HELP in regards to egg laying

[kimmie]

Ok I've had Angie since mid April - figure she was around 3 months when I got her making her almost a year old. We went thru a phase back in August where she didn't want to eat so she was syringe fed. She got out of that phase and went back to normal, well close to normal. Then a few days ago she stopped eating again. Knowing everything is pretty much fine with her, she's alert, gets baths and has been pottying for the most part, normally. There was a day or two where she didn't go potty but made up for that in her bath!

Now to my subject title. Yesterday afternoon when I went to give her her salad and maybe try coaxing her to eat, I noticed something on her basking area. At first I thought it was urate as it was white (like urate). But it wasn't shaped like that - it actually had this bullbous shape to it. Like a skinny football shape. I took it out with a wipe but didn't really look at it too closely and tossed it. It was white on one side of it and a light orange-ish color on the side. There was some liquid there as well (not a lot). Could she have passed an egg? Not sure if she's old enough (thus the mini-history first). I tried to palpitate her but really didn't feel much out of the norm.

Now remember, I think it was last week, she looked "bloated" like - like she was PUFFED up with air. She went back to normal looking a day or two after that and then had that massive poop in the tub.

She's fine, VERY alert, wanting OUT of her cage most times but no digging.

 

[kimmie]

Ok ...I'm pretty sure it was an egg as there was another one left on the floor of her viv today. It's white outside and looks like a light orange color on the inside. I know they aren't fertile as she's not been around a male. I just thought it was rather "early/young" to be laying eggs already.

Here is a photo of it - sorry it's not a clear shot:

So ..now the questions are:

How many do they usually lay even if they are infertile?

Do I need a nesting box if she's laying them anywhere?

If I do need a nesting box, what should I put in it?

TIA!

(I'm used to non-fertile eggs as that's how I found out my African Grey parrot wasn't a guy :lol

 

[ziggy23]

Yup that's an egg.

Astarte laid 22!

What I did was buy an 18 gal. tote and filled it up with damp playsand. You want it sand castle consistancy. I put a regular household bulb over it. It wasn't basking temps, but it was at least cool side temps.

I put her in it and she laid another. After a few minutes she started digging and laying. It took her several hours, and i swear she fell asleep a few times. Some dragons prefer privacy, Astarte didn't mind. when she was done she buried them and patted it down with her nose. A very cute site btw. then she kept looking up at me as with sand on her nose as if to say "I do good mommy?" After a while I took her out and gave her a bath, and she laid one more. Then I wrapped her up and put her to bed as it was already several hours past her bedtime.

I made sure to feed her well with extra calcium. That's important, and daily baths. She looked soooo skinny afterwards. The next day or two she was a little hyper as if looking for her eggs, but then she calmed down. It took about a week for her to regain her weight. It's been nearly 2 weeks she is still a little blah at times, but she's also shedding like 90% of her body.

 

[kimmie]

HMM well that's something else - she's not had an appetite for bugs and only nibbled on a few pieces of her salad. She's active as all get out though!

Thanks for the tip on the lay box. Guess I'll be lookin' to make one asap.

 

[ziggy23]

Oh yeah, another thing I noticed. I'm not sure how related it is, but it would make sense if it was. Astarte was having several little bitty baby poops several times a day for a few days prior. It was like having a hatchling again! I've grown used to having to only clean up one big pile every day or so. So when i started having to clean up 4 or 5 a day i was like, what??

She also seemed to strain and struggle a little with bms for a very short period afterwards. It might have just been her first post laying, it's been a hectic few weeks for me so my memory is not that great right now. But if laying eggs is anything like giving birth for humans, then I can understand why.

 

[kimmie]

Ok you might be onto something. Granted she's not had anything to eat, but she has had those "tiny" poops and yeah - it was easier cleaning up one HUGE one vs these small ones!

I got an 18 gal tub, cut a window out of it (towards the bottom on the side) and put two of thsoe coco fiber bricks (already moistened) in. The whole shootin' match fit into her viv at one end also - I'll try to get a photo of it.

WOW - she's messy and tossing that crap EVERYWHERE! Then she'd look up at me ...little fiber on her head, like "WHEW that's hard digging to China". Not sure what else or what I should have done but she's got something to dig in at least (and contained so I'm not CONSTANTLY vaccuming the floors!

Is there an easier way to setup a laybox so they aren't tossing bedding EVERYWHERE? :lol:

 

[kimmie]

Ok here are two shots of her setup: (let me know if I need to make changes and what they should be)

 

[kimmie]

Ok ..more questions:

She's still in her laybox and from what I can see - there's maybe 7 eggs so far. She looks so tired but I don't think she's finished. How will I know IF/WHEN she's finished? Do I remove her now or does she come out on her own. Poor thing! The lights in her viv are soon to go out (but the CHE remains on) so I guess I leave her in the laybox all night long????????????? Do I need to stay up and monitor her or what?

 

[kimmie]

Do I leave her in her laybox all night? I'm not sure if she's done but she's asleep and I'd like to clean her off and maybe wrap her up in her blanket! There are probably close to 12 eggs in her laybox.

 

[kimmie]

Well I took her out of her laybox, the poor thing. She was so tuckered out and it was lights out too! I put her in a warm bath to rinse off the coco fiber stuff and she drank and drank and drank. I dried her off and wrapped her up in her blanket and put her on her basking shelf. Then I took out the laybox and fished out (gingerly) the eggs. Twenty four of them! That's not counting the one I found this afternoon and yesterdays. All of them were almost flattened except 1. That still was perfectly formed like it was viable, but I know that wasn't possible. So all of them went down the toilet and I put the laybox back into Angie's viv just in case she woke up wanting to go back into her laybox.

I have no idea how many they lay 1st time, each time, how often, etc! But I hope she doesn't do this again for quite some time!

Now hopefully she'll want to eat tomorrow when she gets up! I do have some Critical Care mixed up with liquid calcium to give her as well.

 

[ziggy23]

Sounds like you've had quite the night while I was away. 24 wow! My girl didn't finish until real late too, like 10 or 11 o'clock at night, and her lights go out at 7. Remember to feed her like a hatchling for a while, lots of protein, and calcium. She could probably use extra baths too.

Astarte did not want to eat a lot in one sitting. My girls are down to 1 feeding a day. But the week after she laid, I had to offer her roaches several times a day. She would only eat like 2 or 3 at a time.

I put Astarte back in the lay box for short periods for a day or two afterwards just to make sure because she laid another in her bath after I she buried her eggs. But after a while she ceased showing interest in it. It took her about a week before she was didn't look tired and skinny all the time.

 

[kimmie]

Well I got up and saw that Angie was wanting to get back into her laybox so I showed her the opening and she's in there scratching again :?: Not sure what she's doing but hope she doesn't have more. Hope she's not looking for the eggs she did lay, they are gone!

I was hoping to feed her but she's more interested in that darn laybox right now. I don't have roaches - she was not interested in that at all so I gave my colony away. All I have around are superworms. She'll just have to have those and heavily dusted with calcium. I also have the Critical Care that she seems to like and that's mixed with the liquid cal.

Do they keep laying more? How often do they lay?

 

[TheWolfmanTom]

Morning Kimmie,
Sorry I didnt see this post.
So far everything is good. She may just want to dig a bit. Gemini still digs for a few days after she lays.
Now she may be done or she may lay more. I had 1 girl trow 5 or 6 infertile batches of eggs over a 5 or 6 month period, every 20 to 25 days.
Make sure you let her eat whatever she will eat and as much as she wants. if you give calcium and vitamins 2x a week do 4.
T

 

[kimmie]

Thanks Wolfman,

She was done laying. I let her do her thing and she covered everything up. Actually the bin looks like when I first put it in there. It was interesting/fun watching her pound it down with her nose, then grab more fiber and pound some more. I didn't tell her the eggs were no longer there

When I checked back in on her, she was back in her basking spot a wee dirty. So I brushed her off and weighed her. She's lost 70grams from that ordeal and lookin' a wee skinnier. I offered her some calcium dusted supers - she took four of them. I also syringed fed her some CC mixed up with liq. calcium and apple juice. She had a piece of kale as well (and then tossed the rest around that was in her dish).

I guess I need to keep a few bricks of the fiber around for those just in case times.

I sure wish she wanted those roaches I had, oh well. Since the kids are off for Christmas, I can order some bugs (waxworms or something) to beef her up and not have to worry about the temps outside!

 

[kimmie]

SO how often do they lay eggs? `