Norbert is four years old, confirmed female, and has never laid eggs. Normally she is very calm--not super active in her enclosure, mellow when handled--and has a good appetite. But the last couple days, she has become extremely active and restless and her appetite has dropped off suddenly and sharply. She seldom stops moving, and squirms and kicks me when I pick her up. I have heard that these can be signs a bearded dragon is gravid. If she is, they would be infertile eggs because she hasn't been around another beardie since she was a baby. However, I am unsure if this is what is going on, for the following reasons:
~Her activity is mostly glass dancing along the walls of her enclosure and trying to reach up as high as she can, with maybe 5% of her activity being digging movements on the ground. When I let her out, she gets up on her back legs and dances vertically along the walls of my apartment.
~She was like this at this same time last year as well, did not lay eggs, and went back to her normal behavior after about three weeks. (However, when she had a blood test last fall, the vet noted her high calcium levels and asked if she had ever had eggs. So maybe she had some last summer and reabsorbed them.) Is it common for bearded dragons to be much more active during the height of the summer, when the days are longer and the house they are in is warmer? I have kept her tank temps pretty constant, and they are in the ranges recommended here and by her vet.
~In the pictures I have seen of gravid beardies, they all look kind of fat and you can sort of see the outlines of eggs in their abdomen as a general lumpiness. I have also heard people describe being able to feel the eggs when they palpate the belly. Norbert does not have a plump or lumpy belly right now and has not gained any weight recently (in fact, she has been gradually losing it for several months on a low-insect diet because the vet said she was overweight and that she should). I also cannot feel any lumps in her belly and I am good at noticing irregular texture in her belly--a couple years ago, I asked for an ultrasound of a lump I felt in her belly that the vet couldn't feel and it turned out to be a tumor (he took it out and she's fine now).
Does this sound like she's gravid, or does she just get possessed in July? Are females who haven't mated more inclined to become gravid in the summer? Should I put a lay box in her enclosure just in case? I am so nervous to provide her with any loose substrate if she doesn't actually need it, because my first beardie (when I was a kid and didn't know what I was doing) died of impaction from eating sand. Any advice is appreciated.
(Also, she has a vet appointment scheduled for the 13th, so I can get help there too. I just wanted to ask here in case she needs attention sooner.)
~Her activity is mostly glass dancing along the walls of her enclosure and trying to reach up as high as she can, with maybe 5% of her activity being digging movements on the ground. When I let her out, she gets up on her back legs and dances vertically along the walls of my apartment.
~She was like this at this same time last year as well, did not lay eggs, and went back to her normal behavior after about three weeks. (However, when she had a blood test last fall, the vet noted her high calcium levels and asked if she had ever had eggs. So maybe she had some last summer and reabsorbed them.) Is it common for bearded dragons to be much more active during the height of the summer, when the days are longer and the house they are in is warmer? I have kept her tank temps pretty constant, and they are in the ranges recommended here and by her vet.
~In the pictures I have seen of gravid beardies, they all look kind of fat and you can sort of see the outlines of eggs in their abdomen as a general lumpiness. I have also heard people describe being able to feel the eggs when they palpate the belly. Norbert does not have a plump or lumpy belly right now and has not gained any weight recently (in fact, she has been gradually losing it for several months on a low-insect diet because the vet said she was overweight and that she should). I also cannot feel any lumps in her belly and I am good at noticing irregular texture in her belly--a couple years ago, I asked for an ultrasound of a lump I felt in her belly that the vet couldn't feel and it turned out to be a tumor (he took it out and she's fine now).
Does this sound like she's gravid, or does she just get possessed in July? Are females who haven't mated more inclined to become gravid in the summer? Should I put a lay box in her enclosure just in case? I am so nervous to provide her with any loose substrate if she doesn't actually need it, because my first beardie (when I was a kid and didn't know what I was doing) died of impaction from eating sand. Any advice is appreciated.
(Also, she has a vet appointment scheduled for the 13th, so I can get help there too. I just wanted to ask here in case she needs attention sooner.)