Right now your little girl looks to be at or close to the age that she can reach sexual maturity. You’ll know when this happens as she’ll develop her beautiful colors of teal and orange/mustard and patterns. Along with this she will become restless and may wander aimlessly thru her entire enclosure. Basically she’s all prettied up and looking for a handsome boy to make eggs with. Anywhere from a few weeks after the restlessness stops, she can be ready to lay her eggs. It’s best to prepare the lay bin and make it a permanent part of her enclosure from when she develops her colors to avoid any stress or having to guess. I’ve found the girls prefer larger bins that are at least 12” long and wide. They can be very particular about the bin. Drill a few tiny drainage holes in the bottom and fill it to about 5-6” with play sand that is kept moist enough to form a tunnel without collapse. When she needs it, it’s there.
Once she has started digging, it’s important she doesn’t see anyone or have any disturbances. It’s best to cover the bottom half of the enclosure with a light sheet or something else that won’t block ventilation. Don’t worry about feeding and keep her lighting on the same schedule. Some may dig some test holes. Some may sleep in their tunnel at night. The whole process from start to end can take a couple of days. You’ll know she’s done when all her holes have been fully covered and she’s in her usual basking spot, looking much thinner.
Feed and hydrate her well for the next couple of days and then start her on a reduced diet of 3-4 feeders, 3 days a week (plus occasional treats) and keep her basking temp no hotter than 80F. Doing this will help reduce not only the number of eggs she produces in each clutch, but the frequency in which she produces and lays eggs. For some, they can even stop producing eggs altogether. My veiled girls continued their obvious receptive periods for about a year and gradually they either stopped or became too subtle to notice. One girl stopped laying. The other was laying once a year, but now is going on two years without laying. My panther girl has never laid any eggs.
The biggest reasons for reducing the egg production is that the more eggs they lay per clutch, the higher their risks for complications like egg binding. Plus, producing and laying eggs shortens their lives naturally from the males. The number of eggs produced is directly linked with how much they eat.
Since they can become mature at such a young age, it’s difficult to know when to start them on the reduced diet. We don’t want to restrict their nutrition that is needed for growth, but we also don’t want them to have a first clutch of 60+ eggs. I was horribly ignorant with my girl and grossly overfed her until I found the forum and learned better and it was just in time. As long as you aren’t feeding a 5-6 month old girl more than 10+ feeders daily, it should be ok. If she hasn’t developed her colors, around 6- 7 months, ease her into about the 4 feeders every other day and keep reducing until she’s at the 3-4 feeders 3 days a week by the time she’s about 10 months old.