Cleopatra the Spider ovulates 2/7/09 Greta the Granite ovulates 2/12/09
Well I haven't kept up and alot of breeding action is happening in the Jungle.
First off we have had two more snake ovulations. It is two of the girls that have been soaking and according to my theory were approaching their ovulation. In each case after several weeks of on and off long term soaks they stopped, went to the warm side of enclosure, coiled for a few days and then began the swelling ovulation process. Ovulation is when the ova pass through the oviducts, separate from the ovary to be fertilized and pushed into the body cavity becoming eggs. The snake is then officially gravid. This process only last 4-8 hours and is often missed so we feel real fortunate to have captured 3 ovulations on camera in a row. The fact that we are documenting the correlation of soaking as pre-ovulation behavior has helped us determine the upcoming event. Our first girl Xena, mentioned in the last blog post, had her pre-lay shed on 2/10/09 and should be laying her eggs 30 days from that date. Our two girls pictured above will also enter a shed period and upon shedding should lay their eggs 30 days later. No other females have shown soaking or glowing behavior so they are still being cycled with the boys. We will keep updating as things progress.
First off we have had two more snake ovulations. It is two of the girls that have been soaking and according to my theory were approaching their ovulation. In each case after several weeks of on and off long term soaks they stopped, went to the warm side of enclosure, coiled for a few days and then began the swelling ovulation process. Ovulation is when the ova pass through the oviducts, separate from the ovary to be fertilized and pushed into the body cavity becoming eggs. The snake is then officially gravid. This process only last 4-8 hours and is often missed so we feel real fortunate to have captured 3 ovulations on camera in a row. The fact that we are documenting the correlation of soaking as pre-ovulation behavior has helped us determine the upcoming event. Our first girl Xena, mentioned in the last blog post, had her pre-lay shed on 2/10/09 and should be laying her eggs 30 days from that date. Our two girls pictured above will also enter a shed period and upon shedding should lay their eggs 30 days later. No other females have shown soaking or glowing behavior so they are still being cycled with the boys. We will keep updating as things progress.
We also have a 3 eggs in the incubator that were laid on 1/28/09 and the 55 day countdown has begun!
Our biggest development this week was the first Bearded Dragon clutch of 09 laid on 2/11/09. Ruby our huge Sandfire girl laid 29 healthy looking eggs. They are in the incubator and should be hatching at around 55 days. Baby dragons are the cutest. My wife Laurie says they look like little Teri Hatchers? LOL
More info on Dragons in future posts.
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