Sand for egg laying?

Mari is only 5 months old, so I still have like a year until her ovaries start firing up, but I was wondering if when she starts ovulating if I should fill a shallow storage bin with play sand (never calcisand) and place it in her viv but monitor her so I can remove it as soon as possible, or if I should place a bunch of paper towels in crumpled up balls into her viv when she’s gravid.

Also, since I own a cockatiel and freak out about the possibility of egg-binding, are there any known ways of preventing ovulation So I don’t have to worry about the eggs then getting stuck? Beardies lay a lot of eggs at once, so I’d imagine eggbinding is extremely common in such species since they need a lot of calcium to make the eggshells. Oh yeah, and one more thing - how do I identify eggbinding in a bearded dragon? (Don’t want to mistake it for impaction and give her baby food when I should actually be rushing her to the reptile vet for emergency surgery.)

Hi there, sand is is fine or a sand/coco fiber mix. You have to add enough water to get it to the right consistency so it can hold it's shape if a cave is dug. Here is a good tutorial , I think he just uses coco fiber or topsoil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNwqHsV7peE

An eggbound female usually becomes very lethargic, inactive + possibly laying around with a black beard.

loljelloclowdz":3lxk33km said:

Also, since I own a cockatiel and freak out about the possibility of egg-binding, are there any known ways of preventing ovulation So I don’t have to worry about the eggs

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Unfortunately not. Some females won't ever lay infertile eggs. Some lay ungodly amounts. There is just no way to know what end of the spectrum your girl will fall in.

-Brandon