pregnant or not

[Slangen4]

I saw my female ball python hook up with the male on 21 November.
Her shed was on the 6th nov .
Thought she might have laid by now.
she feels hollow, a few bumps not sure if that is muscle or possible eggs.
she has been displaying pregnant characteristics.
When will she lay?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I saw my female ball python hook up with the male on 21 November.
Her shed was on the 6th nov .
Thought she might have laid by now.
she feels hollow, a few bumps not sure if that is muscle or possible eggs.
she has been displaying pregnant characteristics.
When will she lay?

So you saw a lock on november 21st and expect that she would have lay already (12 days later)? My advice to you you need to do some research lots of it.


It's a bit more complicated than that first there is follicular growth which takes 4 to 8 months then there are things to look for such as the female cooling herself off, lumping ovulating having a pre-lay shed (10 to 14 days after ovy 30 days before laying) etc.....the information is out there.

[Slangen4]

So you saw a lock on november 21st and expect that she would have lay already (12 days later)? My advice to you you need to do some research lots of it.


It's a bit more complicated than that first there is follicular growth which takes 4 to 8 months then there are things to look for such as the female cooling herself off, lumping ovulating having a pre-lay shed (10 to 14 days after ovy 30 days before laying) etc.....the information is out there.

ah thank you very much. I thought that her recent shed might have been the pre-lay shed.
As she was already displaying the cooling off and hogging the water bowl etc. Before the hook I saw her flick/wag her tail and the follicles came out.
Any help is appreciated.

[Slangen4]

Just checke my chart. I meant to say they locked on the 10th November.

[Godzilla78]

Um yeah. Its like saying, “I saw mom and dad in bed last week, mom still hasn’t had a baby, when am I going to have a new sister?”

haha, need more info on the breeding timeline.

[Slangen4]

Um yeah. Its like saying, “I saw mom and dad in bed last week, mom still hasn’t had a baby, when am I going to have a new sister?”

haha, need more info on the breeding timeline.

yes i see. I was advised to do the 3 days on 3 off x 3 routine so.
I put male and female together on 25/26/27 october
then again on 1/2/3 November
and again on 8/9/10 november

on the 9th she was wiggling her tail and showed off what she got.
on the 10th i saw them hooking.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Here is what I usually recommend for new breeder http://ballpython.ca/breeding/, this will give you an idea of the type of behavior and physica change to look for throughout breeding.

As mentioned previously the whole process takes a while, and if your female still locks this means she has not ovulated.

There is also no point in doing 3 days on 3 days off, pairing a female once a month is all that is needed.

[Maddumpling]

You can also look back at cape fear constrictor post about follicular development. Some snakes will ovulate sooner than expected depending on how big the follicles are from the start of the pairing. Some will take months to develop. He had some graphs that showed several females growing their follicles. I know a breeder that ultrasounded one female and she already had 20mm follicles without even introducing the male. But like Deborah said it is way too soon to even talk about ovulation. I have a snake that has been paired since September and she was cooling a bit and still eating but now she's off food for the last two weeks and I'm only thinking she is starting to get gravid. You will know when she is with eggs when you see that huge bulge down near the end of the body and she has not eaten for a while.

[Slangen4]

I am pleased that i have found some people to chat to about it.