Are my females gravid?

[dr del]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but do the follicles need to be fairly large to be easily felt this way? I keep hearing they're like a string of pearls, but are they kind of mobile and soft in the body depending on how the snake flexes her muscles/moves around?

Back when I was pairing my first female a couple years ago, I didn't know what I was feeling in her body or not all the way up until after she probably even ovulated LOL. I'm pairing two females this year and still not sure what I'm feeling or not.

Bigger is easier to feel no doubt. They go from around small hard pearls up to hard ping pong balls right before ovulation and eggs are considerably softer after that. The snakes resistance/ muscle tone/ cooperation makes a huge difference to what you can feel when but if they are not resisting it can give you great information. After ovulation I do it far less often as all I would be looking for is the position in the body to give me a clue when they are likely to lay and you can quite often pick that up visually.