WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

[beardie parents]

Zoom Zoom has been doing something I've never seen any of my 6 beardies do, nor have I read of any other's beardie doing it. She has been digging a hole in one of our tree wells. The first hole had her almost all the way in and then the one that just collapsed today had her all the way in, including her tail and she's 15 and 7/8 inches long. She keeps going into it and digging further and further. Does anyone have any idea why she's doing this? She did do a semi brumation last December through last March and it seems as if she wants to sleep later and later in the morning. On monday I had the day off to go to the Dr. and I got her out of her box at 8:30am, this is about 2.5 hours after her lights came on. Anyway, at 8:30 she still looked sleepy like she didn't want to be woken up. Speedy is slowing down a little, sometimes. Today, though they both were active and wandering all over part of our front yard (we have 4.8 acres total so I can't say they wander all over the 4 acres). Zoom did go back to her hole and it caved in and she had this expression that said "after all this work it caved in". My husband said she did go right back to digging the hole again.

Is it possible that she's trying to prepare a hole in anticipation of sleeping there when we take her outside? Why would she want to dig this hole? We only take her outside for anywhere from one to two hours usually. Once in a while she's only there for 30 to 45 minutes but that's when it's either cooler or the sun went away because it's trying to rain (sometimes that's all AZ gets in the rain area).

Miss Y used to dig, but not a hole to crawl in and disappear into. Redrock would "help" her dad dig when he was enlarging a tree well. Neither of them would dig this way and we are really curious.

Thanks in advance for any ideas you might have.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Sounds as if she is about to lay some eggs!! I would provide her with a lay box!!! Good luck and pm if you need more help!! :wink:

 

[beardie parents]

Thanks for your response, but wouldn't she be really fat if she was getting ready to lay eggs? She's not fat, really fat like pregnant fat. From all I've read about that is they dig insessantly, inside or out, when they lay eggs, she's only digging a hole and outside, and only in one spot and not really insessantly. We could try for a lay box, I know there are directions for one in the breeding forum as I've read some of the directions. We found play sand in Home Depot last week but I'm not sure if that would hold and not collapse on her. To us, it's almost like she's digging a burrow.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Sometimes it is hard to tell if they are carrying eggs! It is possible she is looking to burrow! I would still offer her a lay box just to be on the safe side! One of my females do the same thing in one spot until she thinks its deep enough to lay!!

 

[simboney7]

What do you do with the eggs once they are layed since I have read that females lay eggs even when they have not been mated???
See how nature treats us females, all that work for that poor girl for nothing.

 

[Buggsy]

You just freeze them and throw them away. Gizmo went through two cycles this year, the firs was reabsorbed (so no eggs produced, just all that digging!) And the second she produced two eggs, but i was checking every day and felt nothing! lol they can be tricky little things.

It could be she has decided that is where she want to lay her eggs, but one a nice warm lay box is set up hopefully you can change her mind! lol

How is she today? any luck getting the box set up??

 

[beardie parents]

Thanks for your responses. We haven't yet. I know where to get play sand, but I don't think that would hold well. I haven't had a chance (too much going on in life) yet to check the breeding forum for suggestions on what to put into the lay box. What should I use, the sand is like $6 or $7 but I don't think I'd need that much and I think I'd need something else, any suggestions?

simboney7, yes I understand, but here, we try to pay off debts, we finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, then I run into a cow and, because of the age of the truck, we must either pay to fix the old (91 s-10 chevy) truck or buy a new one, which both options mean more payments so were back under, all that work for more payments then we had 2 months ago.

BTW, my husband noticed Zoom Zoom felt the same way.

 

[fresnowitte]

Good Morning Lori!

It sounds like you and the hubby have one crazy little girl on your hands. :wink:

My first thoughts would be she wants to lay eggs but I'd think she would have started doing this earlier in the year if she were going to this year. :roll: But nothing in beardie behavoirs is concrete. My second thought is she has hunted out a spot that she thinks would be comfortable to sleep/brumate.

Feeling the eggs is not always so easy. You must feel with only your finger tips like as if you were checking your pulse. I have RD who is a fatty and rarely can I feel her eggs even though she may have like 30 of them in there. Ms. Tiggs on the other hand you can feel her's but she doesn't always look as if she has put on alot of weight even though she does...lucky girl carries her weight well. :lol:

I personally use the eco-earth for dig/lay boxes...an I also do mine outside of the viv in a rubbermaid tub. I'm lazy and don't want to deal with the soil all over the viv's. But it works great for me an it works for them as well.

 

[Drache613]

Hello Lori,

It is possible she has eggs that are just being stored in the oviducts or being retained which is why she may not be showing any visible signs of being gravid. It may be a good idea to get an x-ray just to be sure there are no eggs. Retaining eggs are very dangerous. I don't know why she would retain them, but some tend to for numerous reasons. The genetics do play a vital role in their fertility & health.
How do her fat pads look right now?

Tracie

 

[beardie parents]

Tracie, I'm not really sure about her fat pads. She's never had a really big appetite. She did a semi brumation last year that started in the middle of December, which the place we purchased her from told her age when we got her at about 3.5 months old, which would have put her at probably 6 months old then. This behavior ended in the middle of March. We figure it was a semi brumation because she wasn't hungry, but she would eat if she was gaping when we put her in her viv basking spot, or outside when it was warm enough. We'd put some food into her mouth, she didn't eat a lot, tho. She only lost, maybe 2 or 3 grams at that time, but she's gained that back and then some. She weighed 352 at last weiging.

I did think her fat pads had shrunk a little, so I kept an eye on them, and it seemed a few weeks later that they had come back up. We gave her some of the reptaid for about a week. Sometimes that seems to make her appetite increase, it didn't work last December, but when she decided she was hungry in March she started eating a lot more than she had before last December. I've been trying to keep an eye on her fat pads. I do know they aren't really, really sunk in like Miss Y's were during the time she was anexoric the year before her death. They don't seem as big as I thought they looked about 2 months ago, but I'm not really sure. I will weigh her tomorrow. She has been eating some things. On Monday morning I had the day off because of a Dr's appointment and I had taken her outside and would feed her greens and squashes when she'd open her mouth. After about the 4th or 5th piece of escarole or Romain lettuce (she ate 3 escarole and 2 lettuce & no supers), I wispered to her "Open your mouth and I'll feed you again." She opened her mouth and I gave her another piece of greens (escarole, collard, or romain lettuce) and she ate it with out me having to fight her on it. That day I don't think she ate any superworms. She seems to either eat superworms or greens most days (Bill seems to have to put them in her mouth when she is gaping and if she really doesn't want to eat them, she'll let them drop to the ground.

She ate 2 superworms on tuesday, and 2 on Wednesday. She is growing longer, though. She was at just about 15 inches in April and May and now she's almost 15.75 inches long.

Thanks for all you help! Brumation does mimic so many other problems and it seems hard to figure out what's really wrong.

 

[beardie parents]

I think Zoom Zoom is trying to get ready to brumate. We are going to get some stuff so she can dig in the house and we'll feel she's safer that way. I just weighed her and she's gained 2 grams in the last week (+/-). I figured this was what she's doing because she did the same type of thing at 6 months, even considering how small/short she was at that time.

Lori