Ackie Advice

[ben1200]

my female ackie seems to be gravid and if not she is rather large.
She has also begun to shed. she has been laying in a small burrow in between 2 rocks for the last few weeks she is still eaing her usual a fuzzy, crickets and chicken mince.
Can anyone give me advice on ackies do they eat while being gravid.
i have offered her a nesting box of sand and one of vermiculite.
Cheers
Ben :shock:

 

[munkee]

my thoughts are if she wants to eat she will so keep offering it to her. If she doesn't she will ignore it, if she doesn't want to eat you will soon know. I would continue to offer her food but remove any crickets that she doesn't eat before te night time.

 

[ben1200]

between the pair of them all the crickets are eating pretty much with in an hour or so of offering
what time of year do monitors lay
how long are they gravid for

 

[insectovor]

If she is gravid you might find her checking out the nesting box days before she actually lays. My ackies were still feeding 3 days before they laid but I noticed that they refused close to laying. Remove any other ackies present in the enclosure as this will give the female the privacy she needs and this also reduces the chance of eggs being eaten by other cage mates. My ackies started seriously digging from 3 pm till 930 pm from 930 till 6am it took to lay the eggs at night time!!! Don't desturb while she is laying the eggs. Ackies can breed al troughout the year but naturally in early summer.