Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Alright my vet wont discuss breeding bc of feelings towards over breeding. Moonstone told me my females will develop eggs even if housed alone. Buddy says it usually has to breed with a male(of course) to start developing eggs will someone ends this for me please. Im only in one year and sick of worrying and ive even put a eggs nest in the cage and it was the biggest mess. Anyone wanna finish this for me.
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1 day

Moonstone is right...adult females can [ but don't always] produce infertile eggs with no male in sight. You don't need to provide a messy nest box unless your girl starts scratching around the cage alot. Some dragons will scratch around at times anyway, but a gravid female will usually do so with much greater urgency. Another sign is a huge belly of course, and then loss of appetite suddenly. Healthy females have no problem laying, just be sure to feed well and provide proper UVB as well as calcium supplements.

Unbred females can lay infertile eggs, even if they never saw a male bearded dragon. My last female dragon laid infertile clutches two years in a row once she was fully grown.

When I noticed my female scratching around her cage, I provided an egg laying container for her. It was a separate container, about 26" long, 17" wide and around 18" deep. I used an large plastic bowl that just fit in the tub, cut off/broke off a large opening in the side of the bowl, flipped it over (so it basically looked like a hide..and buried it in children's washed playsand mixed with just enough water (warm tap water, not hot) so the sand sticks but won't leak any water if squeezed hard. I formed a large mound over the bowl and even pushed sand underneath, to 'fill' the cave. I put in about two thirds sand, piled up so its like a cliff./bank over the bowl, and about a third of the tub was empty to the floor. I started a little into the opening of the bowl.

I mounted a hooded lamp over the top and put a screen attached to a fame and placed it ontop (I would put the dragon inside first, before putting on the screen. This is just to discourage the dragon from climbing out). I used a clamp hooded lamp and since her main cage was low to the floor, I clamped it onto the door of her cage so it shone into the container. I angled it so it shone mostly ontop of the pile...but she could move off the top or dig a tunnel/cave in the area I started

You can also just put the bin right into her cage near but not directly under the heat lamp (if its too hot in the container she won't want to lay her eggs.) Then you can set up a ramp o rcut into the sie of the bin, so she can easily get in and out.

There are many ways to set up a nesting box..idea is to have at least 10-12" deep of a sand, soil or sand/soil mix dampened with water for her to lay her eggs in,

As for your vet..even if he's against breeding, he should still be willing to help with determining if your dragon is gravid
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PHLdyPayne

Forum Princess