All the little details of breeding that are hard find

Where to start without sounding stupid,

I have a female whose belly is starting to turn pink, assuming she is about to go into her pre ovulation shed, can feel what i think are follicles while palpating but completely unsure about what im feeling for besides small marble like balls inside of her, when feeling for follicles how many could should i feel?

Are they all really close together of is there some distance in between one to the next?

All this is to determine if what lumps i felt or thought i felt were really follicles or a figment of my imagination.

Now onto the pre ovulation shed questions, mainly how long after her shed should i expect to see ovulation?

How often does everyone check for ovulation with a female thats probably gunna do it? Like every 6, 8, 12 hours or as i want about every ten minutes!

How long is it gunna be visible that she is in ovulation?

And does anyone have any advise to pay attention to or for over the next couple months? (Besides the obvious, like relax, quit worrying, and the general its gunna be okay)

check out this site if you havent already. i do believe the shed normaly takes place 12-15 days after ovulation and then eggs up to 30 days after the shed... shed cycles before that are just normal everyday shed cycles.

http://www.ballpythons.ca/gallery/breeding.html

But something very confusing about the information in that link, Nick, is the discussion of PREovulation sheds. We all know about the Post Ovulation Shed - but therein is mentioned a second shed that seems to happen before ovulation?? Perhaps it's a series of typos? (he mentions it more than once).

This has bothered me for some time, i would appreciate some clarification from the experts.

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Originally Posted by NickMyers03

check out this site if you havent already. i do believe the shed normaly takes place 12-15 days after ovulation and then eggs up to 30 days after the shed... shed cycles before that are just normal everyday shed cycles.

http://www.ballpythons.ca/gallery/breeding.html

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he does mention the "pre ovulation shed" during his "glow before they go" area posted below

They "Glow Before They Go!"

My females go through a drastic color change when they are nearing ovulation. They can change color up to 6 weeks before. I call it 'Glow before they go'. This usually takes place after their pre-ovulation shed. If they GLOW...they usually go!


every time when i started talking about breeding a few years ago i was shot down on the "pre ovulation shed" and told that there is only a pre lay shed. my girl shed and is glowing like there is no tomorrow and that is why i follow this link now. if some one could chime in that has hatched out many clutchs and knows what us ( first time breeders) do not please inform me it would greatly help as morphie said

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Originally Posted by Fearless

Where to start without sounding stupid,
I have a female whose belly is starting to turn pink, assuming she is about to go into her pre ovulation shed, can feel what i think are follicles while palpating but completely unsure about what im feeling for besides small marble like balls inside of her, when feeling for follicles how many could should i feel?

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Follicles depend on how many eggs she will produce. They vary from 3-4 to up to 12.

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Originally Posted by Fearless

Are they all really close together of is there some distance in between one to the next?

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There is about a 1/2-1 inch distance between them depending on how old and developed the follicles are.

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Originally Posted by Fearless

All this is to determine if what lumps i felt or thought i felt were really follicles or a figment of my imagination.

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Its hard to explain unless you are shown (in person) by a person who knows.

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Originally Posted by Fearless

Now onto the pre ovulation shed questions, mainly how long after her shed should i expect to see ovulation?

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That again, depends on the animal... Hard to say.

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Originally Posted by Fearless

How often does everyone check for ovulation with a female thats probably gunna do it? Like every 6, 8, 12 hours or as i want about every ten minutes!

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I check once a day.

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Originally Posted by Fearless

How long is it gunna be visible that she is in ovulation?

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About 6 hours? (Not quite sure on this one)

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Originally Posted by Fearless

And does anyone have any advise to pay attention to or for over the next couple months? (Besides the obvious, like relax, quit worrying, and the general its gunna be okay)

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You know what I told you before :) It'll all be good. Best of luck to you, Trevor.



If anyone has anything else to add, or if I was off on the timing, please join in!

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Originally Posted by Fearless

Where to start without sounding stupid,

I have a female whose belly is starting to turn pink, assuming she is about to go into her pre ovulation shed, can feel what i think are follicles while palpating but completely unsure about what im feeling for besides small marble like balls inside of her, when feeling for follicles how many could should i feel?

It sounds like your feeling follicles and doing it correctly. If the follicles are big enough to be felt, you should feel all that are there... and get an idea how many eggs she will lay! :)

Are they all really close together of is there some distance in between one to the next?

They should be very close together and for the most part equally far apart all down the line. If they seem way too far apart and you are too low on the body you will be feeling urates.

All this is to determine if what lumps i felt or thought i felt were really follicles or a figment of my imagination.

I think you've got it right!

Now onto the pre ovulation shed questions, mainly how long after her shed should i expect to see ovulation?

Pre-ovulation shed is not something you can bank on. Its not like the POS where you can know you have a certain number of days till they lay. Sometimes they will sit really close to ovulation for for 2 shed cycles. I base my ovulation expectations on follicle size and completely disregard pre-ovulation shedding.

How often does everyone check for ovulation with a female thats probably gunna do it? Like every 6, 8, 12 hours or as i want about every ten minutes!

I check on them at least every 24 hours. But even if you happen to miss ovulation you should see other signs that it has occured. The most notable will be that after the female ovulates she will LOVE the hot side of the cage where before ovulation she should mostly hang out on the cool side...

How long is it gunna be visible that she is in ovulation?

Usually last 12-36 hrs in my experience. She will really swell up prior to ovulation and a lot of people think they are seeing ovulation. But when she actually hits ovulation it will be an OH WOW experience.

And does anyone have any advise to pay attention to or for over the next couple months? (Besides the obvious, like relax, quit worrying, and the general its gunna be okay)

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Relax quit worrying and the animals do this great without our help. :)

Justin

[QUOTE=LadyOhh;705227]

I check once a day.

About 6 hours? (Not quite sure on this one)

QUOTE]

Ok, so let me get this right:D. Ovulation can only be visible for roughly 6 hours? :O

Does that mean if you notice a girl who seemed to "blow up" in one day, yet the next seemed "normal" That could have been ovulation?

I heard it's hard to mistake ovualation, but I assumed they'd stay big. I guess I assumed wrong.

I have a girl who I swear changed color, got huge as if swallowed a jumbo rat, (although she hasn't eaten in 2 weeks) and then the following day looked normal. Is that "normal"

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Originally Posted by Morphie

But something very confusing about the information in that link, Nick, is the discussion of PREovulation sheds. We all know about the Post Ovulation Shed - but therein is mentioned a second shed that seems to happen before ovulation?? Perhaps it's a series of typos? (he mentions it more than once).

This has bothered me for some time, i would appreciate some clarification from the experts.

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The Barker's book breaks it down to 4 shed/breeding cycles.

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Originally Posted by ivylea77

Ok, so let me get this right:D. Ovulation can only be visible for roughly 6 hours? :O

Does that mean if you notice a girl who seemed to "blow up" in one day, yet the next seemed "normal" That could have been ovulation?

I heard it's hard to mistake ovualation, but I assumed they'd stay big. I guess I assumed wrong.

I have a girl who I swear changed color, got huge as if swallowed a jumbo rat, (although she hasn't eaten in 2 weeks) and then the following day looked normal. Is that "normal"

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Ivy,

As I do not have the luxury of watching my Ovs for such a long time :tears:, it always seems to me very quick. Justin did make a better time frame, but to me it always seemed too quick, and I have missed them on more than one occasion. (Granted I never timed them... It was a guess)

They don't stay big, so what you saw was probably ovulation :) They stay changed color for longer, but not big. :D

And as for normal, if you are breeding, yeah, it is! :P

Good Post, Information that can be very usefull to many none veterans

I agree this is a good thread. I also agree that the little details are hard to gather up, but this thread clears up a lot of things I've wondered about.

I think Tracy does an excellent job talking about the shed cycles in her book when it comes to breeding ... for years I've noticed that females tend to go into shed very soon after being introduced to a male for the first time ... also, females tend to shed months to weeks prior to ovulation ... then again after they ovulate ... and then one last time after they lay eggs. Until she described it in Pythons of the World Volume II, I had never given it much thought … but when I read it, I instantly realized how brilliant it was to put all of the sheds together in a “timeline” like that.

The trick is that the post ovulation shed (at least for me) is the only one that can be predicted with any type of accuracy ... and even that is not "set in stone" as I've had females skip this step entirely ... I've recorded the pre-ovulation shed in my females anywhere from 4 weeks up to 3 months prior to ovulation, so it's not a real clear indicator of when ovulation will occur.

On the subject of ovulation, the process itself takes roughly 24 hours (although may be shorter or longer), but is probably most visible to the novice for the 12 hours in the middle of the process (because it's a build up and then release).

Just remember, these snakes aren't reading the same books and message boards that you guys are ... they don't follow the "rules" ... all this stuff is just ball park guidelines based on observation ... in the end, the snakes will do what they want. :sweeet:

Hope this helps.

-adam

It helps :gj:

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

Just remember, these snakes aren't reading the same books and message boards that you guys are ... they don't follow the "rules" ... all this stuff is just ball park guidelines based on observation ... in the end, the snakes will do what they want. :sweeet:

-adam

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Thats what u think! I am reading this all to them tonight so they will make me quit worrying so much! And they will know what to do and when to do it!

But thanks everyone for helping

I have multiple females who are shedding. I'm loving it! Some shed as recently as November, so this isn't just another shed. I'm looking for some glowing and building now...:rolleye2:and i'm going crazy about it!