I am sorry to start a new thread on this but this is quite urgent and I can't seem to edit the title of my previous thread which started off talking about something else.

Oh boy... Just hours after I got my blizzard male to start eating...

Now I am suspecting that one of my females are gravid.

She's usually the biggest glutton of the bunch, eating way more crickets and worms and everything than all the others. From tongs, then again hunts. However, 3 nights ago, she didn't take a thing from my tongs. She started digging in a corner in front of the hide on the warm side, pulling the corner of the paper towel up. (The hide is on the back of the enclosure and there is a gap between the glass front and the hide, which is where she is digging. Both the digging spot and the hide is directly on top of the 1/3 of the tank that has a under tank heating pad.) When I opened the enclosure door there, she stops digging and climbs out. I put her back in and she climbs out. It's like she wants to dig a tunnel there in the corner and when I open the door she wants to use that instead to leave. She also has been trying to climb the walls on the warm side right next to where she has been digging. There is some mesh there and she has been hanging on the walls.

Like I said she didn't take anything from the tongs. But I dropped in a few crickets and she hunted them down and ate them all. So I thought she was just being a pain that night.

The second night, she didn't take anything from the tongs. She didn't hunt either. Same old digging and clawing and climbing in the exact same spot.

It occured to me that she may be gravid. So I looked at her belly. I honestly can't see a darn thing that looks like an egg. I tried to take pictures but she won't let me. I have to hold her with both hands to turn her over, and even when I got a picture it looked like a blurry mass with flash that was too close and out of focus. But I can't see a darn thing myself (not that I am experienced with gravid females).

So just in case, I made an egg laying box. I got a tupperware and cut two holes in it. They are both on two corners of the box, sort of on the top corner so that a little of the top as well as the side is cut off. I filled the inside with moist peat halfway up. I put her in front of the hole and she went in but came straight back out. Then she tried squishing herself around the sides of the box etc. going around the back. But never entering the holes again (which is bigger than needs be).

Today, I see that she hasn't dug at all in the egg box, but has been digging AGAIN overnight at the same corner where she had been before.

I don't know if she is gravid or what. And if she is, should I put the egg box where she is digging. I really don't want to because that is a gap between the warm hide and the glass and I would have to rearrage the whole darn cage to fit any kind of egg box in that little gap. But that's where she's been digging, climbing and trying to get out at.

Right now I have the egg box in the middle, between the hot and cold hides.

How deep need the soil be? Should I also put a LIDLESS tupperware there with soil?



Please help!

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1.0.0 Green Iguana - Tyler
0.0.1 Sulcata Tortoise - Mantow
0.0.1 Ball Python - Se se
0.1.0 Leucistic Texas Ratsnake - un-named (Suggestions welcome)
1.0.0 Blizzard Cornsnake het Anery A - Xiao Xiao
1.1.0 Normal Corn snake het Anery A het Amel 66% poss. het stripe - un-named
1.0.0 Red Chain Snake - un-named
0.0.1 Twin spotted rat snake - un-named
1.0.0 Grey Chinchilla - Gee Gee

Has she been with any of your males? The soil doesnt need to be deep, but I would put the egg box on the warm side..but sometimes, they lay whereever they want to.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

Marsha has already asked the question that I was going to lead with... first and foremost, has your female been with a male? Obviously if yes, then there's a possibility of her being gravid.

The digging is a typical sign of pregnancy in lizards - but you are doing the right things. You've supplied an egg-laying box - if she hasn't been in it yet, try putting her in there once, just to introduce her to it. Try to locate it where she's been digging already.

If she does lay any eggs, make sure you have an incubator set up to put them in. If you need any advice on this then there are loads of people who can help on here. Also, make sure you add extra calcium to her feed to replace the levels she'll have lost making and laying the eggs. Also, watch out for another clutch after the first one if she does lay, as they can retain sperm and lay more than one clutch from one mating.

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

No, she has NOT mated nor ever been in contact with a male. I am 100% sure. The closest she has come to contact with a male is through a piece of glass in the adjactent tank, which is now covered with paper so they can't even see each other. But I read a few places they can be gravid without mating. True or false?

She has been in the egg box now, and in fact is sleeping in there right now. However, she does NOT dig in there. She is still digging in this little corner that I can't fit an egg box in unless I change the whole setup of the cage which I do NOT want to. All Iwould be able to fit there is a small shallow container of soil or moss. She is digging at the places where she usually waits in her hide to see crickets get past then dash out to get it. I'm afraid the laying box can only fit in the middle, not directly on top of any area which is directly on the heating pad. Is this OK or not.

You say not need to be deep. How deep is that though in CM?

She hasn't eaten like usual, although she ate one large cricket last night all of a sudden.

She isn't even an adult she is only around 14 to 15 cm in length...

Is Sphagnum moss or peat soil better. I currently have peat potting soil that does not have the white blobs of vermaculite or whatever.

__________________
1.0.0 Green Iguana - Tyler
0.0.1 Sulcata Tortoise - Mantow
0.0.1 Ball Python - Se se
0.1.0 Leucistic Texas Ratsnake - un-named (Suggestions welcome)
1.0.0 Blizzard Cornsnake het Anery A - Xiao Xiao
1.1.0 Normal Corn snake het Anery A het Amel 66% poss. het stripe - un-named
1.0.0 Red Chain Snake - un-named
0.0.1 Twin spotted rat snake - un-named
1.0.0 Grey Chinchilla - Gee Gee

PLease help? No further responses? I gave the response that she has never been with a male.

The problem persists...

She isn't showing much interest in food. She has NO white orbs in her stomach. She has some pinkish blobs, which probably means she is ovulating but not gravid?

She has been in and out of the nest box, but no digging there. I even put another area of damp sphagnum moss on the cool end, no digging there either. I put a small shallow (lidless) tupperware of damp shagnum moss at the spot she was digging, but she don't dig there. Digs right beside it at the paper towels.

Same darn thing... Just keeps at that corner, digging around whatever I put there, not in. Climbing the wall there. In that corner.

She is separate from any males. Has never been contact with males, so no phermones.

THe only other solution I hear is to cool her temperatures till she resorbs the ova, but it says you need to be really advanced to do that and it WILL contribute further to no eating, which she isn't anyway, so I won't cool her.

What do I do?

__________________
1.0.0 Green Iguana - Tyler
0.0.1 Sulcata Tortoise - Mantow
0.0.1 Ball Python - Se se
0.1.0 Leucistic Texas Ratsnake - un-named (Suggestions welcome)
1.0.0 Blizzard Cornsnake het Anery A - Xiao Xiao
1.1.0 Normal Corn snake het Anery A het Amel 66% poss. het stripe - un-named
1.0.0 Red Chain Snake - un-named
0.0.1 Twin spotted rat snake - un-named
1.0.0 Grey Chinchilla - Gee Gee

Alright maybe i'm seeing things! Shejust ate a few crickets. But its the daytime. I tried feeding in the nighttime which is when she usually (and is supposed to be nocturnal) eats. Why are two of my geckos seemingly up in the day and sleeping at night? And what's with all this digging?

__________________
1.0.0 Green Iguana - Tyler
0.0.1 Sulcata Tortoise - Mantow
0.0.1 Ball Python - Se se
0.1.0 Leucistic Texas Ratsnake - un-named (Suggestions welcome)
1.0.0 Blizzard Cornsnake het Anery A - Xiao Xiao
1.1.0 Normal Corn snake het Anery A het Amel 66% poss. het stripe - un-named
1.0.0 Red Chain Snake - un-named
0.0.1 Twin spotted rat snake - un-named
1.0.0 Grey Chinchilla - Gee Gee

All I can say is sometimes some of them choose to dig...I dont thing there is any specific reason...I had some Leopard Geckos that dug, some that ate during the day some at night...to rhyme or reason.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

what size tank are they in? Could they need a larger place to move around???

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Warmest Regards from Lyn