Shumu is so fat, But i don't know if she's pregnant or egg b

[i182willsw]

Shumu is our beautiful girl dragon, and this forum is what corrected me that she was actually a girl. i just thought she hated her cage and that was why she was digging so much, it turned out she had eggs. They just hatched two weeks ago and they are doing amazing, however Shumu is huge and has been for some time. But i can't feel any eggs in her, sometimes when she walks it looks like there is an egg or two sticking out of her side but maybe that's just a muscle or something, Is there anyway to really tell that she has eggs? She digs a little in her cage, but wont dig in her dig box, and she laid her eggs in it just fine 3 months ago. Also, what are the stages of being egg bound, is it like impaction where she will start to lose the use of her back legs? any help is much appreciated. Thanks a lot guys.

 

[beardedwizard]

Females can hold sperm until they are ready, and I've heard of other breeders having females lay their last clutch 3-4 months after their previous clutch. So this is not unheard of, but watch her closely! If she is gravid again she will lay with the next 2 weeks, and she will show the typical symptoms of pacing and digging. Sometimes they don't show this, but you can usually tell by their behavior... Becoming egg bound is very obvious as the female is extremely panicky, and will pace none stop! She will display the gravid behavior for an extremely long period of time, and you will notice after the second or third day of none stop pacing that something is not right if she hasn't laid yet. So from what you described she sounds just fine, and is healthy. I wouldn't worry to much at this point, but I would keep an eye on her. Chances are she's just developing her last clutch from the breeding, and she will lay in the coming weeks! Remember females will only lay when conditions are right; both her body and environmental conditions have to be ideal before she lays! So make sure you increase her vitamins and calcium for the next couple of weeks to make sure she and the possible embryos are getting the nutriment they need!

Best of luck,

Anthony

 

[i182willsw]

Thanks for the info, but is there any other ways to tell if she is pregnant, she hasn't been eating all that much lately. She eats normal amounts for a lizard that isn't growing very fast. But at the same time she is huge. I know people say they can feel eggs in the lizard, but i know they come out pretty soft could it be possible that you couldn't feel them. Today when she went to the bathroom ( i don't usually watch but she did it on the leather couch, wife didn't like that) it was a very small amount but she seemed to struggle with it a bit. i don't know if that is really anything or just her trying to go to the bathroom when she didn't really need to all that bad.