Reptile & Amphibian Forums

One of my females began laying eggs on Sunday afternoon, day 28. I found her with two laid and I removed them. She then laid a third, I removed it, a fourth I removed it and a fifth which I removed. She then stopped laying eggs, but I could clearly see she had three left inside her. I'm sure this is my fault and that I stessed her out.

Monday, I woke-up and she had the sixth egg half way out, but it appeared stuck and she was trying to lay it in her water bowl. I removed the water bowl and the wet paper she is bedded on.

She finally got that egg out, but still has two eggs in her at her vent. She hasn't tried getting them out for 24-hours now and I'm getting concerned that she might not be able to get them out.

Since it's been 48-hours since she began laying, am I at a point where she needs to be helped or treated by a vet? What can I do from home? In hindsight I should've left alone until she was done laying all of her eggs. I have another female laying as I write this and that's what I'll do with her.

Yeah...you should have left her alone and removed them all when she was done. But going forward, this is what I would do. Leave her absolutely alone for another 24 hours. If shes in a rack, cover the opening to the outside with something dark. If after 24 hours, they're still stuck, you have two courses of action you could choose.

1) Contact a vet and get an injection of synthetic oxytocin. This will help her move the eggs out. At this point, the eggs probably will not be viable but I suppose there's a chance.

or:

2) Since the eggs probably wont be viable, you could go ahead and asperate (such out some of the material from the inside of the egg) the emergent egg with a needle/syringe. She'll then probably pass the eggs with no problem.

If it were me, I'd probably do #2 unless the eggs were VERY special and worth the extra effort...

...you have got to leave those girls alone when they are laying!! Good luck with your girl.
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Bill Buchman