My beardie laid 8 eggs, she's not eating PLEASE HELP!!

Hi,

This is my first time posting here, sorry if it's long, but I'm worried and have very little knowledge and no experience. We recently (a week ago) adopted two dragons from someone who justs didnt cre about them anymore (...I know..!). It's a couple, male and a female, about 14 months old. The male is fine. The female is pregnant. Or was, I'm not sure now. She has laid eight eggs so far, the first one was clearly infertile (caved in), this was Tuesday afternoon this week. That night she laid three more, and yesterday during the day, another four. Since we had her, she had not eaten anything (appart from 1/2 a teaspoon of grated courgette sprinkled with calcium, on Mon and Tues), which I read was normal just before laying. But last night I though she seemed pretty weak, so I force-fed her two or three crickets with calcium. This morning I fed her four or five more, and somegreens. She shows little interest in the food and is rather passive, not moving much. I've put her in the garden, in an open box so she can enjoy the sunshine. I've put her in a warm bath several times since she came home (every day).
Is there anything else I should be doing? Will she lay more eggs (she's slimmer than before but still rounder than the male)? Am I doing anything wrong?
Help, please!

Sorry, forgot to add: this morning I found what at first thought were two more, attached eggs (same girth but shorter than normal eggs), very light brown in colour, but actually was poo. I've looked online for pictures of dragon poo and this looks nothing like it (the night she laid her first eggs, she did poo what looked like normal poo, bright brown and long-thin).

We have kept the male appart since we came home, because we noticed he harassed her, and then we read that they SHOULD be kept appart.

Please somebody help! Is is possible that she will lay more or has it been too long? SHould I think of seeing a vet about egg retention?

She's lethargic. I've just fed her four crickets (about 1/ 1.5cm long each) and she looked at them, she seemed more interested, although I had to force feed her, she would not take them. I don't know how to make her drink. I've put her in her tank, her head touching the water dish, and dropped a few drops of water on her nose, but she does nothing about it.

Hello,

I'm sorry they were not wanted anymore, but at least they have a good home now!
It sounds like she might be having a little bit of trouble. Have you made her a laybox
for now?
If she didn't have proper care prior to now, then she could be suffering from poor calcium
reserves from no UVB or supplementation. Being gravid zaps their stores many times &
they can end up very weak.
Since she isn't eating much or drinking either, you will need to intervene with syringe feeding.
You can get chicken or turkey baby food, & mix it with sweet potato or squash baby food.
Then put calcium powder in with it also. That way she gets fluids & food at the same time.
If she wont lick the food off of her nose, you will need to use a swab, or a cardboard folded in
half with a small hole cut in the middle to slip into the side of her mouth. You can gently get
food in that way also.
I would start looking for a reptile vet, if possible. She may need one. Has her beard been
black at all?
Yes, they do need to be separated, because a lot of times they do want to mate with them
too often & it stresses them both out.
Let us know how she is doing. Do you have any pictures of them?

Tracie

Thanks so much for your reply, Tracie. I'll do what you suggest, i've just bought vegetales and chicken baby food, Hope this helps..
Her previous owner gave me his jars of calcium and vitamins, and to be honest, they look pretty healthy, at least i've been looking at Lots of pictures to see how they should look like. But if course, I'm no expert.
She laid her eggs in her tank, but she was not digging at all. The day she started laying she was un the gardenia and she did wLk a lot, like looking for a place to lay, but she did not try to dig at all. She only started laying g when she was back in the tank, and through the night and the Next day, again in the garde n, un the sun.

I'll try to post pictures

By the way, i've put the eggs in a plastic box with lud and many holes, filled with damp compost- type soil. This is on a Heat mat, and kept at 29-30C degrees but the eggs are going off, there's only two or three in there now that look ok. I have cat sand, but It is antibacterial (benzalcoium choliride), would that work for an egg box or for a lay box?

Update: just been home, I put Laia outside in the garden for a spot of basking,and offered her some lambs lettuce, which the previous owner mentioned as part of their diet. She perked up a lot and licked It. So I left it in the water dish (this one is big, for bathing), and she went in and licked It more. Still didnt este any but at least she becsme more active. After a while she walked away, and then i had to leave. I'll see what she did when i come back.

Pictures: this is the male
and this is the female in question, last Tuesday, before she started laying.

Hello,

How is your girl doing today, any improvements?
They both look pretty good which is far easier on you than having them both ill. Did she
eat any of the baby food? Maybe she will eat some greens eventually. Does the male eat
any greens?
It may take them a little while to adjust to a new home also.
How are the few eggs in the incubator looking?

Keep us posted on them both.
Tracie

Hi,

She's doing better, she gets to roam about a bit when I take her to the garden, but she's not laying any more eggs. She ate some baby food, some greens and some crickets. She had two normal looking poos... The baby food she liked so much last night that she ended up licking it off the spoon. I never thought I could get so fond of a reptile, or that they could be so subtly expressive. I can tell she recognises me when she sees me. I'm more used to dogs, cats, rabbits... who are so much more similar to us. But reptiles are fascinating! These two are my son's pets, but he's only eleven and he's at school most of the day, so I need to know what to do. The male by the way is doing fine, eating well and looking great. I didn't know they change colour so much! The female goes from light yellow to dark green, the male goes from orangey-yellow to dark brown and it can be difficult to see them in the garden (where we keep them separated).
Unfortunately, the eggs went all off. It's a shame but at the moment, it's probably for the best. Maybe she'll lay again in a few weeks and we'll be more prepared for it from the start. This has been a very stressful week!

Hello,

That's great she is doing so well & hasn't laid anymore eggs right now. She could lay another
clutch or two though!
I am happy to hear she loved the baby food & licked it out of a spoon, that's terrific.
They are very smart & it sounds like she is bonding with you & hopefully your son too. It
is impossible not to love them or become attached to them. They are definitely expressive,
& have very unique personalities.
I hope the male is doing well also.
Keep us posted on them both.

Tracie

Hi again

Our lady has unexpectedly laid another egg yesterday! After spending most of the day in the sun, my daughter took her in, left her momentarily on a chair (while she took in the box) and there she laid an egg, which looks fine and we're trying to incubate. This morning it still looked fine in its box. Laia has lay box in her viv but she does not care about it at all. She does not try to dig before laying eggs, and now that she laid another egg a week after the first ones, I wonder if she'll lay more... How can I tell when she'd done with a clutch?? She likes the baby food and will swallow the crickets I force feed her but she rarely eats by herself. Is this because she's still in egg-laying-mode? Otherwise, she seems less lethargic and does go about a bit when outside (she seems to sleep most of the time when inside, so we take her to the garden as much as possible). One other thing I noticed a while ago but forgot to mention: the tip of her tongue is whitish... what can that be?

This morning I found that Laia has laid another two eggs in her tank. She laid two yesterday afternoon, one dried up because we didn't see it soon enough (it was a rather warm, sunny afternoon and she still does not dig to lay them - we keep her in the garden during the day), and she'd laid two during this week, the one mentioned on the previous post, and another one on Thursday. We are trying to incubate them, but I'm not sure we'll succeed without a proper incubator. We have them in a plastic box with vermiculite and a thermostate to keep them in constant temp(29ºC). We'll see... At some point we might buy a small incubator, but right now we can't afford it.
She seems fine, more active, but still she needs to be force-fed. Will she always be like this or will she eat by herfself at some point? And how many more eggs will she laid before we can think of her as done with her clutch?? (So far, it's been 14 eggs, with a one week interval in between, is that two clutches or just one?).

Hello,

How is she doing now after laying a few more eggs?
You did separate them, correct?
Sometimes they lay so close together, it is hard to know if it is all one clutch, or another one.
They are usually a month or so apart, if it is a true clutch. So you have a couple in the incubator?
Since she has had eggs, a lot of times they don't eat much when they have eggs or are towards
the end of development. Hopefully her appetite will start to pick back up if she is done with her
laying for the time being.
It's hard to determine whether or not she will lay more, but probably more will come.
Are her colors good also, no black bearding?

Tracie

Hi,

She seems fine, more or less the same... She'll eat if forced at first, especially cricket s. This morning when i went to wake Up my son, she's laid two more eggs. We're trying to incubate them but i think the humidity isnt right, they're all slightly yellow, although one seems to be getting bigger (i've removed the lid and put some kitchen roll instead). She's a bit yellow today, despite being in the sun, and she was trying to hide, so maybe more eggs will come... Regards gracias the Beats, she never had It black (Croco the male did go black bearded once, It was quite impressive!). Croco is fine by the way, he estado and does Gus thing but we keep them we'll away from each other.

Yestarday she daid another FIVE eggs during the night, so when we found them in the morning, most had gone wrinkly and the fifth, which she'd just laid then, looked a bit yellow, so we put them to incubate but in the evening the wrnkly ones were smelling and we froze them to chuck them out. The fifth one still didnt look good. She laid another one today that was yellow from the start, and although we put it in the incubator itdoesnt look good at all. COuld it be thatthese are the last eggs and have been in her too long or something like that? She has laid 23 eggs in total,from 8/5 to 24/5, with a week long break in the middle. We still have 5 that look viable (and have possibly grown) although a bit yellow (not as much as the last six eggs though).