Well it all sounds valid about the light cycle. I still would not feed her daily a ton of food but that is me. Right now her body is calcifying the eggs so I would think every other day feeding would suffice without overfeeding daily. Again just me. lol. I personally think its nuts to put the other material in the lay bin. At least with eating the sand the particles are tiny so they will pass through the system. Unlike what the vet suggested which would cause a major impaction if she were to eat them.Great questions, this is what we talked about at the vet:
So I do not understand why she would not be on a 12 hour light cycle anyways. I have never heard of anyone changing this up with a female. Unless they are breeding them. I am assuming she has had these follicles since July and should have laid them in August. If you recall, after I got a solar meter a few months ago I realized that her UVB hood was not effective and she was not getting proper UVB for who knows how long. The current assumption between knowing the UVB was not correct and due to her blood work she did not have proper calcium and nutrients in her body to form the follicles into eggs. The goal in changing her light schedule was to hopefully trick her body that its 'winter time' and is not time to breed so she will reabsorb them. Since giving her a boost in vitamins and the liquid calcium 2 weeks ago she has started to form the follicles into eggs. The vet suggested that adjusting her light schedule halfway through the hear to mimic winter would help her not lay eggs at least as often in the future on top of the low temps/diet. I don't know how helpful that would be but I'm willing to try it if others on here also think it would be safe/helpful.
I do not understand the feeding her daily either. Everyone I have met that has them on a reduced diet with lower temps does not adjust feeding until after the clutch is laid. Then they will feed them well for a week. She is already producing a much smaller clutch with 6 eggs. I think the idea in feeding her daily right now while she is developing the follicles into eggs would be to continue to give her body nutrients so that she does not have to pull them from her body since she was depleted to begin with. Once she lays her eggs I would go back to her regular feeding schedule.
I disagree with changing her lay bin material. moss and paper hamster bedding you will get an impaction issue when she eats it. This just seems crazy to even suggest. I would do half dirt half sand. And put a plant in it this way it is not just a huge open tub for her to target. Some also like to dig against the roots of the plant. Agreed on the lay bin, I don't see my girl digging in any of the options given. I am going to re-do her lay bin today with the play sand I currently have and a really good organic dirt I just got a few weeks ago. She does have a fern currently in her lay bin which I will keep in there and I may add a small pothos as well. If I remember correctly I think I put a few rocks in the lay bin as well...I'll find out today obviously. I believe the reason the vet is suggesting no sand is because she found sand in her digestive tract in an ultra sound about 4 weeks ago and she was worried about possible impaction.
No reason not to give liquid calcium.
Why are you looking into spaying her? has she become egg bound in the past? Spaying them can be pretty intense and if you do not have a vet with a lot of experience in this then I would not even attempt it. @jannb has had a few females she has spayed but she had a vet that was extremely skilled with this. She can give you more feedback on doing this and the risks. I know...I literally hate the idea of her going through a surgery but I'm also worried with her current condition if we will run into issues in the future. I am hoping not. I guess I don't know what to do about this, I want her to live as long a life as possible and I'm scared of spaying her and her dying or her not getting spayed and she dies with her next clutch. The vet is not pushing spaying her but is saying it might need to be an option based on how this clutch goes.
I'd love to hear your continued thoughts on this
Here is where I get confused and I believe I mentioned it before. With females on a reduced diet they can reobsorb their eggs so this ends up making it so they do not lay at all or very rarely. I know you are worried and you have to make the best decision for you so do that in the end but I would be extremely cautious with spaying her. Talk to everyone you can that has done this. The outcome is not always a good thing.
