Okay.... here ya go, this is the story of Licorice... You tell me what you think...
Late March, Early April, Licorice was bred three successive times for HOURS at a stretch each time.
May 7th: Licorice Shed
May 23rd: Licorice Laid 15 yellow-tinged but otherwise seemingly good eggs.
Approximately May 30th: All eggs died at the same stage of development. (My guess due to the development of the embryos, I could be WAY off here)
June 19th and June 21st: Licorice was placed with the same male and enthusiastic breeding commenced
June 25th: Eggs were opened and looked over. (all had embryos barely the size of kidney beans, solid yolks.)
June 25th: She refused a meal... had been eating voraciously up until then.
June 30th: Licorice is blue
July 4th: Shed
July 6th: Refused a meal. Inspired NO amorous advances from the male, and rejected him when he got close to her anyway.
She is VERY swollen... I thought she might be preparing to ovulate, developing follicles, what have you... now I wonder if she's just plain gravid.
It's been 44 days since she laid her previous clutch. If she takes 16 days to lay her eggs like the previous clutch, she will be laying on day 58 of the previous eggs incubation.
She was bred 17 days ago.
is she gravid???? If so why did she breed? Or could she be gravid with eggs produced by that 17 days ago breeding? That would put her clutch at 30 days after breeding. Somehow that seems a bit too short.
This girl is driving me crazy, especially as I can not be certain that she is even capable of laying a good clutch of eggs. (If this batch .. .if she has a batch... is bad, I'll try once more with a different male next spring... if that is bad she will be retired permanently from breeding)
In any case... anyone with opinions I would love to hear them!
-----
~Sasheena
