Posted by:
oshadog
at Wed Jun 15 20:19:52 2011 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by oshadog ]
I'm at a small-ish place that has a lot of herps (and I've always done A LOT of reading on husbandry.) Anyway: Recently the male and female collared lizards were place together. Almost instantly her orange showed up and they started breeding. She's obviously gravid and, yesterday, I checked her lay box and found what I thought were two eggs. It has been at least 21 days since I know they started their behavior.
Now, I've kept herps my whole life: but I've never bred any of them. I've always left that up to experienced breeders... BUT, I was pretty damn sure these were eggs... though I had the feeling something might have been "off" about them. So, what I'm really hoping for are some opinions:
I've either been fooled or something is weirdly wrong. Has anyone ever seen, or heard of, theirs lay "giant" egg shaped poo's, in their nest box, and then bury them?
I swore they were eggs, but the girl who worked yesterday (when I wasn't there) said it was poop and trashed them. I wasn't there, and maybe she's right and I was just tricked by a little lizard- which would be fine. ..but something still feels wrong and I just wanted to ask around so I could maybe put my mind at rest.
I mean, normally, the female collared's poops look like little dark brown squiggles with urates at one end. These had no urates, they seemed to be a very different constancy than her normal poop (which would have just kind of deformed if it were picked up- or be dried out and hard if it were old. These were maybe 3-5 hours old.) And her poop, its never been round that I know of, (these were like a tear drop- but equally round-ish on both ends, just like the pictures of their eggs that I've seen) and they were thick, (almost as thick as the top joint of my thumb, maybe 3 times thicker than what I've ever seen come out of her before.) What I found in her box held its shape very well and had a clearish, mucus-like, film that was sticking to the playsand. (So I didn't disturb it to see the color but, from what I could tell, through the sand: it seemed "lighter," certainly more so than her normally dark brown poop.)
At the very least, it seems odd to me that she'd be pooping in her nest box, and I'm wondering if it would be odd or normal behavior if she did just do that. (Is that odd? It seems odd to me. Maybe it's not though.)
I do know that she likes to poo after sitting in water, so -if that is the case- I'm wondering if her water is drying out too often and she's seeking the moisture in her nest box to get her business done-- or something. (Because I have found her dish dry many times- but that's somewhat normal here since there's very little humidity and it's a shallow dish.)
It's just, when this other girl called me and said it wasn't eggs; something just continued to feel so bizarrely wrong in some way. And, at the very least, if that is something they do, and were probably not eggs after all, at least I have to have a good chuckle at myself for getting too excited too soon.
Also, argh, they do not have a UVB bulb on her and are only supplementing with fluckers D3/Calcium (and I don't know how frequently.) I personally bought, and took in, a high quality phosphorous and D3 free supplement for them to start using on her food- but last time I was there I realized no one had opened it. So: please do make assumptions about her care. Basically, I need help knowing what to think so I can either put my mind to rest or be more confident about what to say.
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