Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i can't feel follicles on my ladies? How long do you wait till you decide to pull the females from the program b/c you can't feel any follicle growth? MAybe march, april??? I mean theres no since in wasting a male on a girl thats not developing rite?

thanks and i wigging out big time!!! MAybe my whole season is just a bust!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

please help!!!!!
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billy jean king
BugBusters

this is all relative to what is actually there, and your personal ability to feel them : )

if there are indeed no follicles to feel, then there is no point in pairing them up. i would separate and feed females to try and stimulate growth.

this time of year, if a female is above 6mm, i will wait a bit and see if she blooms. under 6 definitely feed. over 10, pair. that is an ultrasound measurement, but in the 8-10mm range, you should be able to palpate follicles with a skilled hand.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

thanks robin anybody else wanna give to the cause
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billy jean king
BugBusters

I agree with Robyn. IF your females are just not going to ovulate this year, then they probably deserve a chance at some chow, so go ahead and warm them up.

You didn't say how old or how big they were before you started cooling them and pairing them with your male(s). You also didn't say how long ago you started pairing them. That kinda matters.

Another thing, if you've never felt developing follicles before, you may not know them if you are feeling them. Plenty of people visually miss the ovulation bulge and don't even realize it when they have a gravid female... unless you've been doing this for a few years, but it doesn't sound that way.

Just on the basis of general reproductive physiology - I would caution you against trying too hard or too often to palpate your females for developing follicles. No, it isn't documented (at least anywhere that I know of for Ball Pythons), but there is at least some chance that if you don't know what you are feeling for, or how much pressure is appropriate, you could harm your animals... or just their reproductive organs.

Just a note of caution. You've gotten them this far. Calm down a bit and try to figure out what is in your animals' best interests. Several breeders have good information about cues to look for that indicate ovulation OTHER THAN palpating for follicles. Markus Jayne and The Snake Keeper both have very informative articles on breeding - and I'll bet ProExotics does too (their site just takes too long for me to load on my ancient computer and dial-up connection).

Good luck.

~Rebecca
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0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
1.2 Ball Pythons
[1.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1 '05 Het Orange Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)

This is just our opinions and what we have done in the past years. Before our females start developing folicules we run our males through this normally stimulates them to develop, some of our females develop with no male present but due to the cool down.
These are signs we look for
*lighter color, almost a washed look at times
*Females hugging their water bowls, or faring to the cool side of the cage
*females that go off feed

These are just indicators that normally cause us to feel for folicules, lots of times if the folicules are too large they cant be felt when palpating but that is also very close to ovulation.

A few other have asked about your female and males sizes, that would also help us, plus how cool did you drop them and how long have they been in cool down for..
Good Luck
Kim

I use the website by Markus jayne, Pictures and everything. He said he does not try to feel gor folicals.
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1.0 Het for pied
0.1 Het for Pied
1.5 normal balls
1.1 bearded dragons
0.1.0 Sulcata tort
1.3 kids
1.0 husband
To many little critters list

never.........maybe a few bumps on some colubrids......but I don't squeeze the snot out of my balls.....really.......cough.........and they still lay eggs usually..........

...........waste a male?.........they make millions of sperm a day.....either way they get used or replaced....might as well stick them in a female........

........

.
.
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.......................
...........all you have to do is try it........
...........studies are fun.............

thats hows i dooooes it!
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billy jean king
BugBusters

Yuck dude...

... snakey 'mammogram'

~Rebecca
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0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
1.2 Ball Pythons
[1.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1 '05 Het Orange Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)

broken ribs? cracked vertibrae?.liver damage? ripped kidney?............or just squish the sperm right out of them like a tube of toothpaste?.....

......they lay.....or they don't......I just breed them all......you can tell when it's time......

......I pity squished snakes........
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.......................
...........all you have to do is try it........
...........studies are fun.............