HELP! Our female is digging

[Angeleyes2]

It's going on 7 days that our female has not eaten, her eyes are sunk in, she will barely drink water. I thought she looked a little lumpy so we got some sand and a bucket and she went to town. She has dug 4 holes, however, has not filled them in yet. We are really concerned for her, and since this is the first time our cham has done this, we do not know what we are doing. I forgot to mention that she has not been bred at all. So we know that these eggs are not fertile.

Can anyone tell us what we are doing wrong, how long will it take for her to lay the eggs, etc. We need to know EVERYTHING! We don't want anything to happen to her, she's one of our children! Any suggestions will help. Thanks much!

We have a good size bucket filled with sand in her cage, we put a sheet over the front half of her cage for more privacy. We still have everything else set up the way it was (lights, temp, drip).

 

[kinyonga]

Has she been able to see you when she is digging?

How are her calcium levels?

 

[Angeleyes2]

She did see us the one time. But she kept on digging after a few minutes, we put up a thin sheet where we can see her through it with the lights on. She went back on her branch after a while, and today she dug for a bit, but not long at all. None of the holes are covered. I was just reading someone else's post about putting her in the shower, is this ok to disturb her. I am not sure about her cal levels, the cams live with the bf, I will ask him, how do we do that if he doesn't know?

 

[lanceman]

is the laying soil moist enough and deep enough if it is not to her liking she may not lay

 

[Angeleyes2]

We have about 10" of sand, and it is moist, I think too moist from the dripper, if there's too much water from the drip, will this make her stop? We are drying out the sand now while she sleeps.

 

[chris]

what kind of medium did you use for her laying bucket? its important the medium isnt too compact so that its hard to dig or too soft or dry that it caves in. moist peat moss mixed with sand works well. a good test is to make a hole with your fingers then shake the bucket a little too make sure the hole doesnt cave. good luck

 

[kinyonga]

You can put something over the laying container to divert the water from the container but still not block her from getting into the container. Would you lay your eggs in a "swamp" if you were her??!!

 

[Angeleyes2]

The sand is moist it is not dry at all. We checked it before putting it in there to make sure that it was "digable". It was pretty easy to make holes, and there was no sand coming back down. We left to go to a game for a few hours and came back and she was on her branch but had dug a few more holes, nothing too deep, and that is when we saw the excess water in the bucket. We drained out the water and tried to dry out the sand some. It worked pretty good. This morning my bf put the bucket back in there and moved the dripper away to another location is hopefully that will work. Poor little baby. And no, by the way I wouldn't want to lay eggs in a swamp. Thanks for the concern though.

 

[lanceman]

You may find it better to just put herin a large rubermaid or garbage can with somtin small to climb on then just leave her in that. mine refuses to lay in her cage.