This is my first time trying to breed ball pythons, so im still learning a lot. I have two normal het pied females ive been pairing with my enchi pied male. During my checks one of my females is rather thick but looks how she normally does to me. The other one isnt as thick as she is but she is much brighter looking than she normally looks to me…both of them recently shed within the last two weeks and both of them have had successful locks with my male.
This is my female who looks brighter than usual to me. Is she in the “glow before they go” stage? Is there anything else i should be looking for? Other than her getting huge?
Edit: Both females are much brighter and both seem to look big.
This is her before her most recent shed
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Well, she does look to be glowing, but it’s hard to tell because the lighting is not identical in the two pictures.
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The lighting is the same, just different spots😇
I guess the picture before she shed was kinda directly beneath the light and the one after the shed is to the side of the light…
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The only way to know for sure is if she’s already ovulated. Have you witnessed ovulation with her? It will be very obvious when it happens and it lasts for about 24 hours, it’ll look like she ate a meal that was waaay to big for her and her lower 3rd of the body will be firm to the touch.
“Glowing-up” as far as I know now is something that doesn’t happen with every female, but Ovulation is something that always happens in females with different intensities that have been paired while developing egg follicles. Glow-ups, if they do happen, don’t occur until after the Post-ovulation-shed if I remember correctly.
For example here’s my girl:
•Before pairing
•During pairing
•Building follicles
•Day of ovulation
I know my pictures are in varying degrees of lighting but the only real change I’ve seen in her color is that her browns have gotten much more rich and the white along her spine has gotten a little brighter. Thats about it.
(Edit): Even then a “glow-up” and Post-ovulation-shed can’t be sure-fire ways to tell if she’s gravid or not because those two things don’t occur with every female. The big thing here to know is if she’s ovulated and that you have her ovulation on record.
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I thought the glow came before ovulation?
Shes not as big as my other female, but my other female isnt visibly brighter in color like she is…
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It does, I’m referring to the pairing being successful in my last comment. Just keep an eye out for that ovulation swell!
Here’s a guide I found a few days ago thats actually really helpful (credit to Markus Jayne) for ball python breeding and what to expect! Just remember that not all female BPs will go through a glow up or pre/post ovulation shed.
https://ballpython.ca/breeding/
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