First let me apologize for the long post. I am not a huge breeder and will produce about 35 clutches this year. I don't proport to be an expert and there are MANY with much more experience than me. I do have a degree in zoology and although I am the CEO of a healthcare facility now, I must confess to being a frustrated biological scientist and that is the way I approach the care of my reptile collection. As we speak my third clutch this season is hatching. To date I have averaged slightly over 3 breedings per female prior to ovulation and I am on track to have over 90% of females bred lay clutches. I have one male that I expect over 100 eggs from (currently have 3 clutches laid and 5 additional ovulations totaling 72 eggs from this male with several more females with follicles over 2.0 cm that should progress to ovulation in the next 3-6 weeks). I am located in the Northeast and there is 2ft of snow outside at the present time. The reason I mention the above is so that you know that while I may not be an expert, I am not a novice either.
I was not insinuating that if you turn up the heat that all your females will not ovulate. I do believe based on my "research" over the last two year specifically on this issue that females that are "on the edge" (those with follicles of approximately 1.5cm and can go either way, ovulate or absorb) can be pushed away from ovulation with heat (especially overly hot hot spots). Last year I turned up my heat early and had about a dozen females with follicles between 1.5cm and 2.0cm absorb their follicles - I am still smarting about that!!! The females with follicles bigger than this and a few in the 1.5 range went on to ovulate, but the others stopped as soon as I turned up the heat. Coincidence? It is possible, but you can bet I won't be turning up the heat or the hot spots (for non-ovulated females) before May 1 around here.
Now that I think about it, if I recall correctly Tracy Barker also indicated somewhere in her new book (which is excellent by the way) that she felt heat or maybe it was just hot spots were detrimental to preovulating females.
It is still too early to say definitively, but so far based on quasi scientific attempts at ball python breeding my research strongly suggests the following:
1. Temperature is probably less important to "stimulating" follicle growth than most people think. By ultrasound I am able to identify at least 10-20%% of my breeder female population in any given year that have initiated follicle development long before I ever turned the temps down. I had females this year with follicles over 2 cm at the end of September and my first clutch was laid December 31. I am not saying temperature is not important, and believe me I still drop my temps like everyone else, but how do you explain the high percentage that start follicle development at the end of the summer?
2. There appears to be a stage when females have follicles somewhere between 1.0cm and 2.0cm where they are very suceptable to absorbing their follicles if they have access to a heat source. It seems that I can tell the ones that are going to reabsorb their follicles because they are the ones coil on their hot spots (if they have them) before ovulation. This is the first year of turning off my hotspots and 1 year doesn't definatively prove anything, but it is hard to argue with an over 90% gravid rate for females bred.
I would love to hear comments or thought from others on this issue. I don purport to know everything but I am trying to learn as much as I can.
Thanks and here's to a successful season.
Grant Whitmer

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