Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok. I have had evil, my female jcp, for about a year. When I picked her up I was told she was a year old. Other sources and factors make me believe she is slightly older than two currently. I picked up an amazing high yellow male that is five y/o a few months back. My intention was to breed them. My suspicions of evil being older are based on a few things...She is about 5.5 feet long, she has good body mass. I decided to put the pair together and see what happened. I put them together about a month ago. Upon introducing the male to her enclosure she showed a keen interest in him. She watched him from above while he moved around. When they finally got closer to one another she stuck her tail straight out and as it twitched very quickly I could see that is looked like she was trying to musk or something. Since then they have been seen laying together on many occasions. Now the male is searching the cage a good bit and she has spent a lot of time in the water dish. She is dull looking like she needs to shed, but I have seen no blue eyes, and she has looked like this for over two weeks. So I pose the question for someone with more experience...Should I look for eggs, or should I think that something else may be happening? This is my first try at this so the tail twitching was a little strange to me and I did not know what to make of it. I have read multiple resources, as has my wife. I'm sorry this is such a long post, but I wanted to get all the information I could in here for an opinion from someone with some experience. Thanks for your time.

If she sheds and fails to eat afterwards, expect the eggs 25 days after the shed. I'm not sure what to make of the rest of your story, I've bred carpets only once. I suspected she was gravid and set up her nest box. Before laying, I began to think she wasn't gravid, but the 25th day I had a clutch.

Good luck
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Nick Puder
www.rnpreptiles.com

Thanks. My wife does not think she is gravid either, but she has refused to eat since they were paired up. She never has not eaten. She feels slightly heavier to me I try not to handle her anymore until I know for certain which way. Thanks again.

Daniel

Mine was thick, as you said yours was. She was so thick that she didn't expand with eggs. No stretching or anything. Bony after laying though. Just set up and hope for the best!
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Nick Puder
www.rnpreptiles.com

Ok. I have been watching her closely. Thanks.

It's not unusual for Carpets to darken while gravid. You can hold her gently while feeling underneath her to see if you feel lumps.

Ok. How noticeable would the lumps be? I would not want to cause damage to the eggs if there were any by being too rough. I just realized how little I know about this. I guess you never know until you try or ask questions.

palpate her. Very gently run your hand down her underside but while being firm, so you can feel the insides, and you will feel as she moves through your hand, eggs or no eggs.

All evidence suggests, Gravid, So get a box ready.
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Pat
"You keep WHAT in your freezer?" "Mice. And rats. If that bothers you, I can call them 'cows' instead."

1.1 Ill never tell...
1.0 100% het granite ij
0.1 granite ij
1.0 Jag 50% het granite
.2 striped coastals (Baylin)
1.2 Coastal Carpet Pythons
1.3 Jaguar carpet pythons (Australian addiction reptiles)
.2 Tiger Carpet (Dave prada HCQ with Baylin tiger)
1.2 centralian carpets
1.1 Irian Jaya carpets (boa cabana)
1.1 Jungle carpets (Futo)
1.1 Guyana Red tail boa
1.1 Water pythons Liasis fuscus
1.0 Brazilian rainbow boa
.1 Pitbull Wolfe mix

Ok. I will try to feel if there are any eggs brewing in there. Even if I don't feel any I think I am still going to have a box set up and ready for her. My hands don't have the sensitivity they used to. I got bit last year on the finger(hatchling albino burmese) and did not even know it had broken the skin. LOL! I'm hoping for the best. This would be the very first breeding ever for me. It's like Christmas almost.

Ok. Evil shed either sometime yesterday or last night. She is still kind of dull looking. I built two different size boxes and placed them in the cage with them. She has totally checked them both out, inside and out. One is fourteen by fourteen by four. The other is twelve by twelve by six. I have not gotten to the store to pick up my rodents for this feeding yet so I have not seen if she will eat or not. I tried to feel for lumps, but I'm not entirely sure what I felt. I thought I did, but am not sure. One question I have is does the brood box need to be enclosed like a hide box or does it need to be open top? I built mine close topped just to be on the safe side, but can remove some screws to make them open top if I need to. That's all for right now. Thanks.

Daniel