A short while ago, I posted pics of this female laying her first clutch.
I showed the use of deep dark substrate with a piece of glass(buried down in the substrate). The glass is to provide a roof for the nesting chamber and provide a window for us to view the proceedings. This setup, allows very little disruption or stress for the female. As I allows for no movement of and to the female and eggs. only some added lite for a second.
What I explained earlier, was deep dark nesting allows for females to drop their eggs with little fuss and drop them very close to when they shed. In this case it was four days from shed.
She did not burrow until last night, and we have eggs today. That is, there was no testing or digging or redigging etc. I believe this is of benefit.
Now some history of this female. She was a gift from a friend. She was givin to my friend as well. When I recieved her, not known by my friend, she was eggbound, she had three retained eggs that had been in there for some time, they were rock hard.
I got her in the fall(sept) and the next spring she laid some eggs, none hatched and I did not nest her. My mistake was, being egg bound I had the feeling, she most likely could not reproduce successfully. She did pass the old eggs, alone with her new eggs.
This year, she laid a good clutch, I showed that here, but three or four eggs were incompletely shelled, those eggs went bad and the rest are perfect(so far)
It will be interesting to see how these eggs fair. From the pic thru the glass, they appear all completely shelled. I do like it went one of our charges improves its condition. Thanks FR
,,,,,,,,,,thomas