Hey everyone!
I had something happen to me that I have never had happen, and never heard of happening (atleast this bad), and I think that all keepers should be aware of it.
Today I went into the cham room to check on them, paying extra close attention to the gravid females. One of the gravid females was nowhere to be found. I know how good they blend in, so I spent a good 5 straight minutes looking for her without opening the cage; I still couldn't find her. I suspected she was on the bottom somewhere digging where I couldn't see, so I really did not want to open the cage and disturd her. I was really stumped because I can ussually find them pretty fast, so I decided to open the cage to take a look. Sure enough, she was nowhere to be found. I decided to take out her bucket of laying dirt. The dirt looked completely untouched. I didn't even think that she walked on it. I still decided to dig it up. At the very bottom, about 11 inches down, I found her! She was curled up into a ball. It turned out a great day though, cause I dug up 43 eggs along with her. I put her under her basking light, and she is now perfectly fine. Apparently she dug a hole to lay her eggs,layed them, and then probably colapsed everything in trying to get out. Perhaps the soil was to dry whiched caused it to collapse, but it seemed to still be the right consistency. I still have absolutely no idea how the top of it looked untouched. It was completely flat on top, showing absolutely no signs of anything walking on it, let alone digging a hole in it. And, I am not sure how she breathed, but I would bet that another 20 minutes tops, she wouldn't have made it. Anyway, she is now back to her good old self, and all 43 eggs seem to be very healthy. 
Here is a pic of the female, no more than a minute after being dug out.
-Adam.
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