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I think my females are broken...

J

joshjtd

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Ok before I start, I will give folks a run down. I have a small collection that I am breeding. I live in South Dakota so my weather is generally cooler than the people down south. All of the snakes I currently have I have purchased from other Fauna members within the last year and have all been through quarantine.

Now on to the fun part. I posted on here a few weeks back that I got my first clutch ever. My pastel gal laid on 12-18-13. Super late compared to all other information I have read. I check on my snakes daily and when I went to check on my female lesser, she had the look that she had just eaten a large meal and she has refused food for over a month now. It would appear that she was ovulating...in January. She has been bowl wrapping and other behaviors of being gravid so I guess I will know for sure here in the next 45 days or so.

My question is why do my gals seem to be so off the norm? I started pairing in October when I started my cool down (which is still in effect). I do know that the pastel gal and the lesser gal were sold as possibly still going this year (2013) but my last adult purchase was in August.

Does my cooler weather play a part in their cycle? I keep my house a 72 with my reptile room heated in the cooler months.

Any input would be appreciated.
 
Last season one of mine laid really late. Later I realized that, since her cage was higher up, she got more heat than the other females, especially at night when the heater was running. I'm thinking you may have something similar going on. You might try checking overnight temps to see if they're high. Can't think what else it might be. Good luck! :)
 
I guess I'm not quite sure what you're asking. It's normal for me to pair in October, have ovulations from January to February, and then have clutches from March to May. Are you asking if your pastel female got a late start, or that the rest of your girls seem off pattern? I would say that the pastel female bred about 3-4 months earlier than any girls in my collection, but I haven't noticed any particular species-wide pattern in egg laying times. I've heard of clutches being laid throughout the year. As long as your snake is healthy, I wouldn't worry too much. The only inconvenient thing about it is timing... if your males are "on" when she's "off," it could be annoying to get the pairings you want to happen actually happen.

I don't think cooler temps mean much, I really think it's photoperiod. I moved to North Dakota from Georgia two years ago, and my girls kept their cycles. In fact, one girl laid within a week in North Dakota from the previous year's clutch was laid in Georgia. All of my snakes can see ambient light through house windows.

I have noticed that different girls may initially "go" at different times depending upon the schedule of the previous breeder, but after a year or two they all seem to align their biological clocks and are rather predictable year to year.

I would suggest keeping records of feeding, shedding, pairings, ovulations, and eggs, if you're not already. It really does help keep you on schedule from year to year and figure out if there may be something unusual going on.
 
I started pairing two breeding pairs last Thanksgiving, observed several locks from each pair, ovy (tail suck) observed last weekend in the females, and both are now in full shed. It sounds like yours are on the same schedule as mine.
 
Thank you for the input. I should have put a bit more info in the original post. The reason I am puzzled is due to the fact that I began pairing in Oct. From all of the research I have done, I was under the impression that I really shouldn't expect to see any signs of gravid females until Feb. or Mar.

Perhaps these gals are gravid from the pairings before they were sent to me? I would really doubt it on the pastel gal as I purchased her back in June but I am new to this so I very well could be wrong.
 
I'm in Wisconsin, and I have very little issue with the temps. I keep a very similar breeding schedule and I see clutches from April til as late as September, and I pull all my males after February 14th.
 
This breeding season we cooled down october 2013 and started pairing november 2013. We just recently started feeling follicles janurary 2014 and have witnessed one ovulation. Eggs for us will come between late feburary 2014 and june 2014 with hatchlings from april 2014 to september 2014. We pull males after feburary 14th also. Another thing to note is we live in north tx. Our snakes are in a room where the afternoon sun heats the room up to around 88-90° and the night time temps hit about 82-84°. We have felt follicles in about 7 out 18 females so far without getting the temp in the 70s. I have delt with RI in the beginning of our breeding experiences and have not had a problem with it since we decided on the temps we use to breed. They also get natural light through windows and they kniw what time of the year it is. They can sense pressure changes just like we can. You can never leave your home and kniw when its winter out....
 
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