Vanilla with fire woma and balck pewter

[BCS]

Since October until January I had been pairing my female vanilla with my fire woma. After a certain life change, I was forced to sell some of my snakes, the fire woma being one of them. I decided to keep my black pewter though. Before I sold the male fire woma though, my vanilla had not been showing signs of ovulation however I have been feeling small lumps when palpating and she has stopped eating. I was told by another breeder that the follicles I am feeling are most like not fertilized and if they are not fertilized soon, she would absorb them. He palpated her for me and said he can feel follicles, but is sticking to his story, that these follicles will be absorbed if she is not bred soon.

I decided to start pairing my black pewter with her and they have locked twice.

What are the chances that the follicles I was feeling (if they truly are follicles) was fertilized by the fire woma? Is it as the other breeder had said and I have a higher chance that the black pewter will fertilize these eggs?

[ECechoHO]

Snakes are tricky, gotta LOVE how sperm can be stored and then selected by her, so i hate to say it but it's a roll of the dice...

[ARBallMorphs]

well there is no way in telling which male will be the sire when she lays eggs if you bred 2 males to her until the eggs hatch and there is even the possibility of getting a dual sired clutch and Ball Pythons can indeed store sperm, so even if she only locked once with the Fire Woma and 10 times with the Black Pewter there is no way to know for sure which male got it done.

about follicles being reabsorbed, don't worry to much about that, and well if your girl has not ovulated yet then no the eggs are not fertilized because that happens during the ovulation.

My big girl who ovulated about 2 weeks ago stopped eating (about 1 month before ovulation) when she was building so it could be that your female also stopped eating because she is building towards her ovulation.

the only thing you can do at this point is making sure she stays healthy, keep offering her small prey, and keep pairing them until ovulation or until they don't want to lock anymore.

best of luck,

Andrew

[BCS]

Thank you. I just wasn't sure if what the breeder said was true. I was selling him a snake and he said he had been breeding for three years... never hurts to get a second opinion but it was also the first and only time I met the breeder... so I am not sure how well he knows his stuff. Anyway, here's to hoping. I would be happy with either (mostly for a vanilla cream though). This is her first year and the breeder also said that being a first timer that she would not likely store sperm, but I guess we will see.