breeding and blue

Good day all, was wondering if I could use some of your guys experience

This is my first season trying to breed my ball pythons so am still quite new to this all. My one female which i was expecting to lay in the next few days i see is in the blue. A while back she had what i'm sure was her ovulation, the caudal third of her body was about twice its normal size for a day or 2. 15 days later she shed -assumed this was her prelay shed.

Since then she has been lying inverted regularly, gone off her food and been lyingin a tight circle regularly. Her colour has also lightened over the past mth.

Today is day 27 since pre lay shed and I was expecting her to lay soon but see she is in the blue again? Can they shed around the time of lay or have I got something wrong?

She does look big and gravid, could she have resorbed? If she sheds now it means she would have shed twice in just over a month without having eaten anything since 3 weeks before the first of the 2.

I did witness numerous locks since june, and am in south africa so is about the time they lay

No idea on BPs but I can tell you that all other species of animals that we have bred will usually shed before laying. They seem to be shedding because of the expansion due to being gravid.

They sometimes shed a couple times after ovulation. I had 2 different girls shed twice after witnessing an OVY. They dont reabsorb after ovulation, they would either lay eggs or unfertilized slugs. Just keep watching her :)

Its normal. In my experience happened with smaller females. She will lay normal fertile eggs. Just be patience. Good luck!

It sounds like the shed you thought was post-ov was pre-ov since she is glowing after that one. The glow happens before the ovulation - they can look very big while building and not ovy. I mistook a few periods of fatness for ovulations - I'll be looking more at the tail suck than the fatness of the snake this time around. My bet is that the shed you are now seeing is the pre-lay shed.

Okay thanks guys, will be patient and see what happens, good to know I might still get my first cluch ever this season at least

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Originally Posted by MrLang

It sounds like the shed you thought was post-ov was pre-ov since she is glowing after that one. The glow happens before the ovulation - they can look very big while building and not ovy. I mistook a few periods of fatness for ovulations - I'll be looking more at the tail suck than the fatness of the snake this time around. My bet is that the shed you are now seeing is the pre-lay shed.

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Ive seen females shed twice after ovy.

She cleared up yesterday and then shed this morning which is all faster than usual, will see what happens from here

Dont know where that red face came from, not me losing my cool or anything

Just an update, my female finally laid today, 10 days after her last shed and 40 days after what I think was her post ovulation shed, but 54 days after what I thought was her ovulation.

6 good eggs, no slugs so right on average for my first clutch ever...