new normal :)

[Ginevive]

I picked up this girl today, from some friends that produced her; she is a '12 model. She is deep in blue but looks really darkly pigmented; the flash lightened her a bit. I am beginning my new foray into ball pythons with this snake She is settling in now, and curiously exploring her new home. She was very relaxed and did not offer to bite. Here is the thing: she was housed with a male. My husband popped her to see about gender, and she has a sperm plug in. He popped their male too, and he definitely had hemipenes. I am hoping that she is not going to try to produce eggs, because she to me does not necessarily seem ready to breed.

[Ginevive]

Face shot. Her eye looks funny in the pic, but are just blued-out from an impending shed.

[Ginevive]

I know that I am rebumping my own pic.. but do you think that it's a little late for her to have caught a plug? I am wondering how long a sperm plug would stay in there; I am thinking not long, since a BM or urate would probably push it out.. if she does catch, I will be prepared, and I will look for signs of building and gravid behavior in the coming year.. I am thinking that although there are breeding seasons, a snake could become gravid anytime of year if a male/female are together? I was told that it's been pretty long-term that the two were housed together too.. she definitely does not feel like anything is in there now that's discernable by palpating; she has been a steady feeder on adult live mice as per her former owners. I plan to grow her up quicker by offering a live rat once she breaks the shed and settles in long enough. The people who I got her from are good people although I personally would not house snakes together who are not being purposely paired for breeding and at good weights, etc. I will be getting another scale in the near future to do a weight on her; she's about as big around as a medium Red Bull energy-drink can at her thickest now.

[jsmorphs2]

I've not know females to hold on to a plug where it would pop out when she was popped. One of two things come to mind, one, SHE is a HE and you just didn't get his peins to pop out and only a plug (which happens) or two, it was a bit of shed skin in the cloaca that resembled a plug. If you can, probe her or try to re-pop her in a few weeks to see if you get another 'plug' or see hemipenes.

[Ginevive]

He just re-popped her. It really does look like just one opening, without the double red rockets that come out with males. I will be getting a new set of probes in the near future to be sure. I suspect that it is just a flap of shed skin. I will closely inspect the shed when it comes off to see if anything indicates one or the other. For now, I will avoid stressing her further and let her/him/whoever settle in