To leave the eggs or not to leave the eggs

[iamlard]

Hello All,

I am a recently new bearie enthusiast. Have wanted one for years and recently took on board 2 12 month old dragons. A male and a female.

The female who goes by whatever name my son is feeling like, currently 'Padme' showed all the signs of being pregnant, scurrying around, digging frantically, going off her food etc. Last week I felt definite bumps which after doing some research I'm almost certain were eggs. She had made a fairly big hole in the sand which she left open for 1 week (our sand is about 3-5" deep). Yesterday after returning from work, she is no longer lumpy looks much slimmer and the hole has been filled in and piled slightly higher than anywhere else.

So, I'm sure she must have laid eggs there, what should I do now? I bought in preparation some vermiculite but just wanted to check, if she's buried them there does that mean she thinks they'd survive there? Would they survive there? Do I dare dig it up, risking damaging the eggs? I have seen some YouTube videos of how to make homemade incubation setups, but wanted to get advice first.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[spyder79]

First thing you need to ask yourself is do you really want to and have time to take care of the 12-20+ mouths that will hatch from those eggs. We are talking feeding 2-3 times a day, soaking every day, have at the most 5 babies per each bin, having lighting (UV and heat) for each bin, keeping up with the feeder bill to take care of those babies alone can be crazy then add the severe spike in electricity. Also you have to keep them for no less than 4 weeks (though you should'nt sell them until 6 weeks) then finding homes for them (and trust me the market has quite literally crashed).

If you feel you are up to it then invest in a havobator styled incubator (if you have a feed and seed shop local that caters to chicken ranchers and the like they should have something similar that way you wont have to wait on shipping, just make sure you buy a still air model with no egg turner). They will not survive in the sand in her tank as it is too dry and will basically dehydrate the eggs into nothing. You will have to dig them up carefully (don't worry all of us have to do it). Females will lay their eggs whereever is convenient so no she did not choose that spot thinking they would survive best there.

PS
Is your male and female housed together now? They do each need their own home they should only be housed together for the purposes of mating then separated once the female shows signs of being gravid. If a male breeds a gravid female (which they will as when they are with a female thats all the think about) he can kill her as it has a high chance of causing impaction.

 

[iamlard]

They are housed together. They have their whole life apparently. We took them off our friends hands recently. They don't seem to have any issues with being housed together.

I am not sure how quick I can get together an incubator, how long do you think they will last in the sand? It was a fairly new bag of playsand and was damp.

Thanks for your help.

 

[spyder79]

they wont last too long but you can hope for the best. And as far as your 2 living together I am not going to comment on it any further, you do what you think is best just be ready for whatever consequences occur from that decision.