Bearded Dragon Laying Process

A bearded dragon at one of our stores laid some eggs today, so I thought I'd create a post about what we do when this comes up at the store.

First off, the egg laying set up: Bucket, filled with Eco Earth, on a heat pad - we use the ZooMed ReptiTherm pads, as it is sturdy and water resistant. If an animal needs a soak in warm water, we'll leave the bins on top of these pads, etc. There's a ton of uses for one of these in a reptile store!



The setup really doesn't need to be much more advanced than this. If it takes more than a day or two for your beardie to lay, she probably just wasn't quite ready to lay when you first put her in the bin. We keep the eco earth nice and moist to the touch, to where it easily sticks to your hands if you touch it.

A beardie that is ready to lay will get right to digging. This female had been digging in her cage the day before, and when we picked her up this morning could easily feel the eggs inside her abdomen. So, this morning we placed her in the egg laying bucket, and sure enough within minutes she was excavating a place to lay her eggs!



Again, when they're ready to lay, the egg laying process usually happens fairly quickly. Some females are more shy about this than others, but this girl was just ready to go and began laying within an hour of being placed in the egg laying container. We have had some females take up to 3 days to lay their eggs, but most will lay the first day they are placed into the bucket.



She did not mind an audience, and even let me take a short video while she was positioning herself to lay the final couple eggs.

http://youtu.be/ek-8G-S3i2E

We set up the eggs in deli cups, with 5 to 6 eggs per cup. The stores vary between using vermiculite and hatchrite; I personally prefer hatchrite as it looks a little cleaner, but they both work equally as well.



The tired out momma about to go back to her cage:



In the end, she laid 10 eggs total, and is now back in her cage to warm up! She has a dish of giant mealworms in there for her if her appetite comes back today, but it can take a day or two for them to develop a real appetite again. Laying eggs is hard work!
We often spoil moms that have recently laid eggs, offering them special treats in the form of pinkies, waxworms, and canned caterpillars, all foods that are higher in fat. This helps them regain the weight they lose while the eggs are developing inside of them.

-Jen

This is pretty cool, I could see the multiple benefits of the heat pad too. Question, you noted....

"We have had some females take up to 3 days to lay their eggs, but most will lay the first day they are placed into the bucket."

I assume if a female takes three days to lay their eggs, you're putting them in the bucket for a period of time, and then returning them to their cage each day. How long do you leave them in the bucket before giving up on them laying eggs for that day ? Have you tried putting them in the bucket more than once per day ? Have you discovered eggs in their cage after bringing them back from the bucket - like maybe overnight or something ? I would assume if the substrate isn't right, like paper towels, they're not gonna lay eggs where they can't dig a hole. I appreciate you taking the time.

There's no hard and fast rules for how long we leave the momma in the bucket. If she's digging, we'll leave her in there most of the day, until she stops digging or until we close up for the day. If she hasn't laid by the time we leave for the day, we put her back in the cage overnight. Once in a very, very long while a female will lay in the cage at night, but most dig a little more in the cage, and then go to sleep. The next morning, we put them back in the bucket. I can only remember one clutch that was found in the cage in the last couple years, though, out of dozens of females that have laid eggs at the stores, so that tells you how seldom it happens!

If they don't dig much, or at all, when they're put in the bucket, after half an hour to an hour we'll put them back in the cage. The bucket is heated with the heat pad, so it's not a worry that they'll get too cold, but there's no reason to keep them in there if they're not interested in digging. Might as well keep them in the cage with the lights and all that stuff to finish cooking the eggs inside until they're ready to come out!

-Jen

My females would never fit in a bucket! lol

My Sammy is usually a quick layer except on this clutch she's taking her sweet time. She's had her rear at the opening of her nest for about an hour now and nothings coming out. No moving, squeezing, just sitting lol.