Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok my female claire is deffinately prego, she plump and lumpy, when would you guys say would be a good time to put her on her own so she can lay eggs? what im afriad of is i wont be around when she does lay them.i know when she was mated i marked the date and made an estimate as to when the eggs would come (march 20-26)my fear is i wont find her eggs until it is too late and they are all duds. unfortunatly thats what happened to lizzys first clutch. im thinking a week in advance of laying date. how often should i check her to make sure she has laid?
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Guy LoPresti
3.2 collared lizards (Lizzy,Stevie 2,Ike,Rocky Caroline)
1.1 firebelly toads

You'll start getting an idea of how close she is as she will start digging in the substrate to find a suitable lay area. Unfortunately for me, Thelma chose to lay her eggs where she rested, Bonnie on the other hand found an optimal area. She might not lay in the lay box you'll prepare for her as my two didn't. It took a better part of the day for Thelma and Bonnie to lay their eggs.

alright... so my best bet is to give her her own tank, away from everyone else and let her do her thing. i had doen that last season, but then my female laid her eggs where she rested and i ddnt find them until long after she was finished. i think im gonna play it safe and isolate her a week before or the week that she is due to lay. i will watch for digging too, right now seeing much of that, but we have a week or two.
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Guy LoPresti
3.2 collared lizards (Lizzy,Stevie 2,Ike,Rocky Caroline)
1.1 firebelly toads

Lol, well Thelma laid two eggs today, she hasn't quite learned about digging or using her lay box. She just plopped one on the log I have in their and the other one behind it.

Well I haven't been through this with collareds yet, but a couple of times with leopard geckos. When I think the day is getting close, I check my geckos every day, before I leave and as soon as I get back home. I usually know when eggs are laid, more by the appearance of the lizard than anything else. When she suddenly looks skinny, I check the hide, and if there are no eggs in there, I start poking around in the substrate very slowly and carefully because I don't want to turn the eggs over.

I usually try to have a deli cup with incubation medium (dry) ready and waiting so that all I have to do is add some water and get them in the incubator as quick as possible.

After I get the eggs in the incubator, I try to leave them alone for a while. I just do visual checks and temp checks. After a week or two I take the deli cup out and open it up for a brief inspection. I usually like to go to a dark room and candle them with a pen light. At this time, they should start glowing a nice rosy pink in the pen light and I can often see vasculature starting to grow and spread like nice little red veins. That's when I really know the eggs are good. Infertile eggs have a bright yellow glow in the pen light, rather than pink.