What to Expect when your Dragon is Expecting

Last month we were caught off-guard when Glinda, our three-year-old female bearded dragon, started exhibiting some really odd behavior. She was super active -- which usually means she is about to poop -- and pooping nearly every day, sometimes more than once a day. After months of thinking about bromating (hibernating) it was a welcome change to see her so active, but still!

Then she started to try to dig. Really dig. Claw at the felt on the bottom of her glass tank as if her life depended on it. She was eating a lot more veggies, too, and throwing the ones she wasn't eating all around the place.

The cause of her strange behavior became obvious when a week or so while Don was cleaning her tank he noticed a bunch of odd-shaped gummy looking items in it -- about 15 in total. 

Our girl Glinda had laid eggs.

Obviously her eggs would never become baby dragons because she has not been near a male in the two years she has lived with us.

Fast-forward a month and the odd behavior was back. Poor girl!

This time we were less surprised, but still did not know how to handle the situation. We went to Dr. Google and made an appointment with her vet. The vet said to make sure she has a place to dig a tunnel, make it a combination of vermiculite and dirt, she'll know what to do.

Lowe's was out of vermiculite, so we substituted sand, and put the combination in a giant plastic tub (the one we normally use to house crickets). When it was just dirt, she tried digging, but couldn't create a tunnel. This combination did the trick. We placed the box in Don's office so he could keep an eye on her.

To us it seemed she worked on this project for days. She was determined!

After building just the right place, she put her backside into the hole, long tail and all, and wiggled those eggs out of her. Five ... ten ... fifteen? We figured once she was done we would count the eggs. Fortunately Don was able to get a picture of some of the eggs, but with all he wiggling, it was hard to get a good picture without disturbing her.

What happened next took us both by surprise ... she then filled the hole, packing the dirt in with her snout. It was hard work! We expected Glinda to just fall asleep into a well-deserved nap, instead she literally climbed the wall (or rather, the screen door).

Glinda finally did fall asleep in her tank. We gave some wax worms as a special treat for her hard work, plus a salad and some blueberries.

Some things we learned from Dr. Google:

1) Dragons can hang onto sperm for up to a year until they are ready to make eggs during egg making season.

2) Females start making eggs between ages of two and four (Glinda is three).

3) They can have more than one "clatch" in a season.

4) When bearded dragons are pregnant it is called "gravid."

5) It is important to have them checked out by a vet to make sure all of their eggs have left (we have an appointment on Monday night).

6) Dragons do not lay on a nest. They bury their eggs. The babies are on their own when they hatch and climb out of the dirt.

Hoping our vet tells us how often we should expect this to happen so we are better prepared next time.