Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know the ball python book by kevin says that females can retain sperm for up to a year, now the million dollar question is, how many of you HAVE bred a female that didn't go for that year but the next year without breeding? its just that i have a female that has not bred since last season and for some reason just gained an extra 200 grams out of nowhere and she last at in nov. now she is in shed, she is about 1936 grams. Thanks again, everyone here has been very helpful.

It is quite possible to retain sperm, but they cannot just gain 200GR out of nowhere. Developing follicles and/or eggs take away fat reserves from the female, not out of nowhere. Mike

I agree that the weight gain you are seeing can't come out of no where. How fast did she gain this, exactly?

This past fall there were at least several posters who indicated that a female who had laid for them produced a clutch fathered both by the male(s) they had bred her with this year as well as the male(s) she was bred with last year. Would they have ovulated and produced clutches from the retained sperm if they hadn't been bred again? Who knows?
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Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly
2.0 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

I had a female lay a clutch of 10 good eggs and 1 slug six months after being bred once by a male I had placed her with "just for a second" while I cleaned her cage. I hadn't planned on breeding her a second year in a row, and she was still underweight at the time she was bred by the male. She held onto it for six months though, and then boom! Ovulation.

Last time/ this time you weighed her, are you sure your scale was zeroed out? My box that I put the snakes in to weigh them on the scale is about 200g. Could explain the mystery weight gain.

And like the previous replies said - weight gain doesn't come out of nowhere. My gravid girls hover at pretty much the same weight, maybe minor weight loss, until they drop eggs.

~jen
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"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."
- Anna Sewell (1820-1878)

I've had this happen many Times with Burm's 20 some years ago. I just didn't breed them and still got eggs ayr later..With about 3/4's of them being fertile.

Then a Following Year I didn't breed them and I still got Eggs with about 1/4 of them being Fertile. Thats Nutts huh

Van's beleave it or Not, but its TRUE
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Forever Trust in what we are,and nothing else Matters

wow, thanks for everyones relies, she is going into her shed right now so lets see if anything happens in about 30 or so days, thanks again! Yes my scale was zeroed out. . . twice, she hasn't ate in awhile either like 2 months.