6 months

6 months. That is the amount of time passed from tomorrow since Yara her last heat. 184 days to be precise.

But we are not counting..!

In August Yara turned 2 years old. This will be her third heat. The first and second heat where 8 months apart but this does not automatically mean it will be 8 months again this time. It can take 6 months, but this can easily stretch to 10 or 11 months. We must wait to see what Yara her plans are, and when!

It is obvious to us that inside Yara her body some processes have started. Her vulva is slowly swelling and the males in the neighourhood are really liking the way she smells. Yet this does not mean that something has to happen soon. This phase can last for months. Before her first and second heat she had the exact same thing. It took 2-3 months.
When the time has finally come this does not mean she can be mated directly. Her body is not ready for a breeding. When Yara starts bleeding her ovaries will make extra estrogen, that is a hormone. Estrogen lets her body prepare for producing the ovums. The cell structure on the inside of her vulva also starts to change, all in preparation for a breeding.
As the heat continues her progesterone levels will rise and the estrogen goes down. Progesterone is a hormone that makes the ovum ripen. During the whole pregnancy this hormone will have very high levels.

The level of progestrone can be measures in blood. This way we can see how far Yara is from her ovulation or if this has happened yet. Usually the ovulation happens on day 9 or 10 of the heat but it can happen sooner and much later as well. When we see the progesterone has reached a high enough level that we can assume the ovulation has found place it takes around 2 days for the eggs to fully ripen and be ready for fertilization. This gives us time to travel to Switzerland (the home of Miro) for the breeding. We will go to the clinic with Yara on a daily basis to draw some blood and watch her progesterone levels closely.

Isn’t it wonderful, how the body takes care of all this?

We wait (un)patiently until the time comes, together with a lot of great people on the waiting list.

As soon as Yara will come in heat I will share this of course. The people on the waiting list receive a message from me and I will share the progress on the website as well.