Brain fart about lay bin

[Sonny13]

I’m reading some posts about our girls laying and their lay bin. Thinking about our girls in the wild, never digging that deep as our our girls in captivity and mostly close to vegetation. Plus seeing my own girl who lives free range and bioactive, who also never digs extremely deep and she could go really deep, because her bioactive soil is at least 30” deep. I‘m wondering if a possible upgrade for lay bin would be planting something in it or place a big trunk inside the bin. So they can dig a hole till reaching the hard material of the trunk or roots of the plant and gives them sooner the instinctive perfect spot. It well known they dig to side or bottom of the bin, probably to reach that hard surface. Or laying their against roots. Maybe even cover up the soil with leaf litter, my girl always camouflages her hole with leafs.

It‘s just a brain fart, but would make perfectly sense. What are your thoughts and who would like to try this? It could never harm. @DeremensisBlue

This is my bottom floor, where she already laid 8 clutches in.

Result after laying

 

[elizaann2]

Count me in!

 

[Sonny13]

Count me in!

I think it will be beneficial within their laying process.

 

[MissSkittles]

They are known to like to lay their eggs against root balls, but this isn’t something that we regularly offer them in their lay bins. Since keeping my chameleons bioactively, only once did one lay (Stella). She rejected her natural substrate and tried digging into everything, including the faux foamed background. It wasn’t until I was totally desperate and put her old lay bin back in that she finally was satisfied and promptly laid in her bin.

 

[Sonny13]

They are known to like to lay their eggs against root balls, but this isn’t something that we regularly offer them in their lay bins. Since keeping my chameleons bioactively, only once did one lay (Stella). She rejected her natural substrate and tried digging into everything, including the faux foamed background. It wasn’t until I was totally desperate and put her old lay bin back in that she finally was satisfied and promptly laid in her bin.

I wouldn’t go for a bioactive lay bin and keep the way we recommend, just with additional “roots” like a trunk piece of wood our a plant and maybe some leaf litter for the naturalistic feeling / touch.

 

[elizaann2]

I think it will be beneficial within their laying process.

I agree.

 

[DeremensisBlue]

When I have a female that is being difficult one of the things I will try is this kind of laybin. it has buried flat rocks at different depths, a root ball, and a black trash bag taped around the clear plastic bin for privacy when digging. Of course, take the trash bag off and you can see where the eggs are. Of course, (again) the very light top layer of sand tells me exactly where the hole was dug and filled.
When I am creating cage floors that are more permanent they are variations of this.

In this particular case, she just laid in a hole in the middle. So much for all my fanciness.

 

[Sonny13]

When I have a female that is being difficult one of the things I will try is this kind of laybin. it has buried flat rocks at different depths, a root ball, and a black trash bag taped around the clear plastic bin for privacy when digging. Of course, take the trash bag off and you can see where the eggs are. Of course, (again) the very light top layer of sand tells me exactly where the hole was dug and filled.
When I am creating cage floors that are more permanent they are variations of this.

View attachment 346694


In this particular case, she just laid in a hole in the middle. So much for all my fanciness.

View attachment 346695

Thanks for your contribution Bill. I’m glad to read my thinking isn‘t that far off.