help with eggs please

[bluephantom]

ok i have had 3 beardies and they are all about 1 year old. i thought they were all boys. so imagine my suprise when one of them started digging up the vivarium and chasing the other 2 away. i moved her to another vivarium and did some research which brought me to the conclusion she was gravid. and tonight she has laid a clutch of 22 eggs, i have set the vivarium temperature to 28 degrees and made it humid but now don't know what to do. any help would be appreciated. :roll:

 

[Laderius]

freeze the eggs and then toss them out

 

[Mistyck]

28*? :shock: I hope you mean Celsius, not Fahrenheit. Either way it doesn't sound like you're set up for incubation of eggs, my advice would be to freeze them and toss them out. Then separate your dragons, because if you don't, they will just keep breeding the female, causing her undo stress and depleting her energy and calcium from her body.

 

[bluephantom]

obviously i mean celsius, farenheight would be a bit cold also i can buy an incubator in the morning. and i have already seperated her from the boys. my wife would never forgive me if i just destroyed the eggs. i was hoping for a bit more constructive advice on how to deal with this 'small' problem. oh well. back to researching :study: and not talking to people who would just have me destroy the eggs. looks to me like this site is for people who think they are the only ones with the right to breed beardies. which is quite sad really.

 

[deenwals]

I was in the same boat as you. If you have peat moss or vermiculite or perlie handy
Get it damp but not dripping. Put it in a plastic food container about half way up.
Make small indentions and put the eggs in there half way up. Mark the tops of the eggs
With a non toxic marker so you know which way is up. Get temp. At 28-29 celcius in a
Chicken incubator. Those work just as well for your small clutch than more
Expensive reptile incubators. Put the plastic container In the incubator and you are good to go.
Check the color of the eggs in a week and If they are pink they are fertile.
You can even hold a flash light up to the back of each egg and see all the veins
In the eggs. You can see this in a week as well. Hope this helps some!
Sorry about typos i am on my iPhone.

 

[TASTIGER]

most people were saying to freeze the eggs because temps could have been too low for the eggs meening theymight not be viable. listen to deenwals and get the incubator as soon as possible

 

[Laderius]

...i was hoping for a bit more constructive advice on how to deal with this 'small' problem...

To be honest beardies having clutches are not a small problem. its an extremely huge responsibility on your part to ensure those eggs hatch and the beardies live Get your incubator and post some pictures I hope all goes okay. the thing that kills me os waiting for the eggs to hatch

 

[bluephantom]

Thank you for the constructive replies. I was a bit annoyed with the throw the egg replies to be honest as i felt people were judging me before they knew anything about me. My pets are part of the family and i treat them as such. My beardies, Freedom, Lenny, and Beatrice (my wife named her since we found out she was a girl). are all Very healthy.

Vivarium temperature at time of laying was 28 celsius. substrate was damp vermisculite. Got the incubator today for £130. proper lizard incubator with built in thermometer and thermostatic temperature control. temperature is set at 30 celsius. out of 21 eggs 15 were undamaged and pure white. 1 was scratched and shell broken. the other 5 were dented and discoloured. so 6 are now in the freezer for disposal. was very careful removing the eggs and have them in damp vermisculite that was removed with the eggs. I added extra water to this. Hopefully i have done everything right :? Anyway. time will tell.
Beatrice is eating well and alert. looks so much happier away from the boys
I will try to get some photo's in the next few days.
Only 1 more question. Will I need to keep adding water to the vermisculite ?

 

[tempusfugit]

Thank you for the constructive replies. I was a bit annoyed with the throw the egg replies to be honest as i felt people were judging me before they knew anything about me.

They know enough to tell you to freeze your eggs. Keeping beardies together is bad regardless of sex, you're lucky your girl isn't eggbound from having babies too young. Did any of your dragons brumate? I mean, you're already losing eggs, that doesn't bode well for the rest of the clutch. Most likely you'll lose the majority of the rest, and end up with a few small, weak dragons, that is if any survive. Unplanned egg layings usually don't end well, even if you waste all the money in the world on an incubator(without the knowledge is useless).

And no, I don't think I'm ready to breed beardies, or only people on this site should breed them. I think if you can't sex a beardie by one, and you're keeping 3 beardies in a cage together, your eggs have a snowball's chance in hell.

 

[spikeymom]

One of my beardies unexpectedly laid a clutch of eggs as well. I was not prepared for the first clutch so I did not incubate them. I thought they were both males and they had always been housed together. In the three weeks after the first clutch I did a lot of research and prepared myself for the next clutch. A beardie can lay several clutches from just one breeding as they hold sperm. I was prepared for the second clutch and am now incubating them. I incubated the third clutch as well and have frozen the rest as I am not prepared or able to keep 50+ dragons. My first clutch should begin to hatch any day now and I am very anxious and excited.

From my research you should keep the humidity pretty high in the incubator. You don't want to get the eggs wet so don't spray water, but you can use an eye dropper and moisten the vermiculite. I also put a cup a water and a wet washcloth in the incubator and keep that damp to keep the humidity up. They should hatch around 60 days, but could be longer. Also once they hatch you will need to be prepared to house and feed them. I ordered small crickets (1/4") that I have on hand and I have a rack with several bins and lights ready to go. You will need to watch that they are all eating and not nipping each other. I am of course no expert, this is my first clutch as well, but I thought I would share the small amount that I know.

Good Luck!

 

[TASTIGER]

Thank you for the constructive replies. I was a bit annoyed with the throw the egg replies to be honest as i felt people were judging me before they knew anything about me. My pets are part of the family and i treat them as such. My beardies, Freedom, Lenny, and Beatrice (my wife named her since we found out she was a girl). are all Very healthy.

Vivarium temperature at time of laying was 28 celsius. substrate was damp vermisculite. Got the incubator today for £130. proper lizard incubator with built in thermometer and thermostatic temperature control. temperature is set at 30 celsius. out of 21 eggs 15 were undamaged and pure white. 1 was scratched and shell broken. the other 5 were dented and discoloured. so 6 are now in the freezer for disposal. was very careful removing the eggs and have them in damp vermisculite that was removed with the eggs. I added extra water to this. Hopefully i have done everything right :? Anyway. time will tell.
Beatrice is eating well and alert. looks so much happier away from the boys
I will try to get some photo's in the next few days.
Only 1 more question. Will I need to keep adding water to the vermisculite ?

make sure you give beatrice extra calcium she should be getting ready for another clutch and her body will steal calcium from her bones to shell the eggs if she doesnt have enough calcium. and dont get the eggs wet or they will mold..good luck

 

[bluephantom]

Some of the negative replies are not really inspiring me here.I am not a 'beardie breeder', and I am not doing this for profit. If none of them survive I can say at least i did my best. if 1 of them survive I will have another fantastic bearded dragon, also, I never thought to check their sexes because Lenny was a rescued dragon, (male) from somebody I know, Freedom was from a breeder (male). and beatrice was from a breeder (female. I now know) and told she was male.
I have no intention of breeding my pets, before this happened I had all 3 in a 6' x 3 'x 3' vivarium.
Also I now know how to sex them.
If you had an unexpected litter of puppies would you throw them in a sack and drown them ?
I am trying to do the best by my pets. I have a 6' x 7 ' x 3 ' space to build in, so each one of my dragons will have their own space.
Anyone that wants to help me here would be very much appreciated.
Also i would appreciate your opinions and experience, But telling me to kill them is not an option.

 

[Chunka]

Just want to wish you luck, I'm not knowledgeable enough to offer constructive advice but there are a lot of people on here who've helped me get through learning experiences. I'd love to be updated in how everything works out for you and your babies.

 

[bluephantom]

havent been on for a few weeks so heres an update of the situation

this is freedom in his desert theme viv

this is beatrice in ayers rock theme viv

2008/PICT0701.jpg[/img]
and this is the new baby viv

and another of the new baby viv
35 eggs in the incubater. from a total of 43. 12 from first lay. 23 from second. some were badly dented and damaged

so the first batch of eggs should hatch in 2 weeks time. the baby viv has been built with removeable background for easy cleaning.
all the eggs seem to be doing great. only slight discolouring on 2 eggs but can see veins inside so hopefully they will be ok

 

[bluephantom]

anothe pic of freedom in his house