Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My veiled mated (I think) 23 days ago. This will be her first clutch. She's 11 months old.

My main question is, what's the longest it can take for a veiled to lay eggs?

The reason I say "I think" about mating is because the couple only stayed together for about 1 minute, but she's been showing gravid colors ever since. She's been eating like a horse - gobbling up crickets, superworms, and waxworms more than normal, and basking more than normal. Both of which I understand are gravid behaviours.

She's not pacing the bottom or the cage or anything - but I'm watching for it and ready to switch her to the garbage can with supersoil/sand mix when she does. What I want to know is when can I be sure this is a "false alarm", and if it is false, why did she switch to gravid colors after her brief mating?

Any suggestions will be appreciated! Thanks

I would say she's gravid and that the time is getting close. If she's still eating alot, she's probably not quite ready. They almost always stop eating a few days before they are going to lay and will begin to hang out down low in the cage or crawl around the bottom usually in the back of the cage. Once I see them crawling, I take them out and they usually lay within 24 hours or so of that (if you leave them alone while trying to lay). If you saw them breed even if just for the 1 minute and she's had gravid colors ever since, I would say it's a 99.5% chance she's gravid, especially if she's getting big. My veiled male would try to attack the female when I introduced them and I finally got them to mate only for about a minute and they never saw eachother again and she laid 43 100% fertile eggs, probably about 30 days after mating. If she got her gravid colors really quickly after the mating, she would probably be sooner than that. Mine took about a week to get her colors. Have you been weighing her?
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com

Unfortunately no. I'm having trouble finding a scale to purchase. I went to LLLReptile yesterday and they said I had to go to a "head shop" to buy a scale.
I wish I had the scale, because that would probably answer my question. Thanks for the advice - I'll keep watching her. I'm hoping they'll have a scale at the Pomona show next week, but it's kind of late to have one now for her.

They have good digital ones for reasonable prices at Wal-mart.

Yosemite
Reptayls Ltd

I was gonna say the same thing.... I can't remember what I paid for mine but no more than 20 bucks.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com

Have you tried Office depot or a store like that/
I bought mine from Office Depot and works fine and not expensive (something like 22.95)..
Good Luck with her..