How many months do you pair?

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Originally Posted by eel588

How do you tell if she isn't going to go? Is it as simple as pairing for 3-5 months without seeing ovulation?

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If it is May or June and I have witnessed locks but she is still eating and not showing any signs of being prego I stop... Unless there is extenuating circumstances...

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Originally Posted by Mike Cavanaugh

If it is May or June and I have witnessed locks but she is still eating and not showing any signs of being prego I stop... Unless there is extenuating circumstances...

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Thanks for the help Mike!

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Originally Posted by loonunit

Oh, I meant, I pair "all of the months." Pretty much non-stop from October to May. Are you having problems with a pair that just doesn't seem interested?

Last year I started pairing mid-October, and just kept putting them together all winter. Sometimes they get late starts: last year George and his pied girl locked non-stop from November until May, while my het lavenders ignored each other until February or March. But then the het lavenders really got going in late winter. I ended up with the female het lavender ovulating and laying 5 good eggs, and the piebald female reabsorbing her follicles. Both couples sort of lost interest completely around mid-May, but both couples have picked it right up again after the first cold snap in October.

So this year my established couples are right back at it, but all my new pairs are playing the "THIS is MY side, THAT is YOUR side" game. I have three other males I've introduced to females, one 2008 boy and two 2009 boys, and none of them has done any more than cuddle with their girls. And the 2008 even locked with my big pied female last year, but I guess he doesn't like his pewter girlfriend as well...

I'm not really worried about it. Exasperated, sure, but not worried... It's still early in the season. Heck, in December and January we'll probably still tell you it's early in the season. You can drop the pairings to once a month if they're making you crazy. But I wouldn't give up completely until May.

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I'm not having any problem with locking but I was just wondering since I've read a lot of threads stating they seen many lock but the female never went, including your post.

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

if you want to check, take your disinterested male, and put him in with a girl who's already been locking up--if he starts courting her, you can remove him before anything happens, and you know it's the females he's being put with that just aren't ready yet. He will only court a female who's giving off the proper pheromone trail to let him know she's receptive.

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Very helpful!

Yeah, I've heard a lot of girls will lock like crazy a year before they're read to actually lay. For the record the piebald that didn't lay is a 2008, and the het lavender that did is a 2007, and they were both on the edge weight-wise, at 1300-1400 grams.

I pair from November until I see eggs or give up on the female. Which was November till July last year.

Wow... so it may take several months for the female to become gravid? I wonder why it takes so long.