new normal :)

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.

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...56284397_n.jpg

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

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...01641144_n.jpg

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.

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.

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 :)