gravid question

[adamanteus]

Wonder what causes this to happen? Can anyone answer?

I guess no one wants to hear this, but it could well be that the stress of capture causes the gravid female to delay giving birth, while she seeks a means of escape. The babies, once over-due, die inside their mother.

[anji1971]

It's really hard to say why the babies stayed inside her too long.
I caught Chili while she was gravid, and since I didn't really know she was, I didn't pamper the poor thing at all. I had her out for photo sessions, swim time, all the handling Deejay was used to. The night before she gave birth, I had her out in the yard climbing the mimosa, and playing in the grass. And she wasn't too happy when I scooped her up to go back inside. Believe me -- I stressed that snake out good.
And she had a perfectly healthy little family.
So who really knows???

[infernalis]

Anji, so glad you brought that up, very often someone has a completely unexpected litter of babies, and mostly they are fine??

The first time I experienced birthing, it was Xena, and no one knew she was gravid until that morning I woke up to a whole bunch of baby snakes.

There is a lot of possible reasons, over handling may well be one of them.

Since snakes are all individuals, they each handle stress in a different way.

[anji1971]

Anji, so glad you brought that up, very often someone has a completely unexpected litter of babies, and mostly they are fine??

The first time I experienced birthing, it was Xena, and no one knew she was gravid until that morning I woke up to a whole bunch of baby snakes.

There is a lot of possible reasons, over handling may well be one of them.

Since snakes are all individuals, they each handle stress in a different way.

Yes, and I've read here about very experienced members who've had terrible results, with captive born and bred snakes. Is that a result of stress? It doesn't seem likely.
What other factors would cause such disastrous experiences? This is something that I've been wondering about.

[zooplan]

I guess no one wants to hear this, but it could well be that the stress of capture causes the gravid female to delay giving birth, while she seeks a means of escape. The babies, once over-due, die inside their mother.

That´s probably right.
I had a bad breeding season as well and I´m still wondering why, even after careful consideration I don´t know the reason, but I´m sure it´s me who is liable for it.
If I could find the cause I would be happy to change it, but from my point of view it was all the same conditions as the years before.