I have a previous thread about breeding my female panther, and now I belive she might lay soon. I am a bit confused though because it seems too early. Today would either be day 20 or 18 (it depends on which breeding session produced the eggs, although I would guess 18) She has already decreased her eating, is still drinking, and has been digging holes. Is this normal so soon??most people say their females layed after 25-30 days, mine is only at 18. Other than that she is fine except for the fact that sometimes she is at the bottom of the cage where her lay boxes arn't. I don't want to pick her up and stress her out so should I just leave her?(she can still climb, I have seen her at the floor, and then up at the top latter in the day) She currently has 2 seperate lay boxes one is a plastic shoe box about 8 in deep with a sand potting soil mix and the other is a planter a little over a foot tall filled with a cocconut fiber soil mix. So far she has only been digging in the 1st box mentioned. I have blankets over her cage and I only go into the room a couple times. I am starting to get nervous seeing as this is hers and my first time. She isn't extremely large which makes me happy because I didn't want her to lay a ton of eggs her first time.

Sorry there is so much here, but like I said this is my first time. I have done a ton or research, and everything seems to be going ok. I just want to see what you guys think. I would love for any advice or awnsers to my questions, I just want to make sure everything that is going on is "normal" !

Thanks a bunch
Dani

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If she's starting to dig test holes then it is getting close. She may do this for a couple of days before actually laying, but it is getting close. If you have any worries, you could set her up in a large trash can with soil in the bottom and whatever plants and branches will fit in there without allowing her to escape. At least then you wouldn't have to worry about her finding the nest box in her own cage. Otherwise, I've found that a lot of females will use tunnels that I start excavating for them a little. I've even picked up pardalis and oustaleti females, placed them in or just next to the pre-dug tunnel, walked away quickly, and the females have dug out the rest and laid.

The first nest box with only 8 inches of sand might be too shallow. How deep does she dig before giving up on the test hole?

Hope you get a nice clutch

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She dug about 4 inches into it. I have read about the trash can method, and bought one just incase, but is that something I would be able to put her into now? Is there a limit to how long you can keep a female in there? Thank you so much for the reply and I hope she has a nice clutch also

Dani

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Ok, I was wondering if she had decided the container was too shallow and gave up but apparently not so that's good. A couple good pics of her from different angles, like from behind and above could give us a good idea of how close she is.

No real time limit, it's just that a large trash can packed with 10 inches of soil really isn't going to provide as much useable space as her normal cage so I try to make the stay brief. It sounds like you're already doing everything right though. She's already investigating places to lay in her own cage so the trashcan method most likely won't be necessary, but it's good to be prepared just in case. Also, when using the trash can method I try to feed the female without letting the prey loose to avoid her picking up any of the soil.

Just remember to leave her alone when you find her sitting on the throne.

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from what u said she sounds like shes ready what are u doing with the new ones when they hatch.

Here are the best pics I could get without making her too mad (They arn't vey good though) I also put in some pics of her laying containers. (there is normally a real ficus in there but it didn't fit w/ the lay boxes in there.)

hope the pics show up!
Thanks Kent!

Attached Images

	fem1.jpg (109.3 KB, 35 views)
	female.jpg (64.5 KB, 32 views)
	cagee.jpg (99.0 KB, 32 views)
	cage.jpg (98.5 KB, 35 views)
	backk.jpg (63.2 KB, 30 views)

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Sorry about the cage pics. I rotated them but I guess they wont stay rotated....um I guess you might have to tilt your head

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Assuming that they hatch I plan on keeping one of the males (to see how the colors turn out) and selling the rest. I plan on keeping the babies until they are about 3 months though. My sister works at a reptile store that is great with reptiles but I kinda want to be able to see who they go to, and also explain the care that they need. Because of that I may end up at a couple of the smaller reptile shows around my house. But like I said that is assuming they hatch. I have heard many people lose their first clutch, but I am hoping I get it right the first time. (fingers crossed )

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Ow, my neck! Nice, fat looking girl there. She doesn't look huge yet, so probably gonna be a few more days. Do you have an incubator and vermiculite already?

She looks so healthy she should produce some nice eggs. Just don't let them get too wet in incubation. My first clutch of panthers had 100% hatch and survive until I could sell them. Hopefully you'll have the same.

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Kent said..."Just remember to leave her alone when you find her sitting on the throne"...not only should you leave her alone, don't let her see you watching her when she is digging or she may abandon the hole thinking its not a safe place to lay the eggs. If she abandons the hole often enough she may pass "her time" to lay the eggs and become eggbound. They will/may dig several test holes when not watched....but that's usually because she is looking for a suitable site.

Good luck!