Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i just got my sweet, beautiful, adult female ackies less than a month ago at f.i.r.e. i had noticed no unusual behavior from her since we got her, she just ate a nice pinkie wednesday afternoon. today when i came home there was an EGG in her cage!! aghhhh!!! this of course caused me to freak out quite a bit, my ackie does not look or feel even remotely gravid and i was not expecting or prepared for anything like this. it looks like this one is all she had in her, though she hasn't started eating again yet (she only stopped after the pinkie yesterday). it looks pretty fertile. it has a firm white shell with some peachy-pink spot on the end. we're about to go to wal-mart and look for some vermiculite. right now we have it in some slightly moist dirt under one of my other lizard's basking lights. so uhm yeah what can i do to attempt to save this egg??? what temperature should it be at?? coincidentally, i ordered an incubator last week from lll reptile (one of my uros is gravid). we have the egg at around 84. eeep! i am in spaz mode!! please help!
-----
1.2 Mali Uromastyx (Ricky, Quinn, Anna)
0.1 Yellow Ackies (Roxie)
1.0 Timor (Zealot)

Emily
www.egomantra.com/npoh

okay, don't freak anymore. when i have used hovabators i take the bottom out and put perilite (yeah verm is fine). and i fill it up 3/4, i mix it until it is moist but not wet but not too moist, i don't measure, just feel. 84 is fine, 86 is fine, whatever. put it in there about half way in, don't turn it ever.

do you have a male with her? just because she laid an egg means nothing. also, she is probably not all that healthy if she only laid one egg. realizing you just got her, treat her better. ackies are sooooooooo easy to breed, they like to, you can just do nothing about it as long as they are somewhat healthy.

if you don't have a male, put the timor in there , that would be interesting, hahaha.

cheers, andrew
-----
Varanus Creations

no male. like i said, we just got her from a breeder who was not going to do ackies anymore. puting the timor in there would be rather interesting considering he's still juvenile. would it be better for us to put a male in there than for her to be by herself? we were thinking of giving her a mate eventually but we might look a bit harder if we thought it would make a big difference or something. honestly she doesn't act unhealthy or look unhealthy at all (she also didn't act or look gravid at all). as for the egg we are pretty sure it is fertile, there is a yolk and little veiny things in there so we've got it partially submerged in some perlite with some distant heat keeping it around 86.5 degrees. we have stopped freaking out, she has also stopped laying. we are thinking this maybe was why she was sold, because she would only have teeny clutches????
-----
1.2 Mali Uromastyx (Ricky, Quinn, Anna)
0.1 Yellow Ackies (Roxie)
1.0 Timor (Zealot)

Emily
www.egomantra.com/npoh

if it looks like that then it is probly fertile. She could of laid for him and he thought she was done, or she could of been bred by his male. She may be ready to drop more egg's just is holding back looking for a good spot to do so. Did you dig that one up or was it just laying out? She may just be an old breeder, or in fact maybe she just does not give alot of egg's. Who knows cannot see the animal and we know even less about it then you do.

I guess what I am getting at is your questions are not easy to answer being so limited to what information is being offered. If you have questions try to be direct and to the point it is easier to answer that way.

Best of luck with your little ackie and her egg.

yes, you should never be surprised when you receive weak, clutched out, or injured animals cheaply or when you are buying adults for the same price as babies.

the temp you have is fine. don't put a juvie with an adult ever, and yeah get a male ackie, it won't hurt (although you have to watch to see how they interact). feed her a lot right now, she should want to.

andrew
-----
Varanus Creations

we had expected that she might be clutched out or not a strong breeder. we didn't care, we didn't really buy her to breed her she just seemed like an interesting lizard. and now she just laid two more! where are they coming from!? (joking...) so far she's just dropping them, mostly in the same general area but kind of all over. it's beena couple hours since the last two, we've given her a little laying box/area in case there's more in there. we're going to go get some more crickets and pinkies this afternoon. one of these two new eggs is pretty big, the other is looking rather dented. we've put them both in the perlite we'll just see if they are o.k. we have them in some gladware with a few tiny airholes poked in it (like pinhead airholes) and they are about 2/3 submerged in the perlite.

thanks for all the help
-----
1.2 Mali Uromastyx (Ricky, Quinn, Anna)
0.1 Yellow Ackies (Roxie)
1.0 Timor (Zealot)

Emily
www.egomantra.com/npoh

Hi, I'm the boyfriend. Our ackie has continued to lay eggs, as a matter of fact, there was one that just came out a few minutes ago. This brings her clutch to 7, although we were only able to get six. One disappeared before we could get to it, I can only guess that she ate it.
She has been dropping them on the floor. she will start off digging in the top soil we provided her but then moves to another section of the cage where she has dropped the majority of them. Her behavioral pattern suggests she is not finished. she seems to be roaming the cage as she has each time before she drops one. after she is finished, she will go and bask for, say, 30 minutes and start again.
If i am forgetting to mention something that will make helpful comments easier, please, let me know.
also, what does a fertile egg look like compared to a non-fertile egg? she had a few come out with dentish-dimplish shells. are these bad or will they be alright once incubating?

i don't know a lot about egg laying but what i do know is if you point the egg at the sun you will see a band (that means the egg is fertile). kind of the same way you check if paper money is real.you can do it with a flash light.

i'm just trying to help, this might not be right.

from Alex

not trying to be rude, but stop replying to posts above your experience level
-----
Varanus Creations

With that said to Alex, I am not all that experienced, but I have bred a few species and continue to and have had many clutches.

A fertile egg will be smoothe, should appear white except for the dirt stains. An infertile egg will appear waxy, perhaps discolored yellow, is not at all firm.

Your problem with the female dropping in different spots is this: your nesting sucks. Very few of us on here have great nesting, we just keep on experimenting until we get the next best thing.

Cheers, Andrew

feel free to email me for pics of a fertile clutch
-----
Varanus Creations

i'm well aware and certain that our nesting did "suck". ;P given that we had NO IDEA that this was going to happen. my gravid uro has nesting options because we know she's gravid. our ackie just started dropping eggs and all we could do was offer her some extra dirt and stuff if she wanted to dig (apparently, she didn't). looks like she's done now, she's gotten down a couple of pinkies and looks like she's going to sleep and bask for a while. i took some pictures of the eggs, will post once i'm back at my computer and can get them online.
thanks for all the help!
-----
1.2 Mali Uromastyx (Ricky, Quinn, Anna)
0.1 Yellow Ackies (Roxie)
1.0 Timor (Zealot)

Emily
www.egomantra.com/npoh

Emily, I too used to give my monitors a "nesting spot." However, I am human, they are the monitors, I have no idea what a good nesting spot is, so instead of doing that I now make the whole cage a nesting area. Fill the whole cage up with a couple feet of dirt next time. This lets the monitors choose what a good nesting site is. Also, ackies, most monitors in general, like to dig whether they are ready to lay or not.

As far as breeding goes, buy a male now. Meantime feed your female a lot and keep her cycling, if she lays an infertile clutch or two while you are looking for a male, so be it, but keep on feeding her as if she hadn't. When you get the male, he just might want to breed with her and with any luck she will accept him. (she should be ready to breed again within a couple weeks, it could take her a shorter time, it could take her a lot longer, its up to you).

Monitors are hard work as you are finding out.

Cheers
-----
Varanus Creations

we never intended to breed her right away. we knew she had been bred before, she's around 5 years old. my bf was definitely thinking of breeding her somewhere down the line but mostly i have gotten very attached to her, i'm more concerned about just getting the meat back on her and having her perk up some more cause i just adore her! 2 of the eggs started to stink today and were definitely looking not right so out they go. we've got 4 now. the first one to come out is definitely the best looking and most firm, but that's to be expected since it's been out probably almost a day longer than the others, right? oh well, keeping my fingers crossed.
-----
1.2 Mali Uromastyx (Ricky, Quinn, Anna)
0.1 Yellow Ackies (Roxie)
1.0 Timor (Zealot)

Emily
www.egomantra.com/npoh

okay, you will do what you will with the ackie. i like to breed my monitors, so i keep a male with the females and give them nesting. it is your choice, andrew
-----
Varanus Creations

hi andrew,
thanks for all your help. i have a picture now of the eggs that i took last night. the wrinkled one on the right and one of the top ones started to smell and we have taken them out, leaving us with 4. the one in the middle is the first egg, thus it is the most firm and white. the rest of the eggs in this picture are all within a few hours of being laid.

-----
1.2 Mali Uromastyx (Ricky, Quinn, Anna)
0.1 Yellow Ackies (Roxie)
1.0 Timor (Zealot)

Emily
www.egomantra.com/npoh

they look good, don't remove any more. remember, moist, but not too moist (maybe a little moister perilite then you think, but maybe not). it is hard to explain, i just do it.

have fun with all of this, and be patient most of all.

andrew
-----
Varanus Creations

so even if other eggs go bad i shouldn't remove them? i thought the bad eggs should come out in case they have bacteria that they pass to the other eggs or something?
-----
1.2 Mali Uromastyx (Ricky, Quinn, Anna)
0.1 Yellow Ackies (Roxie)
1.0 Timor (Zealot)

Emily
www.egomantra.com/npoh

they remove the eggs when they are not truly bad. if you are unsure do not remove them, if you are absolutely positive then do so. it is your call, they are your eggs i am just offering a little advice. cheers and good luck, andrew
-----
Varanus Creations

cool, thanks. i was pretty sure about those, they stunk crazy bad.
-----
1.2 Mali Uromastyx (Ricky, Quinn, Anna)
0.1 Yellow Ackies (Roxie)
1.0 Timor (Zealot)

Emily
www.egomantra.com/npoh