Hormonal color shift: Kay

[Ball Clan]

I showed a before and after on Kay last year also when she started "glowing," but her color shift is so dramatic I had to photograph it again this year.

She began brightening up about 3 weeks ago, right after what I strongly believe to be a pre-ovulation shed. Here is the progression.


December 18 (before any locks):



March 14:



March 27:



Pairing was Fire Spider x Normal, and Kay is about 2550 grams if you're curious. Thanks for looking.

[Zedd]

Wow! Nice!

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[J.P.]

i love it when females glow.
the colors would pop more if the background wasn't brown.

[AlexisFitzy]

Oh wow that color change is so drastic! so very cool thanks for sharing.


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[darkranger69]

Very instructive....thanks for sharing

[ViperSRT3g]

Does this color shift only happen for female snakes? And what might it mean if there is never any color changes?

[Ball Clan]

She does it when she's becoming gravid. The last 3 years I've really paid more attention to it. She starts to brighten up immediately after her pre-ovulation shed and gets steadily brighter until ovulation. Then she holds her color until she lays eggs, then fades back to dark. One of my other girls, which happens to be Kay's offspring, is also gravid this year (should lay eggs circa April 18) and has also displayed this color shift in the exact same pattern thus far. She's still brighter than normal but not as much as before the pre-lay shed.

I do notice more subtle color shifts in my males sometimes, but much less dramatic and with little rhyme or reason.