My veiled has been digging since last Sunday (6 days ago) various holes in her egg laying container. It was cold out, so I tried a large tupperware at the bottom of her cage, but after digging all day she wouldn't lay. I tried putting her in a trash can with dirt, so she couldn't get out, but she didn't like being stuck in the can and refused to dig. I finally brought my 6 foot by 5 foot outdoor cage indoors, put the trash can in there - and she started to dig. She dug for 3 days.
I was getting worried about her getting weak because through all this she refused to eat. Then today, at 11 am she disappeared inside her latest hole. At 5 pm, I decided to dig her out.
I pulled her out of the hole (she was in head first, and the dirt had collapsed on her). I gave her a brief warm bath to rehyrade her, then fed her. To my surprise she immediately gobbled up 10 crickets and a silky. She also drank water for about 5 minutes straight. So, despite being in the dirt so long, and digging all week - she's in great shape.
I found 32 perfectly formed very white eggs in a compact ball on the very bottom (about 18 inches down) of the trash can.
My question is, should I have dug her out after 7 hours? What's your experience? Does the female normally exit the hole entirely sooner than that? This ended well, but I was concerned that I was disturbing her from completing her egg laying.
