Good nesting options is vital for captive lizards, 4 days of test digging tells me you have poor options. In my care females of any species will go down once and nest, if they start test digging several times, then I know I have to give better options.

Nesting options are substrata, hydration, temperatures.

I find tropical forest species prefer nesting in decaying leaf litter, sphagnum moss, saw dust, poor options for them are dirt, sand, gravel, clay because these are to opact and retain water too much, something they need to avoid in tropical rain forest, they will nest in drainable substrata that will allow water to evacuate.

My personal choice is sphagnum moss, 6-8in deep works fine.

Hydration; this is easy to control, simply add water to one of your cage corner as needed. Wet is no good, moist almost dry is ok.

Temps; this is simple, when nesting time is near I suspend a 25w bulb 10in above ground, this creates heat gradient in the substrata, my lizards will choose a temperature gradient that allows good incubation. Under tank heat is no good for nesting, eggs are designed to be heated from above as the embryo sinks to the bottom of the egg.


Seems to me your female is looking for the right temps?

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