Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This female is keeping me guessing. She has made a nest and looks ready to go, but no eggs. How many days past ovulation shed should I wait before I really begin to worry? Feed back will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Tony

I've known two large scale breeders of ball pythons that have had females drop eggs up to 45 days following the pre-egg shed.

However, I've heard of innumerable cases (including one of my own) where females swell up so large from developing ova, that the swelling is mistaken for ovulation. I have one female that did so recently. The swelling went down after a day (like ovulation), I sent a pic to two prominent ball pythons breeders (they said they think it was ovulation), she immediately went to basking behavior - from keeping high 70's to low 80's before 'ovulating' to high 80's to low 90's, went off feed, stopped breeding (BUT I CONTINUED BREEDING TRIALS). However, here it is about 50 days later and she's bred 4 times this month with 2 different males and has continued feeding. It's not too late for her, but it probably would be if I had discontinued breeding trials.

I recommend to anyone (THIS WAS RELAYED TO BE FROM THE BARKERS) to ALWAYS make a breeding trial with a prospective female after EVERY shed cycle before she lays eggs - EVEN IF YOU THINK IT'S THE PRE-EGG SHED.

I may be inexperienced, but the above sure seems like solid advice to me.

Oh, yeah, this female also shed her skin 19 days after 'ovulating'. She's been an education for me.