Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I remember reading on someones website that when a female is wrapped around the water bowl it means something. Like she is going to ovulate, or she has already ovulated or she is going into her pre-lay shed. Something. I can no longer find the website that I found this information at. Can anyone help. I have a female that has been "laying cool" for a while now, and I am wondering what this means. She is about 2000 grams and was bred with a normal male. I have seen no basking with her belly up, as of yet.

Jason

During the breeding season, females tend to seek cooler temps when growing folicles. Sometimes I see mine wrapped tighly around their ceramic water bowls. I take this as an indicator that she is seeking the cold of the bowl to further enhance growth. This is mere speculation on my part, but I do believe that it is a good positive sign in regards to breeding. So much so, that I document all such sightings.

As far as time goes, it is hard to determine how long it will be before ovulation is witnessed, if at all, but in my mind, it is bound to happen soon.

Good luck! Keep asking questions and pay attention to the small details that you witness. They can lead to huge results.

Markus
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www.ballpython.ca

Upon looking at your site, I think that I remember reading the info about the "laying cool", and around the water bowl from there.

Thanks again,
Jason

...wrapping around a water bowl to get cooler is another...

...I don't know, maybe it's just me, but how does a snake get cooler by wrapping around a water bowl?

Let's examine this: the water bowl is surrounded by air of a given temp...objects equilibrate to the surrounding air temp...now one ASSUMES the water bowl is cooler than the surrounding air...the rate that water evaporates from the bowl is insignificant to produce "evaporative cooling" of the water bowl...

Personally I think snakes use the bowl as an ANCHOR, unless someone can explain this one to me.

Scott J. Michaels DVM
Serpent City

PS - please note this is NOT an attack on ANYONE's opinions or whatever, just some food for thought!

Why assume anything? Why not just temp gun a ceramic water dish and then temp gun the substrate right beside it and find out for sure, rather than speculate?

I think its to get cooler, simply because I have similar-shaped objects on both the warm and cool ends and I get the same stuff as Mark does, with the females forming complete loops on the cool end water dish. Its uncanny.

Scott won't be at a computer for a couple days so asked if I would relay his response:

Using a temp gun on different types of surfaces can sometimes lead to inaccurate readings. Like light colored and shinny surfaces have more of a tendency to be off.

This was the jist of what he said I couldn't write fast enough to copy everything verbatim...

On a side note I just went and temp gunned a bunch of water bowls and the cypress mulch next to them. The water bowls were around 1 to 1.5 degrees higher in my bigger Sterilites and .5 to 1.0 degree in my smaller Rubbermaids.

George

Hey Doc, Do snakes get cramps? Is it possible that tightly wrapping the water bowl may be a way to releive some of the minor pain and discomfort that may be associated with releasing Ova? I know my wife certainly appreciates a good belly massage during certain times of the month.

>>...wrapping around a water bowl to get cooler is another...
>>
>>...I don't know, maybe it's just me, but how does a snake get cooler by wrapping around a water bowl?
>>
>>Let's examine this: the water bowl is surrounded by air of a given temp...objects equilibrate to the surrounding air temp...now one ASSUMES the water bowl is cooler than the surrounding air...the rate that water evaporates from the bowl is insignificant to produce "evaporative cooling" of the water bowl...
>>
>>Personally I think snakes use the bowl as an ANCHOR, unless someone can explain this one to me.
>>
>>Scott J. Michaels DVM
>>Serpent City
>>
>>PS - please note this is NOT an attack on ANYONE's opinions or whatever, just some food for thought!

Scott won't be at a computer for a couple days so asked if I would relay his response:

Maybe there is something to that but one has to be cautious on anthropomorphic interpretations (projecting human feelings onto animals). Although it does seem like they are uncomfortable at times.

As with the previous response I posted in Scott's behalf I couldn't write fast enough to get every detail but this was the basic point he wanted to relay.

George

The water bowl will be the same temp as the ambient air temp, but hugging the bowl may lead to an animal to cool down faster because of the ratio of body mass being exposed to a cooler surface....JMO & I agree with Scott 100%.
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Chad Bachman

Hi Scott!

I never said that the water bowls were cooler:

Quote: "I take this as an indicator that she is seeking the cold of the bowl to further enhance growth. This is mere speculation on my part, but I do believe that it is a good positive sign in regards to breeding.

However I just went into my snake room and tested 8 compartments at 8 differnt levels in the room and found ceramic water bowls to be on avarage 1 degree F cooler than the substrate 1 to 2 inches away. Then again, once the snake is wrapped around the bowl I would think that it would quickly take on the temp of the snake.
I think then, that the anchoring is also a factor. What I find is that they don't lay like they usually would in a traditional coil, but rather they hug the bowl with the white of their belly pressed firmly against the bowl very tightly.

I'm a bit of a fanatic about behavior swings. What they mean, as I mentioned in my previous post, is mere speculation on my part. I'd be interested to know if any ultrasound owners have observed the same behavior and if they have found any correlation between that and folicular growth.

Markus
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www.ballpython.ca