Expectant Sloth In Labor at Pet Safari

A female sloth at is in labor with her second baby, owner Larry Lipke said Thursday.

It will be the pet shop's fourth captive-born two-toed sloth. Sloth births are extremely rare in captivity. An animal expert at Pet Safari said that aside from Lipke's sloths, only two have been born in Florida in the last 10 years.

The mother-to-be, Baby, is dilated at one centimeter at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Lipke said. He expects the baby to arrive as late as Friday. She gave .

The gestation of a two-toed sloth is between 6 months to 11 and a half months, according to the National Zoo in Washington, DC.

Lipke's 27-year Main Street pet shop is home to three adult sloths.

Blondie, the other adult female, is a mother of two. She . Her first baby sloth was born about four years ago.  

A mother sloth instinctively drives her young away once it is old enough, so Lipke had to find all the baby sloths born at his pet shop new homes, he said. Two of the babies born at Pet Safari went to private individuals. Another went to a zoo in the mid-West, Lipke said.

Baby's baby, if it is born healthy, will likely go to a zoo once it reaches 12 weeks old, Lipke said.

The sloths are herbivores native to Central and South America’s rain forests. The slow-moving creatures live in treetops and eat a diet of leaves, twigs and fruits, according to the National Zoo.

Watch live inside the sloth house from Pet Safari's sloth cam. Also, you can track the sloth's progress on Pet Safari's Facebook page.