Reptile & Amphibian Forums

to be gravid and be ready to lay eggs? all the symtoms are there. she stopped eating about a week ago and has lost a bit of weight. i can tell at the base of the tail but her tummy is HUGE and there are about 4 or 5 very noticeable bulges in her tummy. she is housed with my adult male. i thought that laying season was over. i have a bird incubator (cant remember what its called but i got it from a reptile store a long time ago and hatched beardies out from it) i am going tomorrow to get substrait for a large laying box that i will place in the enclosure. what should i look for? should i be worried about anything? what should the temps be in the incubator given she does end up laying. HELP!!! any help or suggestions would be fantastic...thanks

Yes it is possible. The nubila that I have known layed eggs in late spring/earily summer, but sometimes females hold onto a clutch. Sometimes a change of diet or environment will prompt egg laying. Eggs that have been retained too long are usually bad, but it does not hurt to try to incubate them. Vermiculite or perlite in your hovabator mixed 50/50 by weight is a suitable medium for the incubator, and should be set up way in advance at 86F. You need to be concerned about egg binding and an egg breaking inside of her. There have been some deaths attributed to both of these situations. Good luck

hey thanks!! i actually went to the store yesterday and bought a litterbox with cover and filled it with moist sand and this morning when i awoke, low and behold, she was laying. the incubator is set up at 86 degrees already so when i get home from work today i will be putting them in the incubator. i am not sure if they are viable (sp) because i never witnessed any breeding between the two. when the male would try, she would just turn her back and lift her tail at him. but hey, theres a chance...right? if they are good, i hope that i did not wait too long. i guess time will tell.

If they are viable they should be firm and turgid(leather-like). Soft and flabby or rigid hard are normally garbage. If there is just a small indentation, they can somtimes reabsorb moisture in the incubator and become full. Viable eggs will develop blood vessels. Try not to change the orientation too much from how they are in the nest. Good luck.

yeah i'm thinking they are no good. there are 10 in all but like you said, they are kind of soft and squooshy. but they are in the incubator anyways...thanks for all your help

What the heck, worst case it's practice for next time. And always a relief for her to get the eggs out. Make sure she has plenty of fresh water to drink and a little vitamin/calcium supplement on the food would not hurt. Good luck.

hey question...i came home tonight from work and she had laid another egg on her basking platform and either her or her mate had stepped on it and broke it. i looked inside and there is a small red tissue on one side. would that have been the beginning of a little iguana? annoyingly enough, that egg felt rather leathery compared to the others.

Yes. What you are describing sounds like a germinal disk. For rhino iguanas, it is an area about the size of a dime that attaches to the upper side of the shell within hours of the eggs being laid. Eggs that do not have this spot are infertile.

thanks!! maybe ive got some good ones after all.

A fertile eggs is not necessarily good. Good eggs will be, or fill in solid and become firm and leatherlike. No hard eggs, no flabby eggs, Good luck.