Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay. I'm really confused.

On 11-17, female swells. She sheds only 9 days later. Male has continued to breed her until about one week ago (I thought he was losing interest). Swelling spread out, but she stayed thicker. Two days ago (12/5) She getts even thicker. This morning, I wake up to him breeding her again. What is going on? Any guesses? Below are the pictures from 11/17, and from today. Thanks for any help!!!

11/17/2007

12/07/2007

OK, I don't know what's going on with your boa, but I do know what mine do.

Mine do something similar to what yours is doing.

First I'll see a slight swelling. It's not actually a swelling, but it's more of a roundness and firming in the area where they'll ovulate.

Then, a few weeks later, I'll see another swelling. This will be larger, but not really "huge". This is the pre-vo swell, in my boas.

Then 1 to 4 weeks later they'll swell again. This time it will be HUGE. That's when I know my boas have ovulated. The males will lose interest, up to 2 weeks, before these final swellings. Most times there's 2 ovulation swellings. Sometimes there's only 1.

My males "always" lose interest prior to this HUGE swelling.

I should see a "HUGE" swell in 1-4 weeks? Am I following your timeline correctly? Also, should the swell go down completely before then, or will she remain larger?

Another point of interest, when I lightly touch the swollen area, it is very firm. Feels like she's eaten a bunch of rocks. Is that similar to your experience?

Thanks for all your help!

Not all ovulations are HUGE, but most are. The pre-ov swelling never went down completely, in my boas. It stayed firm and slightly swollen in the area of ovulation. The ovulations, in my boas, were HUGE. They went down in 24 to 48 hours. The males lost interest prior to the ovulations. Most of my boas had 2 ovulations. Only 1 of them had 1.

After the pre-ov my males started breeding more aggressively. They were on the females almost non-stop, until just before the females ovulated. Then they suddenly lost interest and the females ovulated a few days later.

If your male is still breeding her, he might not be finished. If he's lost interest, you should be looking for another swell. In my boas, the swell was so large that they showed scale seperation all around their body(in the ovulation area), even the scales on their backs showed seperation. It looked painful for the females and it was very solid.

Great information...Thank you for sharing. It must be kind of like salmon fishing, you keep thinking you have one, but you're just snagged on the bottom. But when you get one, you know!

Thanks again!

They were just testing your patience! LOL!!

Looks like he got it right this time! Congrats!

Andy
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