My youngster Flora is heavy with her first batch of eggs. They look like they're about to explode out of her midsection. But I'm worried about her -- she hasn't eaten anything in a couple of weeks and has gotten very weak and (aside from the eggs) thin to the point of gauntness. I've been giving her water from a dropper every day, which she usually accepts, but she refuses food. Spits it right out when I try to feed her a wax worm, which is usually her favorite.
I understand some amount of fasting right before egglaying isn't unusual. But at the rate she's going I'm afraid she's going to starve to death before she lays anything. I'm also not sure I should subject her to a car trip to go see a vet -- the stress might be too much for her in her eggbound state.
There is an egglaying area in her cage (a large aluminum baking dish full of moist but not damp sand, with a brick lying across the top so it's mostly an enclosed space) and she did dig around in it once a couple weeks back, but since then she hasn't shown any interest in it either.
Any advice? How normal is it for a female to look like she's knocking on death's door before she lays eggs?
