Question for those who know how to palpate

[loonunit]

Yeah, give them a couple weeks off this time. It's still early in the season---once you start feeling golf balls inside your female, THEN you want to get more aggressive about frequent pairing. He should show a lot of interest then, too, because he can tell she's getting ready to ovulate.

Like Domepiece said, ovulation isn't a sudden thing. She'll get brighter and brighter and you'll start to see a bulge. And the follicles will get very obvious. The period of time when she's really hard and swollen and miserable is only a few hours long, but she'll be swelling and glowing for days before and after.

She'll also shift from cold-seaking behavior to heat-seaking around ovulation.

As long as you mark down your best guess for the ovulation, you should have a pretty good estimate for when she's going to lay. Most females are pretty good about the pre-lay sheds. And even if she fakes you out the way Lois does to me every time, you still won't be off my more than a week. Just keep the incubator warm and check on her every day or so, and it'll be okay.

[Ally.]

It sounds like everything is going right with them especially if the female is peeing and tail wagging and the male has already locked with her. One thing is that if you introduce them too often they will stop showing interest or the female may believe that she is good to go and has stopped trying to attract the male. I only put a male in every 2 weeks and you only need 1 good lock a month. I personally think people put their male in too often. A longer break may be in order to get them going again. 4-7 is too soon.

This is good to know. I thought the 3 day on, 3 day off routine most people do was throughout the season. I didn't realize that it's not as important as it is when she's closer to ovulation. Once I take him out tomorrow evening, I'll keep them separated until after Christmas, and then only introduce them once or twice a month.

Thanks again for all the information Domepiece and loonunit. It helps a lot!

[Domepiece]

Wow, how did I forget to mention the glow, lol, Thanks loonunit Yes as mentioned above females will go through drastic color changes getting very bright and light in the dark areas, especially around the neck. They will also go off feed a couple months to a couple weeks before ovy. I offer several times after 1st refusal and if they keep refusing 3-4 times I stop offering.

[Ally.]

Wow, how did I forget to mention the glow, lol, Thanks loonunit Yes as mentioned above females will go through drastic color changes getting very bright and light in the dark areas, especially around the neck. They will also go off feed a couple months to a couple weeks before ovy. I offer several times after 1st refusal and if they keep refusing 3-4 times I stop offering.

In one of the links I've been reading, it says the colour change is pretty drastic and almost looks like a completely different snake, so I'm thinking this is something I won't be able to miss (hopefully).

[3skulls]

I know it's really early but I have a girl that looks like a different snake. She shed about a week ago and Wow, she is super bright now. I'm hoping this is a good sign
Her first lock was 10-30 and has locked almost every week after, besides when her mate was is shed.

Fingers crossed for everyone