Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can these two be confused? How can I be sure that my female has ovulated as opposed to growing follicles? Can follicles feel like eggs?

Thanks!

As has been said a million times by a million different people, and it is true, ovulation cannot be mistaken for anything. Follicular development happens up until ovulation. When you palpate a female, you are feeling the follicles, not the eggs. From my experience, a few days before ovulation, the follicles that you would normally feel sort of give way to a mushy feeling inside. You'll no longer feel follicles, and once ovulation has happened, you will ne longer be able to (nor should you try) to palpate the eggs.
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www.strictlyballs.ca

Follicles will get larger as they develop, but they feel much more solid than eggs. After the female ovulates you will notice a big difference when palpating. It goes from feeling hard marbles to feeling kind if squishy.
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John Vandegrift

It might be easier to think of follicles as a "thing" and ovulation as a process. Follicles can be felt as little bumps of varying sizes depending on the stage of development. When the female ovulates, she will typically swell somewhere in the area of 12 hours as if she ate a large meal - but not always.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

During follicle growth a female ball python will likely choose to stay on the colder side of the tub/terrarium. You also may see her wrapping around her water bowl. She is attempting to cool her body down through heat conduction into the water. Building follicles is a process that must occur at lower temperatures. The process of building follicles can take many weeks for a female ball python to complete and during this time you should be introducing the male or males into her tub/terrarium. Once the follicles are complete and she has successfully bred, the femlae will ovulate which is a process that takes several hours to complete. During ovulation the mature unfertilized follicles move away from the ovaries down the oviduct where they are subsequently fertilized by the awaiting spermatazoa. If you fail to observe ovulation then it is possible to mistake unfertilized follicles for fertilized ovum. If I fail to observe ovulation in a female I keep introducing a male until I am positive the female is gravid. Female ball pythons will also begin a shedding cycle (post ovulation shed) approximatly 14 days after they ovulate. Other than the post ovulation shed some signs I look for are uncharacteristic aggression, nesting behavior in the substrate, obvious swelling in the snakes posterior before the cloaca, and odd resting postures.

Bottom line: If you didn't observe the ovulation first hand you could mistake unfertilized follicles for fertilized ovum. Keep introducing the male or males until you are certain she is gravid. Of course I'm not taking into account fickle ball pythons that won't breed for whatever reason

Brad Ratliff

Thanks

Reason I am asking is because both of my girls are very full in the lower third of their body and have not eaten. I can absolutely feel eggs(or something) - I can count them as well. Both have shed and one is on day 37 the other on day 29 and have not laid. I was assuming they were gravid but since they hvae not laid, I was thinking I could have mistaken follicle growth for actual eggs.

In the last week or so, one of them has really gotten very swollen in her lower third - not sure if that is ovulation or her just getting ready to lay.

Does it look like she swallowed a softball? Thats generally what a good ovulation looks like. If shes just generally "swollen" toward the vent as you say, then I'm guessing she is very near laying...

If your girls are indeed gravid you should not feel anything that resembles follicles. Follicles are hard and small in comparison with large squishy fertilzed ovum. I would advise against palpating them. Treat the eggs as gentle inside your females as you would outside your females; i.e. you wouldn't squeeze the crap out of them after she lays them right? At the point your girls should be at they would have begun to build a nest with substrate in the warmer areas of your tub/terrarium. You might even observe them coiling in a perfect tight coil as if they are sitting on eggs they have yet to lay. I put several inches of sphagnum moss in the bottom of my tubs and dampen it so the humidity is high. My girls push the moss around and form what looks like a bowl. Whatever substrate you use make sure it has a little extra water. My last female layed exactly on day 30 POS. Some take a little longer and some a little shorter.

Brad Ratliff

My first female went 46 days past pos. She layed 5 nice size fertile eggs. Ihave another that is over the 30 days but I can she is very close.

Brad

Both are doing exactly as you described. When I feel for eggs, I feel large squishy masses, but I am gentle. Both are very very swollen down the last third of their bodies. And they have pushed the s. moss out of the way and are coiled as if they had eggs in the middle like you mentioned. One is on day 38, the other on day 29.

WJ

I hope you got your incubator ready

I do - one is a big Nerd Line Orange female bred by an orange male and a pastel male, the other female is huge and was bred by a spider, so I have my fingers crossed.

Thanks!