If she is going to lay eggs anyway is it risky to breed

[bberry820]

I've had my female veiled, Darlene, for 4 months now. She became receptive for the first time around the beginning of the month so she should be ready to lay her first clutch very soon. For the last week and a half she has been completely fixated on escaping her enclosure and when I let her out she goes straight to my males enclosure trying to get in. I dont want to take any risks with her and was not planning on breeding her for at least a year but she wont do anything else but try to escape. My question is if she is going to lay eggs either way will breeding her add risk?

I just want her to settle down and stop wasting all her energy trying to escape she's usually pretty calm and spends all day looking out the window. She also is a great eater and usually will eat anything I offer her. I feed a diet of BSFL larvae, wax worms, and supers and give her a horn worm every other day when I have them. She never turns down food but since she has been receptive she will only eat supers and today ate some adult BSFLs that hatched.

She currently weighs 129 grams and I estimate she is ~7 months old, she was 52 grams when I caught her in February (I live in SWFL where they are invasive). She could be older because we had a lot of cold fronts when I caught her that could have killed off the food supply.

 

[Beman]

Well IMO if she is new to you and you have no history on her you want to make sure she can successfully get through laying a clutch of eggs first and then you also have an idea of how many eggs she will lay in the future.

If they are wild caught you want to make sure there are no parasite issues as well.

You also do not want to let your male and female see each other. This will trigger to to become receptive and cause stress to both of them.

I would not feed her wax worms they are all fat.. You want to feed her healthy well gutloaded feeders and ensure your supplementation and UVB lighting is spot on. Egg production takes a lot out of them. If these things are not spot on she could pull the calcium from her bones to make up for the lack of calcium.

 

[kinyonga]

Since she's been those colors for a month, she's likely well on her way to having a clutch imho...and I hope you have a laybin in her cage already.

They can lay eggs every 130 or so days. The number of eggs she will lay will be related to the temperatures she has been kept at as well as the number of feeders you feed her each day. How much have you been feeding her per week since she got those colors?

 

[bberry820]

Since she's been those colors for a month, she's likely well on her way to having a clutch imho...and I hope you have a laybin in her cage already.

They can lay eggs every 130 or so days. The number of eggs she will lay will be related to the temperatures she has been kept at as well as the number of feeders you feed her each day. How much have you been feeding her per week since she got those colors?

Yes I have had a lay bin for her since the beginning. I try to feed her daily but she only wants the supers which I worry about bc of their shells.

 

[bberry820]

Well IMO if she is new to you and you have no history on her you want to make sure she can successfully get through laying a clutch of eggs first and then you also have an idea of how many eggs she will lay in the future.

If they are wild caught you want to make sure there are no parasite issues as well.

You also do not want to let your male and female see each other. This will trigger to to become receptive and cause stress to both of them.

I would not feed her wax worms they are all fat.. You want to feed her healthy well gutloaded feeders and ensure your supplementation and UVB lighting is spot on. Egg production takes a lot out of them. If these things are not spot on she could pull the calcium from her bones to make up for the lack of calcium.

Its too late they have already seen each other and both want to get down to business. Like you said I at least want to go through a few clutches before I let them mate. Everyones been cleared for parasites.

 

[kinyonga]

Yes I have had a lay bin for her since the beginning. I try to feed her daily but she only wants the supers which I worry about bc of their shells.

How many insects do you feed her a day?
At her age, she should be fed every second day.

 

[Beman]

Its too late they have already seen each other and both want to get down to business. Like you said I at least want to go through a few clutches before I let them mate. Everyones been cleared for parasites.

So they still should not be seeing each other ongoing though. This is going to cause stress for both of them. Males will even rub screen with their face trying to get out to a female. The only time you let them see one another is when you intend on mating them.

 

[bberry820]

How many insects do you feed her a day?
At her age, she should be fed every second day.

I was planning on weaning her onto an every other day schedule at the beginning of June but she became receptive and lost her motivation for food so for now im just feeding her whenever she will eat

 

[bberry820]

So they still should not be seeing each other ongoing though. This is going to cause stress for both of them. Males will even rub screen with their face trying to get out to a female. The only time you let them see one another is when you intend on mating them.

I have a free roam setup in my office I let her hang out on all day but she keeps sneaking out and crawling under the door to go see my male. Im thinking if I just let them mate it will eliminate the stress from both of them but like I said I dont want to cause any egg laying complications on her first go. I had to set up a camera to see how she was escaping. If I leave her in the cage she just claws at the door all day. She is very determined to get some action

 

[kinyonga]

Once again...The amount you feed her and the temperature you keep her at play a big part in the number of eggs she will produce in the clutch.

If she is overfed and kept too warm, and as a result, produces too many eggs in the clutch, she can suffer from follicular stasis, develop MBD, prolapse, become eggbound, etc. and die at an early age.

An adult veiled should be fed 4 or 5 crickets two or three times a week...or equal value in other insects... and the temperature kept at 80F to keep her from producing huge clutches. This needs to start at the beginning of a cycle to work properly.
Also, if she still produces too many eggs, you will need to cut her back further on the number of insects.