Pre Ov Soaking

[West Coast Jungle]

I offer all my building females large water bowls. All of my girls soak right before ovulation.

This female Xena, has laid for me two years in a row the second week of Feburary. She has been soaking for 2 days now and looks she is right on schedule to ovulate the second week of Jan. She is not in shed, is off feed and is starting to glow.



Has anyone else studied this behavior? I rarely see a slug and wonder if this helps with hydration of snake and/or egg development?

This is only my personel experience and is not backed by any scientific proof other than my own observations. I havent read anything on the topic either but thought I would share.

[Jerhart]

Thanks for the post! I have a cinny female I have been cycling and she had been soaking the last week or two, and she never use to soak. I just figured it was a shed issue, but she never shed? I may have to go throw her boyfriend in there now!!

[West Coast Jungle]

So here is Xena again Ovulating after soaking on and off for almost two weeks.



Now I have a spider girl who has been glowing since she shed on 1/7 and now has started her soaking and note she is not in shed.



I expect her to ovulate in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully I will capture it on camera.

[m00kfu]

Thanks for the info, Raul. That's something that I don't really recall hearing or reading about before. It'll be interesting to see if anyone else chimes in with similar observations. Maybe I'll have to throw some large bowls in with the girls I'm hoping will go this year and see if get the same kind of activity.

[West Coast Jungle]

Here is another girl (Greta)who has been glowing for weeks, is off feed and has now starting soaking. I wonder if it is for hydration, cooling down or both.
I also expect her to ovulate in the next couple of weeks. It has become a sign for me that good things are on the way.

[alohareptiles]

Great pics...Best of luck...

[dsirkle]

I am not even going to attempt breeding until next season in order to be certain that my females are big enough not to be endangered but I have 2 females that started soaking almost day and night since about a week ago. I thought that it might be a pre shed issue as well.

[West Coast Jungle]

So I have more soaking girls.
This first girl is so big we had to get a bigger water tub.


Here is a ghost female soaking and then begining her ovulation. She soaked for excatly three weeks and then ovulated.



So far the first girl in this thread has laid 6 good eggs on 03/13 and the spider girl laid 6 good eggs today. No slugs

[Reediculous]

Those girls have been busy!

Nice

[Seneschal]

Here is another girl (Greta)who has been glowing for weeks, is off feed and has now starting soaking. I wonder if it is for hydration, cooling down or both.
I also expect her to ovulate in the next couple of weeks. It has become a sign for me that good things are on the way.

Greta is one hot mama! This is really interesting. Where do you get your bowls? I have a big ceramic bowl in my biggest girl's tub (which is great because she can't tip it over, lol, not with a half inch thick bottom!) but while it's a dog bowl, she can't fit entirely inside it. Would you suggest I replace it with something larger? I've been seeing a lot of bowl wrapping and she's been locking up every time I put my male with her, for about a month, and one of my girls has been refusing him the last few times. Where would you suggest I find a bowl large enough? Or should I just buy a small kitty litter pan?

Thanks, and this is a really interesting thread. I didn't know they would soak so consistently!