Buried alive?!? Oh No!!

[Hisuikazedo]

My girl Dragon has been digging or at least trying to dig test holes in her laying bin. They've been mostly shallow . Most of the time she starts on one side and pushes a lot of dirt behind her and then turns around and does it the other way ... no real holes per-say. She had a very shallow bin until she really started to muck around so we upgraded. Now its about 15"tall x 10"wide x 13"long ..

Last night she really scared me. First time she started to dig deep she picked a corner and went to town. I'm not sure whether or not it caved in on her or she fell asleep. She was buried up to her hips and not moving ... I ended up digging her out to keep her from suffocating. She couldn't get a grip of the smooth plastic sides.

Very scary for a 1st time owner thought I'd share

 

[antithesis123]

You are very lucky that you caught it in time, some are not so fortunate. I know this from personal experience! It's a horribly sad thing when you are so excited to bring life into this world and your beautiful friend dies bringing it in.

 

[Hisuikazedo]

This time it's all for show ... its her first clutch and is unfertilized ...
Thought that this might turn her off laying but luckily was back again the next day pushing dirt around.

Question?: I know they usually lay in the evening ... her light goes off at round 830p and usually she's still digging and the minute its all dark she stops and climbs up to go to sleep.
I'm afraid the light cycle is stopping her - should I leave a low light on longer?

 

[Texas Ranger]

All my girls start digging as soon as they wake up. Then if they decide to lay eggs. They are usally finished before 3pm or so.

 

[jannb]

I'm glad that she's alright. Even though we can't let them see us looking we still have to keep an eye on them.

 

[suzi]

So glad you found her in time, that's really scary

 

[fluxlizard]

Are you talking bearded dragon?

My beardeds happily lay in soil only 4-6" deep or so. They don't have to have a big tunnel thing going on like a chameleon. Mine just dig and pile it all up away from one end or corner of the bin, leaving the bottom of the box exposed or nearly exposed, lay their eggs right there on the bottom, and then pile it back up over the eggs.

Question?: I know they usually lay in the evening ... her light goes off at round 830p and usually she's still digging and the minute its all dark she stops and climbs up to go to sleep.
I'm afraid the light cycle is stopping her - should I leave a low light on longer?

I've actually gotten pretty good at predicting when mine need to lay. They get scratching and if the eggs are fertile (I realize yours are not in this case) I can see and feel the abdominal lining tightening around the eggs preparing for laying. I then put the dragons in storage containers with a few inches of the laying substrate and close the lid.(I use fresh dug earth from my back yard- where I live unless it just rained within the previous few hours, it is always a good moisture content and I think the smell stimulates them to lay). I'm accurate enough now the last several years that most of the time they lay within a couple of hours of being placed in the bin, first try. But sometimes they don't- if they still haven't laid when lights go out, I leave them in there overnight and check them first thing in the morning. If they are outdoors, the sun goes down as usual, indoors, the lights go off as usual. Most of the time they will go on to nest and lay during the night and be done by morning when I do this. If not, I remove them from the bin for most of the day so they can warm up and drink and eat if they want and try them again in the bin in the late afternoon. Every once in a while I'll get a new mother who takes a few days of this before she lays. This is sometimes especially true if the eggs aren't fertile- seems to be a little more uncertain for them about when they need to lay, maybe their body starts telling them to get rid of them sooner or something. I would tend to believe that is what is going on with your female- I think she will lay when she needs to, and wouldn't worry about leaving the light on for her, or necessarily doing what I do and sealing her in the box- if she's digging I think she will lay for you eventually when she is truly ready. If you are getting a little nervous about things after 2 or 3 nights , you might try what I do. After that first clutch of eggs, nearly all are pretty fast about things and lay within a few hours after being placed in the bin.

The first 5 years or so after I started with bearded dragons I used to use nest boxes with entrances cut into them so the lizards could go in and out, but the females would toss soil all over the place and sometimes 2 females would want the box at the same time or sometimes they would try to lay in the soil they had tossed outside of the box, so about 10 years or so ago I so started just using separate boxes and I don't give them an entrance/exit option now, I put them in the box and close the lid and place the box in a cooler part of the cage away from the light or sun (depending on indoors or out), and it works better for me (and for the lizards- they know what to do when they get placed in the box).

All my girls start digging as soon as they wake up. Then if they decide to lay eggs. They are usally finished before 3pm or so.

That's a very interesting observation to me because it is very different from my own, and I wonder why that is. I wonder what the triggering factor is. Most of the time they start scratching in the afternoon around that time, and lay in the very late afternoon/very early evening. I wonder if yours are indoors or out? Most of my laying nowadays happens when they are outdoors for the summer, but indoors and out, my experience on timing has been the same. I wonder if your temps are warmer than mine?

 

[Hisuikazedo]

Haha .. Dragon is her name lol (thanks to my 3yr old nephew)... she a veiled chameleon
Shes inside and the apartment usually runs 68 or so

cam home today she's outta the box and thin looking ... but an inspection reveals no eggs ... I'm so confused and now worried that she'd becoming eggbound

 

[ChameleonsInMyHouse]

why in the world have you posted this here? this is serious by examination reveals no eggs, do you mean a vet has clearified this? have you provided an appropriate laying bin? and if so, have you thouroughly checked for eggs? she may have laid only a small clutch

 

[Hisuikazedo]

I didn't post here ... someone moved it... I'm assuming because someone above thought I was talking about a beardie because her name is Dragon.

We did find eggs two days after she buried her self
42 to be exact

So all is good

 

[kinyonga]

Did she eat and drink well after laying the eggs? Return to an active normal behavior?