Monday, March 8, 2010

Ovulation


Well, this is one of the first females I have caught this season that have ovulated. It is very tough to take the right picture to make it obvious, so I took a lot of pictures of the same animal at different angles.

People say it looks like the female swallowed a football.

Look above. Does she look like she swallowed a football?

Yeah... She does.


Upon closer inspection, it can look like a lump from different angles.



But from above and the sides where you see her stomach, it is rather obvious. I did not manage to catch her in her EXPLOSION phase, as I like to call it, when the female looks ridiculously oversized (larger than the photos show), but you can see that she has a large area of lumpiness, so I thought this would be good enough.


From this side, she looks like the eggs are actually pushing up against the sides of her stomach. You notice the wave of lump? She is sitting straight, but those waves are lumps of follicles being moved. (This is a day after the previous photos were taken, to show you the difference)



Here is a better angled shot to show you how lumpy she is.

So from now, I'll be expecting her to lay after her post ovulation shed, which should be in a week or so, and then a month from then, eggs will have been laid.

Incubator is on, anticipation is high, as this particular female is a Possible Het Pied Female that has yet to be proven. Her sisters proved to be carriers, so therefore, she should hopefully be one too.

COME ON, PIEDS!!!

Hopefully those of you out there waiting with baited breath to see an ovulation now know more of what you are looking for. I'm still waiting on that perfect time where I catch the HUGE ovulation, but so far to no avail. I think this is good enough for now.

Have a great day, my friends.

2 comments:

Colin Weaver said...

Now who's taunting who? Lucky.

Unknown said...

Awesome! Congrats!

Thanks for the pics from all different angles. This might explain why I never caught my gravid female's ovulation--I usually looked at her from directly above.

I'm expecting eggs in just over a week! SO EXCITED!

Here's to hoping you get lots of cute, baby Pieds!