Digging

jeapal23

Member
I think my Holly has eggs, she has been off the last few days, not eating and sitting on the bottom of the housing and also hiding. Tonight she has started digging a hole in the plant pot. I do have a large container with sand and peat in but she is in the plant pot. I have stones on the top of the soil and she is tring to move them. should I help her move them or just leave her along, she I stay up and watch from a distance or again just leave her. its also worring:eek:
 
I would leave her for now. If she wont stop trying to dig through the rock. Then tomorrow I would remove her and put her into a seperate laying bin. (ie garbage can method) You dont want to let her tire herself out trying to dig thru rocks. This could cause her to be too dehydrated and exhausted to be able to lay normally. Ive had a female try to dig in a planter. She eventually realized it was too much work and that her sand bin was her best bet. It took a day or so of watching her though. And my planter had no rocks on top for her to dig thru. ;) Jmo.
 
Thank you, it is just nice to have someone say, dont panic, she is moving them as they are about the 2inchs long and a little less wider. She is a silly girl not using what I had put in some time ago, I think it may not be deep enough. I will keep a close eye and she what tomorrow brings
 
i just found one of mine digging in her pot.....but i know the roots are too thick to get very far...and i've had another dig herself silly in hers, so i moved her into the bin....i'm hoping it won't disturb her too much, but it was pointless to let her keep going in there....and i didn't want her to give up. i'm terrified of pushing them into an "eggbound" mode, but then again, my first girl dug for a day with her first clutch...didn't lay anything...and then a couple days later, laid with no problem....so i'm hoping lealia will do the same thing if she does stop.....i'll just stay out of the room entirely until tonight... ironcially though, she wasn't the one showing signs of being ready.... i've been on pins and needles waiting on my other girl. lol. lealia wasn't bred, but azlynn was, so we should be having one fertile and one infertile now i suppose...
 
Thank you, it is just nice to have someone say, dont panic, she is moving them as they are about the 2inchs long and a little less wider. She is a silly girl not using what I had put in some time ago, I think it may not be deep enough. I will keep a close eye and she what tomorrow brings

if it helps...our girl that just laid the retained clutch, laid hers in a tupperware container "just" deep enough for her to be satisfied....came home from work and she was already almost at the bottom and she was finished by lights out... and it was more of an "indicator" bin with only about 14 inches of sand in it.... :rolleyes:
 
Thats about the depth I provide for my ladies. I use old planter pots from the nusery that my plants come home in. They are small enough to fit in the cages without having to remove all the plants already in the cage and they are dark plastic so no worries about anyone watching her or her thinking someone is. ( paranoid little turds) Best thing is they are free! My faly has laid 3 clutches in her free planter buckets. I like em cuz they arent too deep so she cant dig til she's exhausted. She digs to the bottom then digs an egg chamber turns around and lays em right on the botom of the bucket. ;)
 
may be she is not using the plastic nesting box becuase it is clear plastic.

I have a question, it is 10.00pm and I normally turn off her lights to go to bed, should I still turn the lights off or leave them on all night
 
I always turn mine off just like any other day. They will sometimes keep digging or sometimes they will find the nearest perch til morning and then start up again. Its up to you, but I have other chams so I dont want to disturb their routine too much by leaving the lights on. ;)
 
reassurrance....just checked on lealia...the girl i moved into the bin, and she's digging away. =)

jeapal - is she your only cham? i left the light on for just the one digging the other night until she climbed up in the tree.....but i wasn't sure what to do with her either....and she's the one that didn't finish digging, so i'm watching her closely for the next couple days.... she's got a large bin to dig in and there have been times she looked like she was headed for it....but she hasn't dug again yet. i'd say if she's really digging, leave it on and just leave her be....jmo though. someone else might suggest differently...
 
I always turn mine off just like any other day. They will sometimes keep digging or sometimes they will find the nearest perch til morning and then start up again. Its up to you, but I have other chams so I dont want to disturb their routine too much by leaving the lights on. ;)

lol...yours posted as i was posting mine...

similar...like i said, i turned off my other lights and the others went right to sleep... but it might be my set up...
 
I did turn the lights off any my husband says she gave up and went back up top. Im glad about that as I have now had chance this morning to move the stones, I watered the soil well as it was very dry. She has been down and had a good dig but nothing. she dug for about an hour and half and went up top again, I gave her a mist. She is now making her way down again.

How long should I leave it before a VET is required. I dont want to lose her, she is lovely, although aggressive to me, she hates me going any where near her
 
Don't let her see you watching her when she is digging...or she may abandon the hole. If this happens often enough it can lead to eggbinding. She should dig the hole until she is satisfied with it (a couple of days...maybe 3 or 4) and then turn around butt down and lay them (likely in the evening)...fill the hole in...tamp it down and return to the branches. Once she is back in the branches you can dig them up....and water and feed her well, of course.
 
She seems to be getting on with the job in hand now. she is well down in a hole and still digging.

how often do they do this, lay eggs
 
If not mated a veiled can lay eggs every 120 or so days....controlling their diet and temperatures can slow them down or stop them completely.
 
she is now in the hole and just sitting. do I do anything, mist her or just leave her. is there a thread that tells me step by step guide to all this. is there also a thread tells me about diet and temperature controlling so we dont go through this again or at least try to stop it
 
Yes she did, I have seen an egg. and she is still roaming around digging soil about. It was quite strange seeing this head coming out a hole and because she is in the soil she has gone so dark. I have left her alone. should I put food in there or should I mist her. I can not believe the tension this has caused, I have been up early for the last two mornings worried about her.
 
Yes she did, I have seen an egg. and she is still roaming around digging soil about. It was quite strange seeing this head coming out a hole and because she is in the soil she has gone so dark. I have left her alone. should I put food in there or should I mist her. I can not believe the tension this has caused, I have been up early for the last two mornings worried about her.
if she's back to digging, i would just let her be.... i set up a dripper bottle on one end of the bin we had lealia in...(which, btw, she's a little escape artist and when i got home, she had figured out a way to climb out of the bin and was hanging out on top of the cage of one of our other chams...climbed up the light cord...lol) but i didn't go in and mist her or anything.... in the morning when she was on the plant, i put a hornworm in there to see if she wanted it, before she started digging again, but she wasn't interested, so i took it out and left her alone.... she was definitely hungry when she got back in her cage though! =)
 
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