Alright, so one of my breeder girls is throwing me some serious mixed signals. I’ve been cooling her and the others since October. My normal temps are 80 degrees March through October and in October my temps drop to 78 during the day and 75-76 at night. Hot spot also drops during this time to 90 during the day to 85 at night. So this girl has been awesome, multiple locks, eating ravenously, seeming to be growing big follicles (from what I can tell, I’m not great at palpating). Middle to late December and even into the first of January I saw her wrapping her bowl. Now 2 weeks into January she is back in the hotspot and laying on her side almost inverted and seems to be nesting. Did I miss an ovy? Or would she still considered to be building? She last ate January 2nd and is currently going into her next shed. I should also add she last locked December 28th
This could be a preovy shed or you may have missed one and this is prelay. If she is preovy then you will likely see her in shed again in a couple weeks.
I wasn’t aware there was such thing as pre ovy shed. I was shocked she refused food, she literally came out after me before I even dropped the rat in with her. Once the rat was in her tub she had no interest in it which was odd to me, she’s my garbage disposal and will eat anything. I guess I will be firing up my incubator when I get home and start a count down after she sheds
It isn’t something that always happens but it can. I would count after this shed but keep in mind she may shed again and I would keep track of both if she does.
If this was in fact her pre ovy shed, wouldn’t she still be on the cool side though? That’s always how I understood it, they hug the cool side, ovulate, then go back to the hot spot and wait to lay. Her time line is just odd to me lol
I have learned they don’t read the rules and not every female will do what we expect. The fact that you cool your room may just be pushing her to the hotspot sooner than you think. I don’t drop temps at all and they usually do stay on the cool side most of the time. You just won’t see it always. The other possibility is she is reserving the follicles which I believe they can do all the way up to ovulation.
The cooling thing makes the most sense to me, like I said I only saw her on the cool side for like 2 weeks. This one is definitely making me question everything I know about these animals lol everything I am seeing though seems to be a positive sign towards eggs