Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,

I am new to this forum. I have a pair of water dragons.
I never noticed them breeding, and mostly, I always thought I had 2 females...more about this later.

My topic now is that the (for sure) female was found today on top of a shallow hole on the bottom of the cage. The cage only has 5 inches of bedding. I add a sand/peat moss box in the cage. While doing this I put her in a box and in 20' she laid 1 egg in there!??
I put her back in her cage while stil working on the sand box. Now she is not digging and she is basking on a branch...few minutes later I see an egg on top of the sand. Seems like she just dropped it from the branch where she is staying.
I do believe this is not normal, and I do know I indeed bothered her while preparing the sand box and moving her. But I know from chameleons that if they cannot dig and cannot find the most suitable condintion for ovodeposition, they retain the eggs and die egg-bound. So, I did run the risk. I just hope that she gets in the sand and finishes her job.

I wonder if any of you has experience with this issue and has any suggestion/reccomendation/advice.

Thank you,

Chiara
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1.1 Skipper & Sunshine - Veiled Chameleons
1.1 Jimmy & HYdra - Water Dragons
1.0 Trionix - Smooth soft shell turtle
1.0 Apalone - Spiny texas soft shell turtle
0.1 Irish Brook M - Standardbred (retired racehorse)
1.0 Sir Edward - Ragdoll cat, sire
0.3 Shannan, Jalisse, Slick cats
?.? Some fish

Mine has a lay box but prefers to lay hers in the pool and at various places through out the viv. I have read that when they are non-fertile the females appear to recognize this and lay them anywhere they choose. My female also takes sometimes as long as 10-12 days to lay only 5 eggs. She spends much of her time soaking in her pool between eggs. Only 2 eggs is a pretty low number. I would expect at least 2 more. You know I imagine that you could still have 2 females. You do not have to h ave a male for the female to lay eggs. She will continue to do this several times each Spring as long as she is healthy enough to do so. Diane
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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago
Valentino, Veiled Chameleon
Chyam, Nosy Be Panther Chameleon

she ended up laying 7 eggs at the end of the following day. This time she dug and buried them. Seeme like for dragons is pretty common to do this, I am used to cham, and you can immagine how come I was pretty worried seing her ignoring the sand box. I am now incubating the eggs (just in case) and see in few weeks if they spoil.

when should I expect her to lay next time?
I am going to leave the sand box (egg laying site) in the cage just in case...so it's there whenever she needs it.

Thank you,
Chiara
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1.1 Skipper & Sunshine - Veiled Chameleons
1.1 Jimmy & Hydra - Water Dragons
1.0 Trionix - Smooth soft shell turtle
1.0 Apalone - Spiny texas soft shell turtle
0.1 Irish Brook M - Standardbred mare (retired racehorse)
1.0 Sir Edward - Ragdoll cat, sire
0.3 Shannan, Jalisse, Slick - cats
?.? Some fish

This may be her only clutch for the first year. Both my daughters 4 yr. old and my 3 yr. old females laid only 1 clutch their first year. My daughter's female now lays 3-4 clutches beginning in late January and ending by late Spring. My little female has just laid her 2nd clutch and I expect 1 more is possible. R.Gordon used to recommend incubating ALL reptile eggs due to the possibility of species being parthogeneic. So I incubate all offerings. Diane
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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago
Valentino, Veiled Chameleon
Chyam, Nosy Be Panther Chameleon