Obese or possible gravid?

[ClumsyClover]

Okay, first off I did not own this ball until about a week ago so don’t bother with the normal “don’t breed”,” don’t keep them together”, etc dumb stuff.
I just picked this normal female up at a surrender shop. She was surrendered with no information.
I do not have access to a scale atm to weigh her (I’m waiting on a replacement, mine broke. ) so some background for you from me, I have bred very few ball pythons in the past. I have had a few clutches. I HAVE an incubator, setting up proper rack systems for the hatchlings and adults as I was in the process of switching from glass to tubs and was going to go further into breeding ball pythons.
Now for the ball in question.
She is separated from my collection in a quarantine for the time being. She seems perfectly healthy, and friendly. She has not tried to strike, does not have head wobble, seems clear of mites (no soaking, and I have not seen any yet. I have checked quite thoroughly), her belly feels firm but she moves normally.
She looks almost identical to when my other normal is gravid, which is what makes me question if she is or is not.
She has a lumpy appearance when she lays in particular ways, I am TERRIBLE at palpating so I try to avoid it, but it feels kinda like there might be something but again I am very bad at it I usually rely on the lock/ovulation/prelayshed/etc. to know when I’ll be having a clutch. BUT since I just got this girl I don’t know what to expect. If she’s just obese that’s plenty fine I plan to quarantine her, slowly work her down to a healthy weight and then see if she would be a good fit for my projects. (I intended on getting a few normal females for a male I am working on proving regardless) if she doesn’t clear my project needs then I will keep her as a pet only, either way I’m happy with her.
She has currently been laying on the hot side, I saw two perfect coils yesterday with tail in the middle but nothing happened of course or I wouldn’t be posting. The pictures are not from her enclosure, I am keeping her in a quarantine tank at the moment. The pictures only showed what I was talking about with lumpiness better than the when she is in her quarantine tank. She is on paper towels with a hide, hot spot and cool spot are at average temps. She has a ceramic water bowl on her cool side to use.
She was laying coiled last night with her belly turned to the side. I have seen her run her chin down her back a few times which I’m not sure what that might be about, none of my others have ever done it. There was a little bit of shed stuck to her, like a minuscule amount of maybe pin head size. But she sorta looks like she might be shedding again with a tint to her, she also seems very light colored compared to my other normals.



So any opinions on her?

[dr del]

Hi,

You seem to have most of the options covered in your post.

This is obviously not an ovulation ( no tail suck ) .

Her back third isn't distended enough to make me think she has passed ovultation so all you can really do is continue to monitor her for signs of building etc.

Hopefuly she builds, glows and goes for you.

[ClumsyClover]

Hopefully she does, and has some mystery hatchlings. I’d be curious to see what she would come out with since she was a surrender there was no info on her at all(most likely all normals if she lays) , I can’t imagine why anyone would give up a gravid female which is why I question if she even is. But she seems to be acting like one so much and her spine is starting to be more visible and forming a triangle almost, I don’t want to take her out since she’s still in quarantine so new environment is stressful enough without worrying about being possibly gravid aswell. But she does not come out of the hot side hide, and it’s very hard to peek at her without moving the hide. She spent the entire day yesterday curled in a perfect coil, came out for water last night and now she’s back to her coil.
Nothing left to do except wait a few more weeks. I’m considering taking her to the vet after her quarantine time is up and she’s a little more used to her home, see if they would do an X-ray but I’m not sure it’s actually worth spending the money when I could just wait and possibly be surprised with a clutch from her. It’s such a mystery when it’s a new snake with no known previous history.

[dr del]

Hi,

Before going the x-ray route I would at least attempt palpating ( using a t-shirt can help).

Untill ovulation they have the ability to re-adsorb - after that whatever is in there is coming out.

And remember if she goes through the pre-lay shed after ovulation you have about 30 days to build some kind of incubator and get it stabilised in case you are lucky enough to get fertile eggs.


del