Whats the chances of getting eggs ?

[malc-c]

Hi all, first post so be gentile

I first bread royals three years ago, which was a pairing of my lesser platinum male with a normal female. They both followed normal royal traits of fasting etc and the end result was 7 eggs, of which 6 were lost due to a technical issue with my home made incubator. This season I've paired my lesser platinum male with a lesser pastel female, but even though I've seen plenty of locks isn't showing the same signs or patterns that my normal female exhibited.

Now, my female lesser pastel has never exhibited "normal" royal behaviour. I've had her for just under three years and in that time she has never refused a meal, yes never refused any food at the fortnightly feeds.It's this that is somewhat causing me some concern with regards to the breeding.

To give some comparison here are the details of my first breeding I used as a basis for this years pairings.

I observed 9 locks in January and February 2015, the female first refused food 18/3/15, as did the male. I kept introducing them through March and April with the last lock observed 29/4/15. She was seen to ovulate 4/7/15 - 172 days after the first lock was observed, and laid eggs 46 days later. She resumed eating 2/9/15 some 168 days without food.

Now by comparison here's this years breeding notes.

I began introductions in September 2016, but despite lots of scenting and tail wagging etc the first lock was observed 8/1/18. I continued to introduce the pair through January and February and recorded 7 locks all of which lasted 24 hours or more. Further introductions in March, April and May resulted in no interest from the female, or the male at the last introduction in Mid-May. So using the notes from the first breeding I should be expecting this female to ovulate around the beginning of July as she's around 131 days since the first lock. The thing is she is still eating and has a very healthy appetite, and I've been told that this isn't a good sign as you can't fit food and eggs in the same body cavity ! The thing is her weight has increased quite dramatically in the last three months. She was weighed 12/8/17 coming in at 1328g. I weighed her again 22/2/18 and she tipped the scales at 1382g, 54g in six months. Her last weighing was 26/5/18 when she was 1590g, that's an increase of 208g in three months. I weigh all my snakes empty, and throughout this time she hasn't been fed anything different, just a 90g weaner rat every 2 weeks.

I've never seen any bowl wrapping with either of my females, and my lesser pastle loves the heat, spending a fair bit of time at the warm end, but recently has been seen spending a fair bit of time at the cool (25C) end for longer periods of time.

Have any of you guys had female continue to eat whilst going through the breeding cycle and still lay eggs?

Would welcome your comments.

Thanks

Malc

[Lord Sorril]

Have any of you guys had female continue to eat whilst going through the breeding cycle and still lay eggs?

Very low numbers of my females will continue to eat food right up until they lay. I wouldn't call it a hearty appetite though, more of a lethargic: 'I suppose I can fit one more small rodent in there...just as a snack...' If I saw one of my females scarfing down rodents late in the game-I would assume she is taking a 'pass' this year and hope that she proves me wrong.

[malc-c]

Thanks for the reply,

I can only akin her feeding to that of a boa. She is already out looking for the food on feeding nights, and sometimes I have hardly slid the glass panels open before she's snatched it from the tongs !

She is spending more time at the cool end of late, but I guess she'll produce eggs if and when she's ready. With a 32c hot side, would the sperm be viable if she retained it ?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You need to do is feed more

I weigh all my snakes empty, and throughout this time she hasn't been fed anything different, just a 90g weaner rat every 2 weeks.

This is not enough food for a female in preparation of breeding or while breeding, that's what a female should get weekly at the very minimum.

If they eat you need to feed them, females become ravenous for a reason during the breeding cycle, and once they have ovulated they will stop eating so

I've been told that this isn't a good sign as you can't fit food and eggs in the same body cavity

is not a concern with this species.

I will send you back to square one http://ballpython.ca/breeding/ because I believe you are still having issue reading your animals even though this is not your first season.

When females ovulate they will back to the warm side and stop eating (a female eating once she has ovulated is a VERY rare occurrence), 14 days later they will go through a prelay shed and 30 days after that they will lay.

[malc-c]

Thanks for the comments,

I've always fed every 14 days for the past 15 years or so because there was a tendency for snakes to become lethargic from weekly feeds. I'll up the frequency of her food to weekly feeds, and switch to multis as I've been told by a UK breeder that these have more protein size for size than rats.

Malc

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Regular feeding or feeding of a pet and feeding to prepare for eggs are two different things, a month before starting to pair feeding should be slightly increase.

Keep in mind that the whole breeding process is very demanding and that once a female has ovulated and sometime before that she will not eat at all.

At the beginning of the breeding season you will see an increase in appetite and a voracity that you will not see during the year, this is the female getting herself ready for egg production.

[malc-c]

At the beginning of the breeding season you will see an increase in appetite and a voracity that you will not see during the year, this is the female getting herself ready for egg production.

This would be the case for a "normal" female, and is the case with my other female who goes through the normal phases of fasting or showing little interest in food to snatching the food from the tongs and leaving the rats tail still in the tongs. This female has never shown those phases, she's always appeared food driven.

She was last fed 26/5/ so I'll offer her another meal tomorrow, and then maintain a weekly feed. Would you guys recommend a 90-110g weaner rat or a couple of multis ?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

She was last fed 26/5/ so I'll offer her another meal tomorrow, and then maintain a weekly feed. Would you guys recommend a 90-110g weaner rat or a couple of multis ?

It really depends on the female itself when I prepare my female for breeding season I either increase the feeder size for weekly feeding, or keep the same prey size on a higher frequency every 5 days instead of 7 until they stop eating which that varies, some females will stop soon as they start building some will eat right up to two weeks before ovy.

[Turbo Serpent]

Would you guys recommend a 90-110g weaner rat or a couple of multis ?

I agree with what's been said above, feeding biweekly will not help you at all if you are breeding, especially if she does have a healthy clutch she will need to regain what she has lost.

I feed my snakes prey that is approximately the same size as the largest diameter of their body. So my breeder females are getting medium rats, the males small rats. Younger bps are fed every 5 to 7 days depending on shed, and appetite.

90g weaner rat seems far too small especially if spaced out to every 2 weeks. I try to keep my girls plump, not over weight or overfed, but perfectly plump.