what to do? what to expect?!?*advice needed*

Hi all,

I rescued 5 snakes the first week of January. 3 of those 5 have RI. I was told one of the females was paired in November and is possibly gravid. She was underweight and less than 900g when I got her. She is currently 1500g. She's doubled her girth as well. Since she was in such a pitiful state w/ a minor case of RI earlier this month, I didn't really consider that she was actually gravid. Not just "possibly gravid".

I did read http://www.ballpython.ca/gallery/breeding.html and a few posts from here. I haven't bred any of my own snakes yet, so I'm not really sure on what to look for aside from the reference pictures from the link.

I've only had her for a month, so I can't say when such and such steps took place. But today I did notice that she does look significantly larger. Referencing the link above, she looks like somewhere between "building" and "heat seeking". I can't say if she's just gaining weight to her normal size, but she does look A LOT chunkier about 2/3s down. I've tried to palpate her, and I think I can feel follicle/eggs. But not 100% sure. And she just shed yesterday after sitting in/around her water bowl for the past week.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you guys think she's gravid? If so, what is the timeline until eggs?
Any advice would be appreciated. Should I start preparing an incubator/egg box soon? I feel so ill prepared. :tears:

Thanks

If you don't have any idea on time frames of when she was paired, and she was that underweight, I would suggest having an incubator and egg box ready to go within the next 28 days...

There is the slight possibility that if she has gotten that much bigger, this was her prelay shed.

She could still be building though and that would mean a shed or 2 to go yet, but I honestly wouldn't risk it..

Can you snap a pic of her? What have you fed her? I know when I rescued my girl that was crazy underweight any food made her huge :O

Plan for eggs soon, just in case, and keep feeding her. If she begins refusing...well, that could definitely mean eggs soon.
If she is still eating, I would say she hasn't had her pre-lay shed.
With luck, she'll re-absorb any follicles and won't lay.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents

If you don't have any idea on time frames of when she was paired, and she was that underweight, I would suggest having an incubator and egg box ready to go within the next 28 days...

There is the slight possibility that if she has gotten that much bigger, this was her prelay shed.

She could still be building though and that would mean a shed or 2 to go yet, but I honestly wouldn't risk it..

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I don't know for sure, but I was just told she was paired in November.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zombie

Can you snap a pic of her? What have you fed her? I know when I rescued my girl that was crazy underweight any food made her huge :O

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I feed her once a week on small rats. She's still taking food down like a pig.

Before:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...f/DSC_4331.jpg

Currently:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...f/DSC_0276.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...f/DSC_0286.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...f/DSC_0284.jpg

If she is eating, then she may be building, but not gravid. They do stop eating once they ovulate...at least, I've never had a female eat after that.

Yeah those pics look like building. The eating thing is correct. They should stop eating when actually gravid. You probably don't have to worry just yet. It's always good to be prepared just in case though. If she were gravid though, her spine would be "peaked" while her lower sides stuck out. Plus she would be that thick all the way down. Not just in the middle like that. Not unless there were only a couple eggs or slugs.

Probably building and not actually ovulated yet.

Yea, I think she may be building and then the rat kinda pushing her out a lil more...

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