Could my bearded dragon be gravid?

[franklinsbiggestfan]

Hey everyone. So I just adopted my bearded dragon two months ago. She has recently been relocated to my apartment in Minnesota. She spent the first day here hiding, as I figured she would due to the stress of the move. For about a week after the first day she was doing great. But over the past couple days she has been digging incessantly. I was pretty sure it was due to stress, but now I'm not so sure. She has still been letting me hand feed her and she has been very active when out of her enclosure. But she won't stop going in her hide and digging.
I started to think she could potentially be producing eggs? The vet put her at around 8 months when I saw them in December. That would mean she's somewhere around the range of 9 months now. It seems too early for her to be laying eggs, I'm just not sure how else to explain the digging. It also seems unlikely that she would be gravid due to the condition she was in when I adopted her. She has early signs of metabolic bone disease, she had mouth rot and parasites. I can't imagine that she would be in good enough condition to produce eggs. I just figured I would ask in case there is a risk of prolapse.
She has an exo terra UVB bulb and a 100w basking bulb. She is currently on cardboard as substrate. I know if she does happen to be gravid I would need to create a lay box, but I don't want to jump to any conclusions before knowing for sure.
I have a picture here of her basking. You can see her belly is a little swollen, she pooped today (the day the photo was taken) so I can't imagine it would be constipation.

 

[xp29]

You said she has an exo terra uvb, I'm assuming that means it's a coil/compact bulb. If so those bulbs are no good and will cuase health issues. Please invest in a long tube set up. I have had troubke with the ZooMed fixtures so personally i recommend the Arcadia pro t5 12% desert. You can get them at petsmart. You might can find them cheaper online, i haven't ever looked though. When my ZooMed failed i didn't want to wait on shipping.

 

[AHBD]

Hi FBF, there are several reasons that Franklin might just be digging like many beardies do to burn off energy or look for a place to hide for a while. There's a certain amount of stress associated with a move to a new environment and sometimes this is their way of dealing with it. And being as the vet only estimated her age, she could a bit older and carrying eggs but it's not the only reason she might be digging as I already mentioned. Just let her settle in, if she IS carrying eggs she seems to like her cave and that would most likely be where she will lay them.

 

[franklinsbiggestfan]

You said she has an exo terra uvb, I'm assuming that means it's a coil/compact bulb. If so those bulbs are no good and will cuase health issues. Please invest in a long tube set up. I have had troubke with the ZooMed fixtures so personally i recommend the Arcadia pro t5 12% desert. You can get them at petsmart. You might can find them cheaper online, i haven't ever looked though. When my ZooMed failed i didn't want to wait on shipping.

She has a long tube fixture. It was replaced a couple weeks ago.

 

[franklinsbiggestfan]

Hi FBF, there are several reasons that Franklin might just be digging like many beardies do to burn off energy or look for a place to hide for a while. There's a certain amount of stress associated with a move to a new environment and sometimes this is their way of dealing with it. And being as the vet only estimated her age, she could a bit older and carrying eggs but it's not the only reason she might be digging as I already mentioned. Just let her settle in, if she IS carrying eggs she seems to like her cave and that would most likely be where she will lay them.

I figured that would be the case, I just didn't want to risk anything. I will keep an eye on it. Thank you!

 

[AHBD]

O.K., please update if she does lay eggs or even if she doesn't. It's always interesting and also informative for others who are reading the thread , especially if they are going through the same type of situation.