Reptile & Amphibian Forums

37 days and still she hasn't laid. She is starting to shed again. I've never had a female go this long. Tuesday she is scheduled for an ultrasound to make sure everything is where it's supposed to be. She appeared to be ready to lay several times but nothing. I thought, Humidity? I added some moss to her hide and still nothing. I've never heard of a gravid female shedding, I was stunned when she started to blue. I've seen plenty of females shed after laying and that's what has me concerned. let's all pray the eggs aren't impacted...
Think I'll go sulk now....

Fun isn't it? Not. I have the first one of the year that is 4 days late. That's not much but don't you hate it when they can't stick to a schedule?!
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

Hello,
I had a very similar experience last year that I did talk about in another thread a while back, but I will relate it again here. Last year, I had a Normal female that bred to my Pastel male. I came home from Afghanistan on April 12, 2005. The day I got home I saw an ovulation from this girl. I don't have any records in front of me, so the rest of the times are approximations. She began a shed cycle shortly after the ovulation as expected. After her shed, we waited for eggs. After about six weeks, we had no eggs, but she began to shed again. After this second shed, I brought her to a friend, who palpated her and looked her over and claimed that he thought she was gravid, but didn't undertstand the second shed. We both thought that I may have just misidentified the ovulation. Well after the third shed and still no eggs, I started to worry that she may have a twisted oviduct and couldn't pas the eggs. Shortly after her third shed, I offered a small meal and she ate it.
Skip foward to October of this year. This female never gave me slugs or eggs of any kind. She ate very well throught the off-season. In November she started breeding my Spider male. After about five copulations and a few months later, now late January, I had my friend ultra-sound this female to see how she was doing. At the time of ultra-sound, she had 23mm follicles and appeared to be growing. The twist off this female, is that while ultrasounding, my friend not only saw the follicles from this year, but something else that did not appear normal. This is something that he had not seen before, and we could not be sure what it is, but we believe it to be follicles/slugs from last year. She has since ovulated and is due to lay eggs on April 27th. I only hope that she will not be egg bound, and at least will pass what she has in her. I palpated her the other day and felt what I believe to be 7 eggs, not slugs. This has been a long wait for me, and I hope she lays right on time. My only hope is that she will lay anything, even if it is all slugs, as this happens to be the first ball python that me and my wife ever owned.
Good luck to all this year,
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Tim and Monica Bailey
Bailey & Bailey Reptiles

She will lay when she is ready!

Corey