i came home today and my beardie laid an egg in the water fountain, the male is also in the terrium with her, he seems to be leaving her alone so thats not the problem, the egg is real soft? is it possible that the eggs are unfertil? excet my male is always with the female. i have never seen eggs before they are over a year and ahalf however we got them late, we were told they did have a clutch before. also my hsband put wt potting soil in the tank in a cave like thing she had dug it out ishe is in there with her snout out!! i think she is laying more eggs. what do i do? what do you people know? please help!!!!
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3 responses so far ↓
1 Adelle // Oct 20, 2008
Egg Binding:
Egg binding can happen for several reasons but is more likely to happen during the first breeding cycle with infertile eggs. This can be a serious problem and should be discussed with a vet. Suggestions for prevention include making sure the female is old enough, big enough, and healthy enough to breed; making sure that proper supplementation has been in place during her growth period, making a suitable lay spot available, and avoiding stress to the animal.
Breeding:
*Note: Bearded dragon females may cycle infertile eggs without breeding.
Breeding often requires a period of hibernation or brumation prior to the breeding season (see section on hibernation). When bearded dragons emerge from hibernation, breeding usually takes place quickly, so it is important to be prepared…
We suggest that your dragons (specifically females) be at least 18 months-old prior to breeding. Any small, sick, or young females should be separated from all males to prevent cycling, breeding, and potentially a loss of life. Dragons that are bred too young can wind up with serious health problems including death from egg binding. We cannot stress enough how important it is to have a healthy, mature female. Dragons bred before maturity will divert energy used for growing and maturity into making eggs, disrupting her growth process and altering her health. Female dragons bred too young and/or often will live shorter lives.
We also highly suggest steering clear of inbreeding, especially siblings.
Breeding behavior often appears violent. Head bobbing and black beards are among the breeding behaviors associated with males (*note: these behaviors are also typical of territorial disputes between males). Females often perform arm waving and slow head bobbing. The male usually bites the female around the neck to secure her and attempts to get the female to lift her tail for copulation.
Gravid females will get quite large and often appear lumpy. Feed gravid females often and supplement with calcium more frequently. The eggs can often be felt in the female’s stomach when she is close to laying.
As soon as you see breeding behavior it is a good idea to have a lay area in place and an incubator prepared.
A good lay area is imperative to ensure that your bearded dragon does not egg bind. Lay areas may consist of a large area filled with one foot of a mixture of moist, somewhat packed sand and soil, peat moss, or bed-a-beast. You may set up this lay area inside the enclosure or prepare a separate lay enclosure to place the female in when you notice digging behavior. Females will tunnel into this area to deposit their eggs. Some dig for several days before they decide to lay. They like to be fully protected by their burrow (cat litter pans with an opening work well for this cave-like structure). Only her head will stick out while she deposit their eggs. After laying, the female will emerge and bury her eggs back up.
Females may lay clutches as often as 3 weeks apart and can retain sperm for several clutches.
Incubation:
Unearth the eggs GENTLY. Fertile eggs should be a nice white color and leathery in texture. If candled, fertile eggs will appear pink and a round embryo should be detectable. If the eggs appear yellow when candled or gelatinous, they are probably infertile (this is somewhat common for a first clutch of eggs).
Fertile eggs should be placed in a dish with moist vermiculite (and perlite if you wish) about one inch apart. This dish is then transferred to your pre-calibrated incubator. We suggest a “Hovabator” incubator. (You can find these at some pet stores, feed stores, and online). Make sure that your incubator is set at least 24 hours prior to use to avoid drastic fluctuations in temperature. We recommend incubating at around 84 degrees F. Do not let temperature range out of the 80s. Spray egg containers to maintain moisture level in the vermiculite. Eggs should hatch about 60 days after incubation.
I hope that helps…
2 Shugaboi911 // Oct 20, 2008
ok my cousin just had this happen to his nile Monitor which is very similar in mating… leave the eggs alone because similar to ducks they will eat the eggs if not wanted, the eggs being soft is perfectly normal also. the male is fine as long as the female stays with the eggs for the most part the only time you will have to remove the male is during the first month after the babies hatch, let the mom take care of them until able to go on their own. then you will remove the babies and replace them with the male, keep the babies together so they can learn from each other eating habits and so forth. then you do whatever sell them, breed more, it doesn’t really matter at this point that’s all i know, if you need any further info just go to google.com and type “breeding bearded dragons”.
3 Nikolas S // Oct 20, 2008
http://www.beardeddragon.org/
If this doesn’t help ask you veterinarian