowly and in a straight line, over the index finger of your right hand you'll feel the eggs, bumb, bumb, bumb. You can often count them. 8 to to 12 is typical

[gonesnakee]

Sounds like a preggo female to me LOL Good Luck with her. Mark

[MarcB]

She looks gravid to me as well and a good reason she would be refusing food...I predict she will give you 11 eggs....

[Classic]

Will: If i were you...hearing the observations made by Roy and Marc...you could have eggs any day unless something is wrong.

Good Luck.

Brian
HWH

[Tim_Cranwill]

Will, I just had my female (the one that was paired up with yours last year :rolleyes: ) start laying. She is 10 days past her pre-lay. I'm sure yours will drop soon too. :)

[Will]

That's sounds great guys! Now you've got me freaked out - running around double checking that everything is ready...

Tim: She's only been 20-some days from the first mating, and she's not blue yet, so I'm not expecting anything(though I check every day). I noticed she was gravid for 28 days last year, though that may be skewed by the fact that they weren't fertile.

Marc: 11, eh...? I'll hold you to that, anyone else with a prediction...? :D

Roy: I tried to feel them, but couldn't feel anything. Not sure if I was doing it correctly, but hopefully they are there...

Edit: I tried again, but couldn't feel anything. It's kind of a moot point anyways - either she's gravid by now or not, right...? She's almost a month past her P.O.S., and doesn't seem to feel like mating anymore(chicks, eh?) so there's probably no point in creating any undue stress on her. So hoping she's knocked up, I'll post an update when something happens. And now the waiting game begins... Great... :)