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My female Thayeri that already laid one clutch is going into the blue. She laid her clutch on June 15th. She appears to to gravid again but I'm really not positive. I noticed today that she is going into the blue. I've palpated her and it feels like eggs but I'm not really sure if its just not folicles. I have had her with 3 of my males and she always looked to be shaking off the boys. I've been feeding her like a pig too. When I fed her a couple of days ago she would only eat one smallish mouse. Does anyone have any surefire palpating technique they wish to share? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here's a pic of the patient

Vichris

.. no sure way to say for sure. I would suggest the best thing is to do is keep the male in with her until the last minute.

Follicules feel like a string of pearls, they are small and seperate.

Eggs are full, the size of a laid egg, they push up against eachother, sometimes its difficult the feel the spaces between the eggs. Once experienced, you can tell which are fertile and which are not. By they size and hardness. Good Luck, FR

Posted by: FR at Sun Jul 17 09:20:46 2005 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

Eggs are full, the size of a laid egg, they push up against eachother, sometimes its difficult the feel the spaces between the eggs. Once experienced, you can tell which are fertile and which are not. By they size and hardness. Good Luck, FR

Thats funny because every season I have females that feel like they have full term eggs until right after they shed the start to reabsorb. This is also after leaviing the male in with the female until after the shed so there is no missed opportunity for the male to do his thing.

I have palpitated many females and I still get confused on how to tell the difference between good eggs and bad ones (or follicles). I have felt to hard at times and popped them. This year I had a gravid female eaten by its mate (at least it looked gravid) the eggs were real delicate and probably the stage that it is easy to pop them during palpitaion. As you can see at the right hand of the pic how delicate that egg is. It was not cut open but burst open because of the thin shell.
Here you can see the snake after I got the male to regurge her. Before she was eaten I palpitated her and it felt like she had soft follicles and I did not pronounce her gravid. While other snakes I felt very hard eggs that were reabsorbed.(?)

(Wild A$$ed Guess) I would guess that she is gravid. The eggs/folicles feel full without much if any seperation. This female has some history of double clutching on her own. She has spent plenty of quality time with three of my males but did not appear receptive. I guess its pretty obvious that she knows a helluvalot more about whats happening then I do. I'm just along for the ride. Thanks for your help FR.

Chris G

No WAGGING on this forum! LOL

Kerby...