I debated on whether or not to make a thread this year, everything with Celia’s continued issues has me feeling very defeated. Due to expenses with her, the last two years I’ve been entirely unable to get any of the genetics I needed to move my projects forward.
That all said, I do have clutches this year so I’m going to at least try to enjoy things. Monday brought a pre-lay shed for one of my girls, Sienna (Het Butter, 66% Het Scaleless) and then eggs from Azula.
Pairing was Ultramel Anery Tessera (also Halo/GB) x Ghost Motley-Stripe Het Amel w/pos hets. Thirteen perfect eggs, no slugs. Weight on 4/22 was 428g, after laying she's down 118g.
Ugh. Sorry to hear it. I’d probably give her a good swim and see if she’ll eat something small. It seems to me that the “do nothing” and “do something right away!” camps can both be right at times, which makes deciding what to do all the more agonizing.
Shoot, that’s the worst. I think swimming and offering a small meal are pretty minor interventions that can be tried once she’s made no progress after 24-48 hours.
I’ll likely offer her the small meal & some water when I’m on my break from work this afternoon. Then if she’s made no further progress by tomorrow, into the tub she goes. Do the least disruptive intervention first. I was surprised she’s the one having issues, she’s been essentially bulletproof up until now but I suspect based on the size/shape of the slugs I’ve seen, that’s where the issue lies.
Update: had a hunch and decided to offer her food now instead. She was hungry, like, had my hand been in the line of fire, she’d have tried having me for lunch. Gave her two small mice dusted ever so lightly with calcium and now back to leaving her be. I did pull the three slugs as she had shoved them into a corner away from herself. Here’s a photo of the weird slugs:
Sienna update: She appears to be going into blue and left her lay box today. Gave her a once-over and I’m not seeing or feeling anything that screams of stuck eggs. At this point it’s going to be continuing to monitor and seeing if any issues pop up or if this was just a fluke batch of slugs.
As far as it seems, it was just the slugs. I only suspected she was gravid because her weight went up after pairing, but she never really looked it? Like, she looks chunky, but never got that peaked appearance you’d expect. Then came the slugs, gave her a feel, and I couldn’t feel anything that felt like eggs (though that first day I didn’t mess with her much and kind of just let her run through my hands). Today I gave her a more in-depth check and I couldn’t feel any defined shapes at all, and she has no visible lumps aside what I’d expect from the mice I gave her.
I was thinking this also. I’m glad she isn’t (and you aren’t) dealing with being eggbound. Sorry that she didn’t have a productive clutch, but at least she herself seems all right.
I will happily take a slug out over eggbinding any day, and to be honest, I still have plenty of near yearlings and a couple of almost two year olds to make up for the lack of good eggs this season. Besides, nothing to say I can’t try for more later in the season with some of my other girls.
Checked in on what is likely the only clutch for this season. We’re at day twenty-four and everything is looking great, developing as expected, visible movement when candled. Nothing new to report, all thirteen eggs looking perfect.
