Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can anyone give me a run down of what to do to prepare for my little girl laying eggs? This will be her third clutch and I'm thinking about keeping some the eggs and not sure how to incubate them properly. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

oh wow you threw away 2 clutches....painful to hear lol jk .....any way i personally suggests that you go to LLL reptile and buy one for like 40$ instead of trying to make your own ....besides it already comes with vermeculite and little containers...i personally incubate at 85 you can go as low as 80 and as high as 87 anything higher will probably cook them.the warmer they are the quicker they'll hatch... what you do is you fill the container about 2 thirds full and add water to it so that when you squeeze it it clumps but moisture doesn't come out. and cross your fingers and incubate for abt 2 months ......good luck

I'd be sure you freeze fertile eggs before discarding them. I'd hate to think of dragons hatching trapped in a landfill somewhere.

I would incubate at 83-85. 87 is a little high and will increase your chance of birth defects. At 83-85 the eggs will take a little longer to hatch but will be safer if temps. spike. The incubators from LLLreptile are fine but you have to keep an eye on them. As the room temp increases so will the incubator set temp. so they will need to be adjusted down as we move towards summer.

At 83-85, the eggs will hatch in 60 - 75 days. I use vermiculite and make it just wet enough that you can almost squeeze water out of it if you squeeze it real hard. I have read 50/50 by weight but personally think that is too dry. I don't think lllreptile is supplying deli cups and vermiculite with their incubators anymore. If you use them cover all but 2 of the holes with tape and put the lids on them. The eggs should be 1/2 buried in the vermiculite.

Why would you breed her if you were not going to keep the eggs? Breeding them puts alot of stress on the females.
-----
i'm not over weight i'm under tall

BD's like humans produce eggs with the hope of finding a male. Unmated they will just be infertile. Neither species produce eggs because of being mated.

I've had bds for 10 years and I have not gotten a clutch without being bred and if that was what happened I dont beleive they would need a incubator or have a reason to want to keep some of the eggs.
-----
i'm not over weight i'm under tall

Your experience is the exception to the rule. Most BD's lay infertile eggs when a male is not present to fertilize them. If your hypothesis was right there would be no such thing as infertile eggs, since the females wouldn't lay them until they were fertilized.

You have never had a female bearded dragon lay infertile eggs that was bred? All your clutches are 100% fertile then. Well I have to say congrats. What is your hatch rate also I'm very interested.
-----
i'm not over weight i'm under tall

That's a different line of questions.

Your statement was that BD's don't lay eggs unless mated.

I never said they didnt just in my experience I havent had it happen. I also said if it did happen in this particular case I wasn't sure as to why they would need to be incubated which is what the thread was about. The clutch was also the third but I may have jumped the gun and assumed the eggs were destroyed but the person may have given them away. It was never stated what happened with the first two clutches.
-----
i'm not over weight i'm under tall