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what kind of nesting boxes do you guys use in your enclosures? now, i am just moistening the sand in the corner of the cage. my female has been gravid for a while and i want to give her the proper place to lay her eggs.

any ideas or pictures will help greatly.

well my lizards have laid eggs some different ways and the only thing that they seemed to care about was having damp sand. basically they need it damp so the can burrow into it and not have the sand collapse and they need it about5 inches deep in that area, i guess to move around and feel the eggs are secure. i used an egg laying box twice. it was 12 long and 6 deep and wide. one time i just piled sand up in the corner and milly made her burrow there and one time ivan pretty much moved all the damp sand towards the middle of the cage and laid there. some people will pile it up in the corner and then place bricks as a boundary and put a flat cover on top of it. if you give her the right substrate she will figure it out and in ivan's case move it to where she wants it. it is rather amazing to watch them dig these burrows and i love it when they pause because they are all pregnant and out of breath.
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vonnie
***Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution yet. Mae West ***

One thing that might increase your chances of proper laying, is to eliminate most of those rocks in your tank...prepare one area that is optimal, and a single nice basking site. Only one large flat object to burrow under (supported by bricks) will give her limited choices of places to dig and scratch.

Anyway...here is the informatinon.

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.

John Eddington

if i change my basking site and make an area for her to lay, where will the other lizards in my tank hide at night?

or will they use the same area as the laying spot?

should i leave room under the basking site for them to hide?

could you show me an example of a successful egg laying site? i get the idea even if you cant.

do you think i could get a container (size of a coffee can)and fill it 3/4 full with damp sand put a hole in the side and stick it in the cage.

The female will prefer the moist sand and the other will not. I've had other sleep where a female was digging. It didn't seem to hurt, as they were not burrowing down, just surface sleeping. The last year I bred, I set up a single tank in which I would place my gravid females when I suspected their time was near.

Yea, you can also use a laying box. for her to lay in. Sometime they find them, and sometimes they don't though. Just a mix of sand and vermiculite. Make the substrate deep enough to ecourage digging, so the eggs can be deposited in a hole. It will help make sure they don't get kicked around too much after the embryonic disc has attached.

Best of luck, Sludge.

John E.

Hey guys,
how does a post become "popular"?

Thanks,

-Phil

It was looked upon as an interesting, or informative post/ thread, and was promoted to the Index page under Hot Topics
where others can see whats in the forums !

You can click here and see it in Hot Topics, under (collared lizards. Nice to see you as always Phil

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Eve / PHEve