Gestation in Bitis arietans

[horridumangeli]

Hi everyone,
Can gestation in a female puff adder last over six months ? I have an animal that i thought to be gravid but after six months nothing. Shes only eaten three times in six months and she is still huge. The animal is not sick and is acting normal. Any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks
Steve
www.helodermahorridum.com

[charl.dbn]

im sure that they can hold sperm in their bodies for quite some time, i have a friend who caught a night adder in march last year, kept her all by herself and the night adder dropped eggs in november..as for gestation on bitis arietans ,im not to sure but we have some knowledgeable guys and girls on here that will help you out asap..

[shneaky]

Thanks Charl.dbn, that is correct about the night adder, in fact, she was caught while mating which confirms that she held the sperm. She never lost weight either, and did not each much so you may still have hope. i placed a nesting box when she started looking like she had bulges and after about a month she laid 20 perfect eggs that all hatched.

hope all goes well

[Bushviper]

Bitis arietans can seem to go forever before dropping babies. Usually in the northern part of the country they have dropped by now and in the winter rainfall areas they drop babies just before hibernation.

[FALCONER]

Although Bitis Nasicornis is not quite the same this should give you an idea. My adult pair from Uganda was obtained at roughly one year of age and mated last year during Feb and again early Apr 2010 being just over two years old. The male and female are feeding every 9 days and after the third nine day cycle both are not fed for 18 days. The female got bigger all the time, but I ascribed this to normal growth although she had only shed once since March 2010. To my surprise she gave birth on 6 January 2011, which is a gestation period of nine months. So, hang in there and good luck.

[Clive b]

Just a question on the breeding times of puff adders.

If they give birth at the diffferent times, then we can safely assume they mate at different times.

The northern more puffs normally mate around August
When would the souther and Kzn puffs mate ?

Thanks

[Clive b]

Or are the gestation periods just longer?

[Bushviper]

Yes the mate different times. My puff adders are busy mating at the moment.

[GraemeEC]

The gestation period for a puff adder is around 177day from mating to giving birth,if keep in the temperature range og 25'C- 32'C.This is purely from my breeding centre records of the puff adders I keep and breed.Hope this helps.