bearded dragon laying box

[manimal]

Hi there.
I thought I'd share a pic or two of my female bearded dragon who is gravid at the moment. In her tank that she shares with the male, I use reptile carpet as a substrate, I'm not sure how far off she is from laying as she is still consuming quite a reasonable amount of food, and not really showing a lot of digging behavior.
Any way I have used a storage box, filled it with a mix of sand and soil to a depth of 20 cm at one side with a slope running down to a shallow side of about 7 cm in depth. Also have a heat pad on the back wall, mounted on the out side and insulated with some Styrofoam.
I have been putting kimbra, the name the kids gave her, in this box for a few hours a day hoping that when the time comes for her to lay she will feel comfortable in there and be able to do her job.
This is the first time I have attempted to breed bd's and I'm hoping what I'm doing is helping kimbra or am I being too fussy putting her in the box before she is ready to breed?

 

[manimal]

I'm so excited right now, kimbra has spent the evening digging a burrow and from what I can see I think she is laying here eggs as I'm typing.

 

[BurtonReptiles]

How good that so glad it worked good luck

 

[manimal]

Here is a picture of what she produced, 18 perfect little eggs. Hope that the eggs develop and I have some cute little bubs. I have to say being able to watch the whole process was so fascinating. When she finished laying the eggs she covered up the chamber so well using her head to pat down the sand nice and firm. It was something I never new dragons could do.
If I hadn't watched her lay the eggs I sure I would have had a hard time finding them, she covered up the burrow so well.

 

[TheReptileCove]

Congrats and good luck with the incubation!

 

[manimal]

I don't want to sound like I'm bragging but I just candled the eggs and saw developing embryos in every egg. 100% fertility !. I'm so proud of Seb and kimbra, and it looks like there may be a 2nd round of eggs on the way.

 

[edstar]

hope all works out! keep us up to date with pics

 

[manimal]

It's happened, the eggs have hatched. Well all but one. The first poped out on Tuesday and the rest have come over the last few days. There are still four eggs in the incubator, three have little heads poking out and one that I hope will hatch soon. I will try and put pics up soon, my phone is being a pain in the butt at the moment.

 

[shea_and_ruby]

congrats!!

 

[manimal]

pics

Here are some pics.
sleeping little bubs, they are so cute, I have offered some small crickets, and three of the bubs ate a few each.

 

[Belv6]

congratulations mate