Female Panther - unsure how to tell if she is egg bound

[foshizzle11]

Hi there,
We have a female, it is our first female panther and she is about 10 to 12 months old, we aren't completely sure.

We put dirt in her cage in a bucket about 12" deep as recommended and we did tests to make sure she can create "caves" in the dirt when she digs.

Anyway, some days she looks quite fat/chubby but others she does not. We are worried that we won't know when she has eggs and worry about her.

She is acting fine, she eats like a beast and has great colours that vary all day depending on what she is doing. She is quite active, she roams her whole cage, which is 48" x 48" x 22" (deep).

We followed the husbandry and supplement recommendations on this site so no need to repost everything.

We have tried feeling but can't really feel anything and we don't have experience feeling for eggs anyway.

So my question is, will it be obvious when she does have eggs and will she know that there is dirt at the bottom of the cage for her?

 

[NHenn]

Sounds like you have everything handled. If she is eating like a beast I would assume she will develop a large clutch so it should be very obvious that she is gravid as she will look like a blimp. If she doesn't develop a large clutch you should still be able to feel some eggs in her belly. I would gently palpate her lower belly and see if you can't feel any jelly beans.

Either way, you have a laying bin in her cage so if she does develop eggs she will know what to do and go down and start digging. If you catch her in the bin be sure to give her complete privacy as if you do disturb her and she doesn't feel safe laying in there she could at that point become egg bound.

 

[foshizzle11]

oh thank you, makes me a little bit more relaxed knowing we are doing something right. I hope she is ok and if she does lay eggs some day that she has everything that she needs.

thanks for the advice!