What I did my first season was take like 3 good pictures of each snake that's breeding and keep them on my comp during the whole breeding season. That way I can refer to them throughout the season to see the effects of the breeding season (it's hard to notice by eye when your snake is losing weight very slowly over the 6 month long breeding season). That along with weighing them helps me see how much "fat" they're losing as opposed to growing or using the fat to build eggs...Anyone eating throughout the season in my house gets a 4 days on 4 days off schedule...if they stop eating they get something like 2 weeks off and if they still don't eat, but they haven't lost they're "plump"appearance or significant weight, I'll give them another shot at a lady...To me it's all about the snake's fat reserves...if they're dwindling..he's DONE...if he stays nice and fat he gets to breed...But the pics helped alot to see that my male mojave was losing alot of fat even though the scale said he had gained a little that first year and I pulled him...Still here today...and thats what's important! Not to mention the job was already done and I had 3 mojaves and 2 normals that spring..Good luck!