How to ID an Ovulation

[MrLang]

I see a lot of posts where people are wondering if their female is ovulating. I wanted to provide some points of clarity for new breeders in the hobby to really understand what to watch for.

So you started to pair your snakes together and they're starting to figure out how things work and you've seen some good locks. Now what?

THE BUILDUP:
After some time your female is going to be building. She will eat like a horse and you should feed her a little bit more heavily than normal. The female knows she has started the process and is preparing her body for the huge energy toll of building and laying eggs. You'll end up looking for a glow and you'll think you've seen it as you marvel at the beautiful light colors of your snake. You'll see her start to get thicker and you'll think 'she must be ready to ovulate soon'. Remember, she's eating like a horse -- that's what you're witnessing. Then at some point she'll go off feed, although some females eat straight through the process, so don't rely on this to be a cue. She'll also start actually glowing and at this point you'll realize your snake is just pretty all of the time and what you thought was a glow before was actually just your female being awesome. What you want to see there is not that she looks lighter and brighter, but she actually looks 'creamier' and more like a hypo. The color change is what you'll see, not just lighter or brighter colors than normal.

This post is about ovulation, remember? So as she is glowing and maybe has gone off feed she's going to look really fat. You'll think 'is this her ovulation?!' but it's not. She'll look like she's eating big meals regularly even if she goes off feed. You'll notice her spending most of her time on the cool end prior to this point while building, but then you'll see her go to the hot side finally. In my experience she will look really bloated and sit on the hot side for anywhere from 1 - 2 months. During this time you're going to open the bin and check her regularly and think for sure that she's ovulating because she's huge. This is just the pre-ovulation swell.

THE HAPPENING (spoiler - it's not happening):
Then she starts to change... her middle gets a more distinct swell. Instead of looking like she is eating well, she will start looking like she JUST ate. Her belly will get a distinct bulge in the middle like a lump from a meal. This lump doesn't go all the way down the length of the snake, it's very localized and really does look like a meal bulge. Paired with this swelling you'll notice the end of her tail look skinny and you'll remember reading about a 'tail suck' that signifies ovulation. You'll think 'AHA! she's ovulating!' and you'll be wrong again. The bulge will go down in a few days and you'll feel confident that she has ovulated. You saw her belly swell up and you saw her tail suck in and then you'll see her sitting in a coil and think you're on a countdown to a pre-lay shed or eggs. She'll look like this:



See the swollen belly and the narrow tail? Not an ovulation - but it's a good sign that it will happen soon!

IT'S REAL:
About a week or 2 later you'll be opening the cage 2 times a day waiting to see her eyes cloud up for the pre-lay shed. One of the times you do this you'll catch her real ovulation. Her body will be spread wide and there will be a bulge that doesn't just look like she ate 1 big meal, it will look like she ate 4 of them in a row and they're filling her stomach end to end. When you thought you saw her swollen like she ate a nerf football, you'll realize she looked like she ate a tennis ball. NOW she looks like she ate a nerf football. She will look very uncomfortable and try to lay out flat and probably won't be in her hide. The tail itself will not look skinny, it will look inverted and skeletal -- 'tail suck' really is the best term to describe it and this is the most telling detail of the ovulation. If you can't see her spine in the tail, see the previous section. The other important detail here is the angle of the tail. Right where the swelling ends and the suck begins, the female will have the tip of her tail at a sharp right angle or turned up on the body like you see below. People say 'you'll know the ovulation when you see it' and they aren't lying to you, they're just being vague. Here's what you'll see when you know it's real. NOW you can start dancing and warming up the incubator:



The tail here does not just look skinny by contrast with the swell - this female is 1900 grams and that tail looks like the thickness of a 600 gram snake's tail.

If you look here you can see the spine raised and pushing at the skin, which is sucked around it:



Remember, the snakes don't read the ball python breeders guide. There are a lot of unexpected turns for better and worse in ball python breeding. The most important things are to keep your eyes and mind open to learning, roll with it, and HAVE FUN. I hope people find this helpful and may the odd gods be with you!

[Marrissa]

Thank you for the post! I keep reading the "is this an ovy" threads and mentally guessing to quiz myself before I scroll down to the experts comments. I'm wrong half the time lol. This contrasts helps.

This was your first season right MrLang?

[MrLang]

It was my first season and I was CONVINCED my females had ovulated right up until I saw it. You should see the sheet I log on lol. This female is marked as ovulating on 3 different dates. I'm glad you found this helpful! Hopefully others can find it and reference it to save themselves a lot of uncertainty.

[BHReptiles]

Thanks for the post! I find it very helpful to us first timers.

[bfirecat]

This seems extremely helpful.

Thanks!

[MrLang]

I just hope this doesn't get buried and lost

[snakesRkewl]

ovulations ...

blonde bumblebee


Amir line yellowbelly


Black pastel


albino


spider yellowbelly, starting her ovy today

[Coopers Constrictors]

Gotta love ovulations!

[lightpied]

nice!! very informative thread, this will defiantly help me out when im looking for my first Ovy ...hopefully soon here lol.

[Coopers Constrictors]

Horrible pic... but you get the idea...