TRN Reptiles - 2022 Season

[trnreptiles]

My 2022 season is starting now! I didn’t produce any ball python clutches for the 2021 season, and my one hognose female I bred slugged out both of her clutches.

And for the pairings so far:

1.0 banana (female maker) fire VPI axanthic x 0.1 pastel het VPI axanthic

Pretty excited about this one! The female wouldn’t let any males lock up with her last season as I guess she decided she was taking the year off, so I think it’s a good sign that they locked this time around. This male is gonna get to see a lot of females this season, because… well, female bananas!

1.0 banana yellowbelly x 0.1 pewter

This girl also took the year off, and I was originally gonna pair her to my pastel banana clown male… but he wasn’t interested yet, he’s still too young. I like bananas, so we went with Banan here!

1.0 super mystic x 0.1 pastel super mojave

Another attempt at this pairing from last season. They’ll produce all pastel mystic potions and regular mystic potions!

1.0 banana piebald x 0.1 albino

These two have locked a few times already, as the female went off of food and I figured to try pairing her. She’s become a slightly more aggressive feeder during pairing, so hopefully I can produce a nice big clutch of dh albino pieds.
She’s 3000+ grams so she’ll either lay big eggs or a lot of eggs, we’ll have to see on that

1.0 banana piebald x 0.1 normal het piebald

This boy seems to struggle locking with this female, because this happened…. Again. She didn’t go last season though they had locked once. Hoping to hit some visual pieds!

He did finally figure it out though, thankfully…

1.0 banana pied x 0.1 normal ?

Delta was my very first ball python, I got her back in August of 2018. She’s now at 1300 grams and still eating solid, so I figured I’d try pairing her… and they locked!
She’s sort of a “dinker” as she has a lot of the het pied markers my other actual het pieds have, so if she lays for me this will prove whether or not she’s het pied. I’ll also be a very proud snek momma if she lays a clutch for me!

I have other females I plan to breed, and will update this post as more things happen — mainly initial locks, ovulations, prelay sheds, and eggs! I’ll probably reorganize this into a neater post of my observations like I did for the 2020 season, once this season is over. Got a LOT more females breeding so this will hopefully be good!

[trnreptiles]

An update so far!

I have 6 out of 8-9 initially paired females developing follicles, most are showing a visible build now and are close to ovulation! I will likely not pair any other females this season besides Dianmu, once she hits around the 1500 gram range in the next coming months.

Penny here has been glowing like crazy! She’ll be ovulating any time now I can imagine. She’s off food now.
Pairing: 1.0 banana piebald x 0.1 normal het piebald

Ava is starting to show a build, so I expect to see an ovulation from her in the next several weeks or so! She’s also gone off food.
Pairing: 1.0 banana (female maker) fire VPI axanthic x 0.1 pastel het VPI axanthic

Charlie I wasn’t sure about, but with palpating I feel she has some decent size follicles! I also included a second pic that shows her build better. She’s still eating at the moment but I suspect she will go off of food soon as well.
Pairing: 1.0 banana yellowbelly x 0.1 pewter

Lucy has gone off of food and even hissed at me when I touched her, which is very much unlike her! She’ll be one of my first I raised up from a baby to give me eggs, which I’m pretty excited about!
Pairing: 1.0 super mystic x 0.1 pastel super mojave

Honestly the one I’m most excited about! Delta here is my very first ball python, raised up from a baby. She’s got a bit of a build going too, and I’m hoping this clutch will prove if she’s carrying het pied or not! She went off food recently.
Pairing: 1.0 banana piebald x 0.1 normal (?)

I’m happy and surprised that Stubby is building follicles since she’s newer to the collection, but we should get some really cool babies out of her regardless! She has also gone off food.
Pairing: 1.0 banana (female maker) fire VPI axanthic x 0.1 normal

[trnreptiles]

Delta looks to be going into ovulation, she’s looking pretty big and has the “shelving” on her belly and has a bit of tail suck going on. I’ll be monitoring her throughout the next day or two to see if this is the beginning of her ovy. I’m really excited to see my baby making this milestone!

Edit: I’m like 99% sure this is an ovy — though I’m still doubting myself for some reason. Can anyone confirm?

[trnreptiles]

Ovy from Penny!

We also moved the girls to aspen bedding to watch for nesting behavior… Ava and Lucy didn’t take long to start nesting, so I am sure they will likely lay their eggs later this month.

Lastly, I found Stubby laying funny. I’m not sure if she ovulated yet or not, but still a good sign!

[trnreptiles]

Looks like a probable ovulation from Charlie — I didn’t see any tail suck from the underside of her tail though, so I’m not 100% sure. Looked pretty similar to her ovy in 2020 tho!

[trnreptiles]

I was also trying to upload this picture of her but it kept giving me issues.

Also, Charlie’s ovy from 2020:

[trnreptiles]

Another update!
No eggs yet, but I’m sure they’ll be coming soon.

Ava has been laying in a perfect coil for some time now, nestled down on the warm side of the tub. I actually missed her ovulation, and I didn’t think to write down when she last shed, so I can only guess when she’s gonna lay.

Same with Lucy here, I missed her ovy and stupidly didn’t record the last shed, though she likely shed mid-late February, since I got a pic of her looking pink on February 16th. So she should hopefully lay here in the next week or so.

I witnessed Delta’s ovy, but my fiancé didn’t tell me when she shed… I was gone for a week out of state. She was in blue when I left so likely shed a few days later. When I checked on her today she was at the front of her tub. She seems a bit restless, poor gal.

Stubby… I didn’t see an ovy and I don’t know when she shed, since I wasn’t sure if she was even gonna go for me. She’s been hugging the heat and coiling, so it can only be a matter of time.

Penny is in her prelay shed now, and I do plan to actually record the day she sheds. She’s also been in her water bowl virtually the entire time. Weirdo!

Charlie just ovulated, though the pics I posted were a preovy swell. She actually ended up ovulating on the 18th, so she should lay late April/early May.

[trnreptiles]

We’ve got eggs!! Lucy was the first to lay for the 2022 season. She’s still going, so I’ll update this in a couple hours with egg counts/weights/etc. once she’s done laying!

EDIT

We got 6 healthy eggs! Her body condition is still pretty great, and she’s been set up in a fresh tub. Now to wait on the babies to hatch

Total egg weight: 572 grams
Average: ~95 grams per egg

Lucy weighed in at 1534 grams after laying.

[trnreptiles]

Clutch number two is on the ground! Always a nice thing to wake up to (don’t question why I didn’t wake up until 1 PM)

Pairing:
1.0 banana (female maker) fire VPI axanthic x 0.1 normal

7 eggs; 6 fertile, 1 infertile/slug

Total Egg Weight: 703 grams
Average: ~117 grams per egg

Stubby weighed in at 1618 grams after laying.

[trnreptiles]

Another clutch already!

Ava finally laid hers after acting like a complete goof for about a week. Once I moved her tub she seemed to settle down and stop running so much

Pairing: 1.0 banana (female maker) fire VPI axanthic x 0.1 pastel het VPI axanthic

7 eggs; 5 fertile, 2 infertile/slugs

Total Egg Weight: 522 grams
Average: ~104.4 grams per egg

Ava weighed in at 1635 grams after laying.

[trnreptiles]

Prelay shed on Charlie — so she’ll be due to lay around May 6th.

Delta should be due to lay any day now too, based on my guesstimate of when she likely shed. I’m still mostly excited about her clutch since she was my very first ball python!

[ascended]

Nice to see the progression looking good.

[trnreptiles]

Another clutch on the ground!

I set up my old phone (iPhone 12 Pro) as a camera in Delta’s tub, using the Alfred Camera app — even paid $30 for a year of premium so I could see in HD… and checked as soon as I woke up:

Kinda looks like eggs!

Sure enough, I go check on her…

4 little fertile eggs under her!

Pairing: 1.0 banana piebald x 0.1 normal/poss het piebald

4 eggs; 4 fertile

Total Egg Weight: 351 grams
Average: ~89.75 grams per egg

Delta weighed in at 1122 grams after laying.

[trnreptiles]

On another note, my incubator is starting to fill up
Should have just enough space for the other two clutches that are coming!

[lumpy]

@trnreptiles

my old phone (iPhone 12 Pro)

Jealous lol , iPhone 7 here

[trnreptiles]

Hah, I gave it to my fiancé to use but he decided to use a different phone… so I put it to use as a camera

I currently have an iPhone 13 Pro Max only got it because we traded in a phone though, too expensive otherwise!

[trnreptiles]

Clutch # 5 is here!
The phone camera setup has actually been super useful.

I witnessed her doing a ton of “pretzeling” a few days before laying, where she’d twist herself up in the most odd ways…

Sure enough, today I witnessed her starting to lay her eggs!

She did such a great job for a first time mom, and despite Sherbet being an idiot with locking he’s produced two fully fertile clutches for me thus far.

Pairing: 1.0 banana piebald x 0.1 normal het piebald

7 eggs, 7 fertile

Total Egg Weight: 661 grams
Average: ~94 grams per egg

Penny weighed 1102 grams after laying.

[trnreptiles]

Bonus: freshly laid egg! You can still see the veins running through the egg, it’s pretty cool.

[lumpy]

Super cool !

[trnreptiles]

So good and bad news!

Good news… Charlie laid her clutch!

Pairing: 1.0 banana yellowbelly x 0.1 pewter

6 eggs; 6 fertile

Total Egg Weight: 683 grams
~113.83 grams per egg

Charlie laid 1600 grams after laying.

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And onto the less exciting news…
While checking the eggs, I discovered two eggs from separate clutches had gone bad. Another had mold on it but looked healthy when candled.

One being Ava’s clutch (the really brown egg) and the other Penny’s clutch (green egg)

Upon cutting both open out of my own morbid curiosity, the embryos were both not alive. The green egg’s goo was white, almost like pus the other egg was solid and spongy throughout. Both can be seen below, viewer discretion advised!