Do females ever eat while ovulating?

[rufretic]

My first time breeding female looked to be ovulating but when she smelled rat she started searching so I overed and she took it and ate. She's been getting paired for the last few months locking every time. She shed last week and then I noticed she was bulging towards her lower end which I thought had to be ovulation, it's been a week since her last meal. But now that she ate, I'm not so sure anymore. She is due to be paired again so I'm just debating if I should put the male back in with her in a couple days after she has a little time to digest. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

[Stewart_Reptiles]

It's unusual but it can happen.

Where is your female when resting hot side or cool side?

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[rufretic]

It's unusual but it can happen.

Where is your female when resting hot side or cool side?

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Thanks Deborah. She has been on the cool side for a while now including when she looked to be ovulating. This morning she was in the middle of the tub which means she was probably half way on the heat tape, I used 11" heat tape and my tubs are 24" I believe. I'll check on her tonight when I get home from work to see if she is on the warm side now. If she is that's a pretty good sign I'm assuming but is there any harm in introducing the male again either way? Or is 3 months of getting locks pretty much got me covered and I should just be watching for ovulation? Do they usually have a pre ovulation shed or is it just before they lay that they shed? Because I'm pretty positive she's not full of eggs yet, she's either still building or just ovulated.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

If she remain on the cool side what you saw is probably her building up, once they ovulate they move back to the warm side.

They can shed prior to ovulation however the only shed that counts is the one occurring post ovulation (14 days on average after ovy) from that time it's only about 30 days before eggs.

[rufretic]

As always, great info! I'll keep an eye on her and see if she switches to the warm side now. If not, I guess more impatient waiting lol. Thanks again.