Dave, WOW, that is pretty suprising that you haven't been able to witness this. I don't want to sound too confident, but I bet you 100 bucks if you have been breeding that long, that you HAVE witnessed this. You may have disregarded this as as something else though.

It is pretty uncommon for me to miss ovulations of each female. Of course I can't say for 100 percent sure that she is OVULATING right when I'm looking at her, but she is in the process of ovulating which can take up to 3 days for a female to expell all her ova.

Here are some suggestions. Females won't feed 2 to 3 weeks before they ovulate. So, I would recommend weekly feedings of very small items. If you don't feed your females, then this may be of no use, but I can promise that it won't hurt the females if you try to offer a meal of small size weekly. When you notice your females don't want to take food, watch them very closely for the next few weeks. Write down ALL shed cycles that follow this. When you witness a shed, write it down, and babies are probably on the way in 105 days after this. Sometimes females don't give Post Ovulation Sheds, so this can be tricky, but that really is only occuring in about 15 percent of females. So, look for SHEDS, and write down days and try to calculate from those days. Also, Males tend to quit breeding about a week to 3 weeks before a female ovulates. So, watch carefully when those males QUIT. When this happens and a female SHEDS, write that down. Then reintroduce the Male. If the Male wants NO part of her, it is probably becasue she is gravid, and she is not letting off pheremones anymore.

Also, Some females Ovulate different from others. I am sure your females are probably not giving you massive ovulations. Check for swelling in the mid to low sections of the body about 18 to 22 inches below the heart. As an ovulation gets near the end, the tail near the vent is usually a little larger then normal.

I hope this helps. This goes to show you that no matter how many years we have been breeding, that we can always learn something new. I bet you have some knowlege or some ways of getting your females to breed that would benefit someone else in here. Maybe Me. We can never stop learning.

Best of luck in your breedings Dave, and I would LOVE to find out when you have your litters if you were able to pick up on anything that was mentioned in the forum that was of benefit. IF SO, PLEASE POST IT!!!!!!

Jeremy

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