Bonnie Scared Me to Death...

[Crawly's Mom]

Alright so I have been putting Bonnie and Clyde together for the last couple months and they have been successfully locking every week. She is definitely building and absolutely glowing... however she has not shed. There has been a whole lot of coiling, just no pre-lay shed to speak of. Well tonight I took her out to snap a couple pictures of her bump, which she was having no part of I might add. Then when I put her back she scared the crap out of me.

I am still waiting on parts to finish my incubator. The herpstat is supposed to be in the mail, then I need to get the flexwat in and get it all set up for testing. Well tonight when I put her back into her tub she did this backward wiggle move. I have never seen her do it... so I just sat there and stared. After some time she actually peed, yet didn't stop there. She looked like she was actually laying.

There were contractions or what looked like contractions, you could see her muscles flexing downward. Her tail bent up and it looked like she was trying to pass something. Now mind you this is right after I set her down and I am still sitting there like an idiot. After about five minutes she settled down, then coiled back up. I am not sure what on Earth she was doing... but I am a little worried now I may be behind on setting up shop.

Do they always have a prelay shed? She hasn't shed in months... literally. This is my first clutch, so maybe I am just stressing... but she really scared me lol.

P.S. here are the pics I snapped before the little episode.

[SlitherinSisters]

Oh wow she is big! I don't know if I'm just not seeing the pictures right, but it looks like she building, or maybe even ovulating since she's only big in a small area, and it even looks like a tail suck in the second to last pic. I could be seeing it wrong, and totally off. It also looks like she's in the process of shedding to me

The girls will get super restless when they are close to laying, and you can usually see at least a couple eggs at the end of the tail when it's closer to laying time, I think I was seeing that 2-3 weeks before the girls laid.

I can't really answer the question about them shedding or not. I have one girl that has waited till day 42 and 53 to lay after the prelay shed, then I had a friend whose girl laid a few days after shedding. They definitely don't follow the same rules!

[Domepiece]

Shes probably ovulating and that backwards motion was probably her moving the follicles down into place to fertilized and shelled. Ive only seen this on videos but from your description thats what it sounds like. I imagine she will shed in a couple of weeks then you have your countdown.

[Domepiece]

Here is the video I am refering to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrN-b1HK720

[dart]

She looks like she'll be shedding soon. GL on your first clutch!

[WingedWolfPsion]

I think she was probably just trying to eliminate, and with eggs taking up room, it requires more effort, lol. I'll bet she presents you with something more than pee in the next few days.
I've seen some snakes go through some uncomfortable looking contortions and motions when eliminating, so I wouldn't think it's anything to worry about.

[Crawly's Mom]

Well she hasn't had any interest in food for the last month and a half. So she might be trying to pass, but I doubt it was that. Actually that video looks exactly like what she was doing. I am going to snap a couple more pictures of her tonight, cause she has suddenly gone from big to hippo status.

[Crawly's Mom]

I think I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt, she is beyond building now. Poor big mama, that looks really uncomfortable.

[mkeller13]

Now that's definitely an ovy! I also thought she looked as though she was getting ready to shed. Good luck with your first clutch and hopefully your incubator parts get there soon.

[Crawly's Mom]

Thankfully I have most of the parts I need. I just need to get them all put together and start testing it out. Its only a little 2 ft tall mini wine fridge, but it should work for now, since I only have the one clutch to be concerned with.