Scared my beardie is egg bound

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lizdragon

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
CooperDragon":386s3nww said:
The twitching could just be a muscle spasm, or it could be something more - it's tough to say for sure. For my adult, I usually give a light even coat of calcium to every bug meal. Bugs are only offered once or twice a week though. Primary diet is veges - especially squash like I mentioned earlier. You can offer dark green leaves like collards or turnip greens which are naturally rich in calcium and vitamins. In this case it may be a good idea to add a bit of extra calcium. Perhaps look into a liquid calcium supplement at least for a little while. Have you had any luck with squash? That and dripping water on her nose to lick up are the best things I can think of to offer hydration.

Thank you! I haven't given her the squash cut up yet because I'm a little nervous about her choking but maybe I'm just being over cautious. However I gave it to her pureed and she loved it. Right after I wrote my comment Liz did a big poop and I thought maybe the reason for her twitching was due to that, and then shortly after that she laid one egg. So it looks like she probably is gonna be laying another clutch.

Unfortunately I don't think it was just a muscle spasm because at one point I noticed her other back leg twitch as well. She seems fine right now however. We'll definitely increase the calcium intake, thanks for the advice on that. Also, the calcium dust we've been using has D3. Is that okay to dust her bugs 3 times a week?
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

How is your girl doing? You are thinking she is getting ready to lay another clutch then
soon?
Adding some extra calcium would be a good idea. You could even add a few drops of
liquid minerals a couple of times per week in case her system needs a boost for egg laying.
Let us know how she is doing.

Tracie
 

lizdragon

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Drache613":3vxx5iri said:
Hello,

How is your girl doing? You are thinking she is getting ready to lay another clutch then
soon?
Adding some extra calcium would be a good idea. You could even add a few drops of
liquid minerals a couple of times per week in case her system needs a boost for egg laying.
Let us know how she is doing.

Tracie

Hi Tracie,

Liz seems to be doing fine. Thank you for checking in! No twitching that we noticed today. If we were to give her liquid calcium, such as the Fluker's Liquid Calcium Reptile Supplement, do you know how much we should give her?
Back when she was first diagnosed with MBD and came to live with me I had to give her liquid calcium, but it's been quite awhile and that was when her MBD was pretty bad so I imagine I wouldn't need to give her as much now.

She's so strange--she's showing signs of laying but also not. Early this morning before her lights turned on she laid another egg. So that makes two so far. She also crawled out of her bed in the middle of the night which is another sign she has eggs. But then when we offered her greens today she gladly ate them, which is strange because she usually refuses greens when she has eggs. So right now she's in her laybox but I'm not really expecting her to lay today. Like clockwork, she started showing signs of laying exactly two and a half weeks after her last clutch. She's super consistent with that at least.
 

lizdragon

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
I'm sorry to update this thread again. It's been almost two weeks since Liz started showing signs of laying but we do not believe she has laid all of the clutch yet. So far she has laid 9 or 10 eggs in total, almost all on completely different days. I'm starting to get worried even though she luckily seems to be still trying to lay (well, sometimes) and her beard is normal colored.

Really what I worry about is that she is spending too much time in the lay box and not getting enough UVB. I've also been battling humidity in my apartment. I can control the humidity in her cage well but the room in general gets pretty humid and I don't want it to negatively affect her while she's in the lay box. I also worry about her nutrition because when she has eggs she will refuse to eat greens. Luckily she will still eat worms, but it's hard because then I worry about her having too many. What I've been doing is only feeding her 3-4 worms every day (because I still want her to eat) on top of her veggies to trick her into eating them, and it seems to work most days.

We're just getting very discouraged. She'll being walking around her tank frantically in the morning and then will dig around her lay box a bit but eventually she'll just stop and bask. It's frustrating because I don't know what to do. It's the same lay box she's always been able to lay in before.

Does anyone have any advice what to do? Not sure I want to take her to the vet for a pitocin injection just yet. Last time it didn't even really work and she laid over a week later on her own.
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

So sorry that I missed your last update!
Are you giving the Flukers liquid calcium? Does the label specify the strength of the solution
or the PPM or percentage? I can try to dose, if the label states some type of strength of the
solution.
So total eggs are up to 10 now? I do think that it is a good sign her beard is not dark. If she
still has any calcium issues, that could potentially be the culprit. Many times, once they have
developed metabolic bone disease, they will always have some type of issue. Her abdominal
muscles might be weaker than they need to be in order to promote healthy muscular contraction
for labor.
Do you have a UVB light you could place over her laybox for a portion of time so that she does
receive some while she is in there? Or, at least a basking light so she is warm enough. I am
sure it is frustrating, since she has been able to lay in the past. If she is still eating a little bit
she just may not have a full clutch right now. How is her weight?

Tracie
 

lizdragon

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Drache613":ghi2wlin said:
Hello,

So sorry that I missed your last update!
Are you giving the Flukers liquid calcium? Does the label specify the strength of the solution
or the PPM or percentage? I can try to dose, if the label states some type of strength of the
solution.
So total eggs are up to 10 now? I do think that it is a good sign her beard is not dark. If she
still has any calcium issues, that could potentially be the culprit. Many times, once they have
developed metabolic bone disease, they will always have some type of issue. Her abdominal
muscles might be weaker than they need to be in order to promote healthy muscular contraction
for labor.
Do you have a UVB light you could place over her laybox for a portion of time so that she does
receive some while she is in there? Or, at least a basking light so she is warm enough. I am
sure it is frustrating, since she has been able to lay in the past. If she is still eating a little bit
she just may not have a full clutch right now. How is her weight?

Tracie

Hi Tracie! Thank you for getting back to me. And no worries, I don't expect you or anyone to keep up with my constant drama with Liz.

I actually didn't get that liquid calcium, because I wasn't sure if I still needed it since she wasn't twitching. However since you mentioned it again I went ahead and ordered Exo Terra Calcium Liquid, Calcium,Magnesium Supplement (link here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LH2VG62/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) because the Flukers might take awhile to come and this can be delivered tomorrow. Do you think this product would work okay for her? People in the reviews mentioned using it on their bearded dragons. It's 8% calcium and 1% magnesium.The website gives these detailed breakdown:
Guaranteed analysis:
Moisture (min) 60.0% Moisture (max) 58%
Calcium (min) 8.0% Calcium (max) 8.5%
Magnesium (min) 1.0% Magnesium (max) 1.2

Typical analyses:
Calcium 8.1%
Magnesium 1.1%

If you happen to know how much I should give her from that information that would be wonderful and I would appreciate it so much, otherwise I can try to purchase another brand's, such as the Flukers. Thank you so much for offering to help.

I can try putting her UVB over her lay box but then I worry that she might not want to lay, since she prefers doing it in the dark (at least up until now). I do have a heat lamp above her that does not emit light to keep her warm in there. What I've been doing lately is giving her at least one break in the day where I put her back in her tank for an hour or so. I'm not sure of her exact weight but she seems to look pretty normal. I think because she's only laying an egg or two at a time and still eating she hasn't lost too much weight.
 

lizdragon

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Well I have some good news. Liz laid 5 eggs in her lay box yesterday, which brings the total to 14 or 15 eggs (I can't remember exactly). That's significantly less eggs than she usually lays in a clutch, so I thought she must have some more to go. However today she hasn't shown any signs of laying and her appetite is completely back. Actually she ate even more than usual! :lol: I still think she may lay a few more eggs in the upcoming weeks, but for now it seems like things might be okay.
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

That's great Liz laid a few more eggs, how is she doing? She may just slow down on egg
laying, it does happen to some of them. She may have a few eggs left inside but hopefully
she wont have anymore trouble!
At least she did eat so it does seem like she is feeling pretty good right now. How does her
weight look?

Keep us posted on her.

Tracie
 

lizdragon

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Drache613":1b1ewakh said:
Hello,

That's great Liz laid a few more eggs, how is she doing? She may just slow down on egg
laying, it does happen to some of them. She may have a few eggs left inside but hopefully
she wont have anymore trouble!
At least she did eat so it does seem like she is feeling pretty good right now. How does her
weight look?

Keep us posted on her.

Tracie

Hi Tracie,

She is doing well, thank you for asking! No more eggs or signs of laying. I'm hoping that because this last clutch was significantly smaller than the others that she might not have any more to come this year, but we'll see! She's still eating though she definitely is preferring her worms. When she is in laying mode she will refuse to eat greens so I have no choice but to feed her worms, and I think she wants to go back to that! :lol: But luckily she's still been eating her veggies every day. Her weight looks fine to me. I feel like she's always been a little bit on the smaller side for a dragon. I'll post a pic later!
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

That is wonderful news, I am glad that she is doing so well now!
Hopefully her laying is done for the year, bless her. At least she is eating both her greens &
her insects, too. Be sure to give some extra calcium too just to help her bones out.
Definitely post some pictures of her when you can!

Tracie
 

lizdragon

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Thank you! She's still doing well. No signs of eggs yet, but it could happen. We're moving next week so we're really, really hoping she at least holds off until we're settled into our new place! I took some pictures of her this morning.

full


full
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

She looks beautiful there! Hopefully she wont lay during your moving excursion. They
tend to have impeccable timing though. It does seem that she is content at the moment.
Good luck with your move!

Tracie
 

lizdragon

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Thank you! We are hoping she can at least wait until after next Friday.

She's doing well but she's still spoiled after only eating worms when she had eggs. She'll still eat her veggies but it's very obvious what she really wants. It's funny, we swear that she begs for food! Sometimes when we walk up to her tank she will perk up and come towards to glass or make a cute face and it looks like she's trying to manipulate us :lol:
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

Hopefully she will cooperate with not laying until you are all moved into your new place!
I am sure that she is very spoiled, but, that is ok. It really sounds like she is very animated
& enjoys her living environment. That's great.
Keep us posted on her.

Tracie
 

lizdragon

Hatchling Member
Original Poster
Thank you. I'm sorry for posting again but I'm a little concerned about her (again, ugh). Today she was doing fine and she had a big poop this morning. She seemed fine all day. Then when my husband went to get her ready for bed he noticed that her body seemed a bit stiff (? that's how he described it) and that the bottom part of her beard was grey. He gave her a bath and she puffed up her body and stayed stiff. When we took her out the stiffness seemed to go away a bit but she stayed puffed up, though I think it might be slowly going away. Do you have any idea what this could mean?

Something similar happened a few weeks ago where she was tensing up her body sometimes and her beard got dark..then when she pooped a few days later she got better, so I'm thinking maybe she's still constipated? Today was her first poop since laying over a week ago.

Here's some pics of her showing how she looks puffed up now.

This was immediately getting out of the bath (ignore the spilled squash on the mat):
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This was her a few minutes later:
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