Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone ever known a ball to have a "pre-lay shed" before ovulation? I know this sounds stupid and I know ovulation comes before the pre-lay shed, but my female shed then a week or ten days later started exhibiting ovulation-like behavior like inverting and nest building. Could the shed just have been a shed? Or could she be ready to lay in 10 days like my calender says she will ( or - a few days of course). I am a bit confused by her behavior. Thanks in advance.

I don't believe so. I have had females shed and shortly thereafter ovulate, and then shed again. I have never had a female, NOT, have a pre-lay shed.

However I have heard of females having 2 pre-lay shed, but that is very rare.

MJ
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I am sort of pulling this out of my rear end but lately I have noticed females shedding at around the time that I noticed large follicular growth. Mark have you witnessed this??

Many of our females have been off food for months now and seemed to all shed about the same time in their follicular development stages. Perhaps this is just a coincidence but I thought it was worth mentioning in respect to the start of this thread.

Mark... in a previous conversation I remember you stated something about a female's color changing near the end of follicular growth just before ovulation? I have not yet witnessed this but maybe you have better color sight than I do.

Anyone else see what I've seen with these sheds??

Thanks for your consideration,
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Sean Bradley
Owner : EbN
www.ExoticsByNature.com
www.BallPythonMorphs.com
www.CornSnakeMorphs.com

I had one female shed 19 days after an immense swelling caused by enlarging follicles (was NOT ovulation).

When it comes to gravid females, I am more of a looker than a feeler. I'm really not that good at palpating so I very rarely do it . Only when I'm not convinced a female is building towards ovulation, will I palpate her.

This time of year I get pretty excited when females shed because chances are I'm only a few weeks away from an ovulation.

Yes my females on the most part, go through a color change. It's like someone has turned up the dimmer switch on them and they glow. I call it "Glow before they go". You can really see it in their heads. This can happen up 2 2 months prior to ovulation. So far, this year, I have been right on the money

MJ
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all of my females have a shed approx 6-8 weeks prior to ovulation (3 females so far this year out of 7 breeding females). As follicles grew rapidly near ovulation 2 of 3 of these females exhibited body-turning, but all 3 females were still cool-seeking at this stage.

After ovulation the same 2 females exhibit a lot of side-laying. The third female just ovulated (het ghost which produced in '03), so it's too early to have seen postural changes.

But again, all females are going to shed prior to ovulation, but how long the interval between shed and ovulation seems to vary pretty widely. For me it's 6-8 weeks or so.

Good luck!
Scott J. Michaels DVM