digging digging digging.... sleeping?

[pacificwynd]

My female veiled (aged 12 - 15 months) began digging today around noon for the first time. She continued digging until about 6pm. She is now turned around in the hole and appears to be sleeping. I've only been able to sneak a quick look at her using the light from my cellphone but her face looks very dirty and I'm pretty sure her eyes were closed. I blew towards her and she lifted her head a little. She looks to be her normal green color. Is she just napping? Will she continue laying in the morning or sometime through the night?

Argh! This is very stressful!

 

[laurie]

I know this hard but leave her alone. She is asleep so don't bother her, tomorrow if she is finished she will cover the eggs and head up into her branches. If you disturb her she may stop laying and could become egg bound.
I always want to "help" but you can't. We will all talk tomorrow and you can tell us how many eggs you have, now get some sleep.

 

[CleaTheChameleon]

Any update? She digging now?

 

[Kevy Baby]

Our female fell asleep as well, but with her head down in the hole and her butt sticking out. It was funny to look and she stayed that way for about an hour or so before turning around and laying.

 

[PardalisGirl]

Sleeping normal.........

Falling asleep at night is fairly normal. Just let her be and don't disturb her until she climbs out of the hole. Then you can give her a nice sink shower to get the dirt off of her and she can get a nice drink then too.

 

[pacificwynd]

I can still hear her moving sand around. i think she must be just covering the hole though. the waiting is horrible! i have a blanket up around the bottom half of her cage and i'm sitting here on the couch listening to the scratching. scratch scratch scratch.......pause...... "is she done? is that it?".....scratch scratch. i've got a bunch of juicy butterworms covered in calcium for as soon as she is done.

 

[pacificwynd]

I've tried searching but..... whats the best way to go about giving her a "shower." Someone had mentioned a sink? Should I just place her in the sink and turn on the tap? Should it be turned to the sprayer? Should she be right under it? what temp should the water be?

 

[Melina]

I can completely sympathise with how stressful this can be. Our cham laid her first clutch a couple of weeks ago and it was the most horrendous thing i've ever been through!! She did get into difficulty and ended up being operated on to remove some malformed eggs and her ovaries, but she's doing well now All i can say is leave her sleeping, but make sure she stays warm and give her lots of sprays to keep her hydrated as this is a very stressful time on their bodies (as well as ours!) We set up a web cam to watch so we could know exactly what was going on but not disturb her. Good luck and try not to worry

 

[pacificwynd]

She's finished!! I've showered her off and she's eaten 4 butter worms covered in calcium. she's basking now but hasn't drank much yet. she's staring at her dripper though. I uncovered 30 eggs! I'm so proud of her. lol. How do I know that was all of them? What should I do with the eggs? Just into the garbage as they aren't fertilized?

 

[pacificwynd]

nothing...

 

[Seeco]

Was she a baby when you got her? How long have you had her? If she was a baby and she never met a male then they are infertile. If you have had her for over 2 years without a male then they are most likely infertile. Hope that helps. Nobody replied because your story is a huge letdown -- it seems like you built a lot of suspense over infertile eggs.

 

[Melina]

Yay - well done her! 30 eggs sounds like a good clutch size for it to be all of them. If she covered them all up and left the site then she would have finished. I've still get my cham's recently laid infertile eggs - i wanna keep them as i feel bad about throwing them away - she worked so hard to produce them!!!

 

[PardalisGirl]

Good Deal....

You will be less stressed the next time she lays eggs. Now that you know how long it takes you won't worry as much. I don't keep infertile eggs as they go bad within a month. Look at them for a few days and then chuck them. I don't think your story ended with a let down at all. Egg laying (fertile or not) is an important and stressful time for the female cham and for a keeper. Your story is a good lesson for others who will soon go through the same thing.

I've got about ten female Veileds that are now cycling through their first infertile clutch. They are not old enough to breed and I've been too lazy to put some of them up for sale. So I'm going through this same process that you and your female just went through multiple times. I'm going to be throwing out a lot of infertile clutches! Thanks for sharing the experience!

 

[pacificwynd]

I feel bad throwing them away to lol. She did work very hard. Good luck with all your girls Paradalis! And thanks for the reassurance from everyone.

Sorry to have let you down Seeco. I was just trying to find answers to my questions.