How late can they go?

This is my first year breeding and one of my girls has already confused me. My first girl locked 5 times, ovulated, and 32 days later laid her 9 eggs. My other female locked 16 times (same male the whole time), ovulated, and now 66 days later laid 6 good eggs. I’ve never heard of one going that long after ovulation. Most I’ve heard was 40-45 days post ovulation.

Is this normal? I had her previous owner confirm ovulation so it’s not noob me getting too excited like I know I can lol.
The eggs all have veins (not as much as the first clutch but still plenty), would it effect them?

I’m probably being paranoid but always better to ask than never know lol

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I have females that have laid 50 days POS it happens the most important thing is to really watch the female once you are in the 40/45 days POS range because for some female while it can be a normal occurrence other it can be the sign of something going wrong like being egg bound, so you need to watch for abnormal swelling and or abnormal behaviour.

I have a female that is at 44 days right now. I thought she was gravid but I was thinking she wasn’t because of how late she was getting. She’s huge, I put the same male back in there with her and she locked and they were locked for 2 days.

Oviposition is ~ 60 days after ovulation, so I would say your first count of days from ovulation is in error

This is congruent with most oviparous squamata taking 104-120 days, half for ovulation to oviposition, the back half for incubation

In Ball Pythons the average is 45 days from ovulation.

I had given up on her as she never really gained much size and figured she had reabsorbed as she lost 200g. She never acted out of the ordinary (other than refusing food) or looked different. She looked and acted like her normal self.

Is this number starting when ovulation has fully subsided, settled out rather then logging point of conception at the peak of ovulation swell? I would agree with that as I would say ovulation is a good 14 day process but over the years I have become accustomed to logging ovulation at it’s swollen peak rather than it’s rising climax or decline. This has led to way more accurate oviposition estimates with half the range of error than of counting from post ovulation ecdysis.

Ecdysis? What does shedding have to do with oviposition? Is there a correlation with shedding and breeding?

In Ball Pythons because species are different the timeline is as followed.

Ovulation
14/15 days later pre-lay shed
30 days from pre-lay shed or 45 days from ovulation egg laying.

Now those are textbook averages which happen in most cases, however sometimes it’s not always textbook over the years I have seen.

Egg laying 65 days after ovulation

I have seen 2 pre-lay sheds between ovulation and egg laying.

And I have seen late pre-lay shed.

Now those were rare occurancies that have happen twice in 14 years.

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The post ovulation shed marks a countdown time where some keepers calculate oviposition Date… it’s usually a 3-4week countdown from that but thyroid activity can vary, i for one like to countdown from peak of ovulation, I find it has double the accuracy

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Keep in mind after you do this for a while you can identify what I call preovulation that some don’t recognize… ovulation is about a 14 day process of bunching up follicles and their release… I find marking it’s peak and counting from it is accurate for wagering futures on oviposition date… once the swelling gives way follicles can no longer be counted by hand as they turn to mush under rapid molecular cell change… thyroid activity prompts the start of the typical 14 day shed cycle , shed drops and shelling commences… and now eggs can be felt

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You are bringing me right back to my therio class! :smiley: