Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All,

As some of you may know i have got a gravid female expecting to drop anytime now.

This is the first time i have been in this situation and am starting to get a little worried.

She has been gravid for over 4 weeks now and still no sign of laying. There are loads of damp and covered laying spots so cant be that,
She is healthy in herself and still comes out each day and eats perfectly fine.

is there a problem do you think ???

I tend to check on her when i get in from work, but dont want to disturb her too much, so i left her be under her favourite log last night and will check her pretty much every other day.

I have also got me mum checking on her whenshe is out during the day time to see if she is still as large as she is.

is there anything i can do to help things along, or is there a problem or am i worrying about my little girl too much and just let nature do it's thing when it's ready to ??

cheers all.

Funky

I just saved it for situation like this

I call a nesting box, the area within the tank I prepare for my female to lay in. I usually don't use a box at all. I place a brick (normal rectangular) all the way on the left back wall, and another all the left side, at right angles to it...this leaves a space in the middle of the two bricks to hold about 3" of sand. When you do this, you wil find the sand will not be held back in the front. I simply add a vertical flat rock to a portion of the front to hold the sand in. I then dampen the sand, and mix it with my hands until it is damp throughout. Not dripping wet, with standing water, but damp enough to clump when squeezed. I acually mix it very similar to my geckos moisture consistency. After dampening the sand, I place a large flat rock, or terre-cotte flower pot base over the area.

Make sure to leave a noticable entrance into the area. When she gets closer to laying time, start checking the area. When she lays, she will be noticable skinny...Scary skinny Don't worry, she will be ready to resume eating again soon. I forgot to mention...a good sign she is nearing the time to lay, is her decrease in appetite. She will decrease eating, then stop...at the same time, she will start digging more often, or hanging out in the prepared area. I don't worry too much about temps of the area, since I will move them ASAP after she lays them. I have found, if laid on top of a under-tank heater, the eggs will often stick to the bottom. Under the rock or dish, it protects them from too much heat, since they will be buried anyway. I usually have my egg laying area beneath one side of the tank, under the incandescent. The rock on top gets pretty warm, but I highly doubt the temp of the sand gets very warm at all.

For the egg box used in incubation, I use Perlite as a medium. I started using Perlite, because I can't find Vermiculite around here anymore. I put about 3" of Perlite into a deli-cup container. I add water until it is all moist. The material is quite different from Vermiculite, as it will not feel very soft/wet. The best feature of the product, is you will be able to see cleary the water level in the deli-cup. I wet it evenly, then keep the water level at least 1" below the bottom of the eggs. You can then watch the level, and add more water as needed. Very cool feature. Hope this helps you out.

...Here's a picture of the special special "fake rock flower pot" I found at Wally's a while back, as promised. I put it into the viv with Hoover for her last clutch, she voted thumbs up! I have a similarly colored REAL rock I cover the top opening with, leaving enough of a crack for the females to 'sneak' into and dig all they want. It seems to be easier to keep the moisture content uniform longer with this pottery container. I think they were about $8 or so, I bought them out LOL.

DC

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I've got the blues...LOL...them screamin' yellow-head blues...

....of the fake rock pot:

DC

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I've got the blues...LOL...them screamin' yellow-head blues...

I was wondering if they collareds are free roaming??? Where did the penguin go...is she laying eggs now?

Cool find Don....I think you shouls use your rock making skills, and come up with something similar. I may work on this project this summer.

John

...making some 'built-in' areas in the tank for a nest area, but my special strain of C. c. leghorns won't STOP laying, and its been way too cold to play in the mortar and mud this winter. Dang mortar won't do right if it freezes solid before it sets up. I saw this pre-made fake flower pot and nabbed it. That's the first fake pot I've bought since 1967!

DC
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I've got the blues...LOL...them screamin' yellow-head blues...

Looks roomy, Does it come with the Penquin? I like her too !

Eve