E.Shell
Not so new Member
I bought a 'male' Ackie in December of 2018, "Ralph", that was born February of 2018.
Never had reason to think it was anything but male, except that I have never noticed it to evert. Honestly though, my day only overlaps Ralph's activity period by a few hours and a lot can go by unnoticed.
A couple weeks ago, I noticed he was putting on weight. Not worried, he wasn't truly obese, just getting a little thick around the middle. I feed generously, so it wouldn't be surprising if he got a little extra weight on. Then, late last week, I noticed him struggling to defecate, and he only produced a small amount of fecal matter, compared to his usually generous deposit. I got worried and gave him a warm bath to stimulate further defecation, which only produced another small bowel movement. As I'm looking at him in the tub, I realize he is actually huge, abnormally huge...
I was afraid that Ralph was impacted. Although I have been pretty careful and I don't think these Ackies are prone to that anyway, it's all I could think of.
Another day went by and he didn't improve, so I hauled him to the vet on Sunday, the first available appointment. The exotics vet is an hour away, so I packed him up in a box next to a jug of warm water, and off we went. FWIW, a one gallon jug filled with hot tap water and a towel around and over it stayed warm for hours.
We have some sort of 'covid' scare going on here, so no one is allowed into the vet's facility - I had to hand Ralph over and wait in the truck. Got him in to see the vet and they spent about 15 minutes with him, then came out and asked permission to radioscope him. I said 'Sure' and in another 15-20 minutes, the vet came out and told me that Ralph is actually a girl in very good condition, and that Ralph is full of healthy-looking eggs. He explained that the eggs were still soft (not calcified) and that she wasn't egg-bound or impacted (my biggest fear) and that it seemed the eggs were developing normally. He also said that he expected Ralph to lay very soon.
While I had Ralph dug out of her hide on Sunday, I decided to fluff all of the substrate, make sure it was moist all the way through and I added another few gallons of damp substrate to what was there. I wanted to make sure that there wouldn't be any inhibition to laying when she was ready.
I got everything put back together and put Ralph back into the enclosure. Of course, having such a busy day, she just dove into her hide and disappeared. Didn't see her for the rest of the day.
This morning around 9am, I see Ralph is up on her basking spot, waaay early (usually about 12noon) and she is *wrinkled*!! It seems she lost quite a bit of bulk and her skin was no longer stretched tight along her sides, though she was still a little chubby-looking. She stayed out in the hotspot for an hour, refused any food (crix & chicken liver), then went back into her underground hide. I can see down into the entrance from outside the enclosure and my wife pointed out a little speck of white down inside the tunnel.
I got the long tweezers and recovered one egg. I imagine there are more in there, the radiograph image showed what looked like 8 or 10, but excavating her hide is a pretty big undertaking because the actual hide is a bar sink, hung under the main enclosure housing. The top of the bar sink is about 6" under the surface of the enclosure substrate, and the sink itself is 8" deep and full of substrate. I decided to just let her rest for today and dig it up tomorrow.
This animal was three years old in February and has never shown itself to be gravid, nor laid any eggs that I have seen/recovered. Never scent marked and obviously (now) never everted. She has never been with a male.
murrindindi had suggested in one of threads that Ralph might be female and it looks like he was correct.
Now, to find a feminine name I can easily transition to from "Ralph", although, after two and a half years together, it's gonna be tough to call *her* anything else.
Never had reason to think it was anything but male, except that I have never noticed it to evert. Honestly though, my day only overlaps Ralph's activity period by a few hours and a lot can go by unnoticed.
A couple weeks ago, I noticed he was putting on weight. Not worried, he wasn't truly obese, just getting a little thick around the middle. I feed generously, so it wouldn't be surprising if he got a little extra weight on. Then, late last week, I noticed him struggling to defecate, and he only produced a small amount of fecal matter, compared to his usually generous deposit. I got worried and gave him a warm bath to stimulate further defecation, which only produced another small bowel movement. As I'm looking at him in the tub, I realize he is actually huge, abnormally huge...
I was afraid that Ralph was impacted. Although I have been pretty careful and I don't think these Ackies are prone to that anyway, it's all I could think of.
Another day went by and he didn't improve, so I hauled him to the vet on Sunday, the first available appointment. The exotics vet is an hour away, so I packed him up in a box next to a jug of warm water, and off we went. FWIW, a one gallon jug filled with hot tap water and a towel around and over it stayed warm for hours.
We have some sort of 'covid' scare going on here, so no one is allowed into the vet's facility - I had to hand Ralph over and wait in the truck. Got him in to see the vet and they spent about 15 minutes with him, then came out and asked permission to radioscope him. I said 'Sure' and in another 15-20 minutes, the vet came out and told me that Ralph is actually a girl in very good condition, and that Ralph is full of healthy-looking eggs. He explained that the eggs were still soft (not calcified) and that she wasn't egg-bound or impacted (my biggest fear) and that it seemed the eggs were developing normally. He also said that he expected Ralph to lay very soon.
While I had Ralph dug out of her hide on Sunday, I decided to fluff all of the substrate, make sure it was moist all the way through and I added another few gallons of damp substrate to what was there. I wanted to make sure that there wouldn't be any inhibition to laying when she was ready.
I got everything put back together and put Ralph back into the enclosure. Of course, having such a busy day, she just dove into her hide and disappeared. Didn't see her for the rest of the day.
This morning around 9am, I see Ralph is up on her basking spot, waaay early (usually about 12noon) and she is *wrinkled*!! It seems she lost quite a bit of bulk and her skin was no longer stretched tight along her sides, though she was still a little chubby-looking. She stayed out in the hotspot for an hour, refused any food (crix & chicken liver), then went back into her underground hide. I can see down into the entrance from outside the enclosure and my wife pointed out a little speck of white down inside the tunnel.
I got the long tweezers and recovered one egg. I imagine there are more in there, the radiograph image showed what looked like 8 or 10, but excavating her hide is a pretty big undertaking because the actual hide is a bar sink, hung under the main enclosure housing. The top of the bar sink is about 6" under the surface of the enclosure substrate, and the sink itself is 8" deep and full of substrate. I decided to just let her rest for today and dig it up tomorrow.
This animal was three years old in February and has never shown itself to be gravid, nor laid any eggs that I have seen/recovered. Never scent marked and obviously (now) never everted. She has never been with a male.
murrindindi had suggested in one of threads that Ralph might be female and it looks like he was correct.
Now, to find a feminine name I can easily transition to from "Ralph", although, after two and a half years together, it's gonna be tough to call *her* anything else.