Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok...My mother owns a pet store and has 3 bearded dragons, two which are housed together. We had always believed that temperature changes needed to occur for mating...we were obviously wrong, as we now have a "pregnant female" that started digging like crazy the last few days....I researched and found out that she needed a deep box in which to lay her eggs....I filled a plastic container today with moist calcium sand (the only thing I had on hand for sale....) and when I left tonight she had started burrowing very deep into it....her sides were also heaving some..making me believe she will be laying them tonight....We have never had this occur before, so Here I sit trying to come up with a plan to at least give the eggs a chance to hatch....Another local pet store I called advised us to dispose of the eggs...but I can not do that without trying my best to make a go at this....I have set up what I believe to be a make shift incubator.....with items I happened to have here at home...probably not the best...but seems to be alright...I filled the bottom of a 10 gallon aquarium with water, put an under tank heating pad underneath and added 2 "bricks" inside....I also installed a thermometer and humidity gauge and covered the top in tin foil with some holes poked in it....I have had it on for several hours and its temp is about 85 degrees with high humidity....I am just not sure how high the humidity should be....The aquarium inside has quite a bit of condensation....is this too much humidity?? I will be going in the morning to pick up some vermiculite to put the eggs in (albeit if they are layed) and from what I have researched, I should cover them 2/3 of the way with the moist vermiculite, without rotating the eggs at all....Does this sound right?? Any advice you may have to offer would be extremely appreciated, as we have never attempted any incubation b4....

First off, for egg laying medium, you need vermiculate and regular chemical free potting soil, dampened so it packs down nicely but doesn't drip water. Wet calci-sand won't do, in fact, I would toss that stuff out the window, as it is more dangerous to reptiles than just about any other project out there. (except for crushed walnut).

I don't think your incubator will work, but I am no expert on building incubators. The important factor is it maintain constant temperatures and humidity. I beleive the temperature is 85F and humidity 65%? Unfortunately I am not at home to double check my books, so going by memory. There are plenty of good caresheets on how to incubate eggs. www.beautifuldragons.com has a good caresheet, as well as others.
-----
PHLdyPayne

O.k. relax a bit.The females sides were bulging when you left,I would say she started laying within the hour.Calci-sand is bad stuff,however if she is removed immediately after laying this should minimize the potential risk.Now I dont care what anyone says I have hatched a bunch of Beardeds and if you can maintain a constant temp of 82-84.5 with a humidity above 80% preferable 90% allow for ventilation you will be fine it doesnt matter if you use an incubator(they are more trouble free)or a small converted frige,cabinet,or an aquarium my hatch rate for the year is 92% you will lose some,although my last clutch of 25 I have them all and they are shedding right now.Hope this helps.

Thank you!! She did lay her eggs that night. (25 of them) I removed them from the calcium sand as soon as I arrived in the morning. My tank temperature is staying between 82 and 84 and high humidity. I put them in moist vermiculite. I buried them 3/4 of the way, and just left a bit exposed to see them. None of them are "deflated" at all, the only problem seems to be is that there is a bit of a smell.....not overwhelming or anything...but I am fairly sensitive to smells etc....I don't know if this is normal or not. How can you tell if the eggs are "no good"...I read that if they were deflated after a few days of hatching to throw them out....none of them are. I noticed today the shells on the part that is exposed is light brown, but I carefully wiped at it and whatever it may be (about the same color as the vermiculite...so maybe that is what it is??) comes right off....and when I exposed a bit of the egg that was completely buried it don't seem to be affected at all....Anyhow, thank you for your help, I just wanted to at least make a good attempt at giving these guys a chance at life:>

I reread my message and realized I needed to rephrase the part of deflation upon hatching...I meant to say deflation within days of being laid....

Hey there. Im on my 2nd clutch, so a newbie like you. Good eggs will have more of a whitish/pinkish color to them. Bad eggs will have a yellowish tinge to them. And trust me you will know when they go bad it will stink. i noticed the ones that went bad for me were yellowish, and started to "sweat" after about a week or 2, and even slight mld can form. you wanna get those out of there asap. You will also notice the good eggs, as time goes on, will actually grow. mine are double the size they were when Val laid them. Keep your temps constant, humidity high, and check out the caresheets as mentioned above. ive read them 100 times and i still go back to reference them from time to time. try beautifuldragons.com They have good breeding info. you will also see some differences of opinion about optimum incubation temps, all i can say on that is mine have done great at 83.5, i wouldnt go highre than 85 nor lower than 81. I hope some of this helps, sorry to be long winded. -Jay