Egg laying

[stumpylump86]

Hi everyone! Just after bit of help. My beardie laid 8 eggs over the course of yesterday. She hasn't been with a male so there is no chance of babies. She has barely moved today and hasn't eaten anything (crickets last literally seconds normally), she's really dark and looks soooooo sad. Should she have more eggs to lay and is there anything I can do to make her a bit happier?

 

[stumpylump86]

The eggs weren't too soft or mushy either, they looked as they should.

 

[PatsyB]

How's your girl today? You should be able to feel her belly and tell if there are still more eggs in there. If there are she is going to need to go to the vet ASAP to get them out.

 

[stumpylump86]

She has laid 12 now altogether. She's not eating still but she's moving about and looking happier now. I've felt her belly and I dont there's any left. Is 12 enough eggs or do you think she should have more?

 

[PatsyB]

I think 12 is a decent number. I've read that you need to feed her something fatty now like wax worms or pinkies (I don't like the idea of feeding a mouse to a bearded dragon). She needs to build up her fat stores again.

 

[stumpylump86]

I've taken her to an expert! Turns out its her first lot of eggs and she's just totally worn out. I've got wax worms now so hopefully once she gets her energy stores back up then I'll get my happy girl back! Thanks

 

[PatsyB]

You're welcome! Hope she feels better soon.

 

[stumpylump86]

Kim has laid an egg. It's been 2/3 weeks since she last laid (17 in the end but it took almost a week from start to finish). Should she be doing this again so soon?

 

[PatsyB]

I don't know. It does sound soon especially since there is no male present. I've never had this happen so I don't know how long she will keep laying eggs. I would maybe just call the person that looked at her before to get their opinion.

 

[Beardielizzy]

Mine did the same thing ! We were in shock we never knew a female beardie could do that without a male that's been with her before lol ! Well was I the expert or what as I read it on here lol ! ( and to think they think I'm always shopping lol ) our lizzy only layed about 7 in total ! We were told to her a digging box cuz they like to hide them in the sand ! She was already done when I bought it ! But if it happens again I should be more prepared !!! She was lazy for a couple days too

 

[Beardielizzy]

Hey ! I wanted to check in with u guys ! So I had mentioned my beardie was doing the same thing ! Well for the past three days she has been scratching the walls of her tank trying to climb up I even found her hanging off her thermostat ! lol she has tile with a small play area of sand she dug all the sand out of that and made a HUGE mess of her tank ! She's moved all her furniture around and is desperately trying to claw her way out I've given her tons of baths she seems happy other wise eating a lot pooping every day ( that's more than usual) but it's very normal in consistency
I did get a big huge blue bin with play sand and put a pre dug hole in so if she has more to lay she can ! What else can I do how long should I leave her in the bin of sand she seems so stressed out

 

[jarich]

Sounds like you have a bit of time still. They will normally pig out and then stop eating just before they go to lay. I would keep the sand in there until you start to see eggs.

As for frequency, they can lay multiple clutches each year. I have heard of dragons that literally laid every 4-6 weeks in the summer. Stumpylump, it sounds more like that was a leftover egg from the first clutch if it was only two weeks apart. Thats a pretty big gap but again, not unheard of. You want to feed high calcium/mineral foods to her right now. She used all hers creating the egg shells, so she will be depleted as a result. So black soldier fly larvae (they are often called phoenix worms or calci worms), silkworms, earthworms, etc. Go ahead and dust them and all live foods too. Feed lots of good mineral rich vegetables/greens also, as she is probably a little dehydrated as well.