First time breeding, we have researched and tried to learn everything we can but realize some things only come from experience.
Could anyone tell me how you know when your female is finished laying?
She has laid several eggs and has them wrapped up nicely. Just wondering how you know when she is done and you can safely move them?
Really you just look at her body and you should be able to tell. If her whole body looks equally deflated and her belly is caved in, she is likely finished. However, if she still has eggs in her, you will see it in the portion of her body right above the vent. It will still look tubular rather than flat. Here is a photo where you can tell her body is flat and deflated for the whole length.
If she’s coiled tightly and you can’t really see the eggs then she’s most likely finished. They move around quite a bit and stay loosely wrapped when laying. Time is also a factor, it doesn’t take days to lay, typically done in a few hours, so if it’s been a day since you noticed the 1st eggs then she’s most likely done or impacted. Graysnake is correct about the body condition/appearance. Goodluck & congrats on your 1st clutch.
Thank you all! She laid 3 good size, fertile eggs. We are slightly concerned she has an egg stuck higher up. She seems totally content, normal, relaxed and happy, but she has an out of place egg size bulge at the top of the lower 1/3 of her body. Definitely not close to her vent.
It’s been just over 24 hours since she laid these eggs, since she is acting normal should we give her some time and just see what happens? She had her eggs wrapped up and seemed finished. When we took the eggs, we gave her a little soak, washed her tub and gave her new substrate. She drank a ton of water and acts like she wants to eat.
She just wants to be sure to break us in right!! 
If she’s done laying and all eggs are out she should look and feel empty, very concave on her belly. If you feel or see an egg sized lump in the bottom 3rd of her body it unfortunately sounds like she may be impacted and have another egg up there. If it’s been over 24hrs she most likely won’t pass it on her own. If it is an impacted egg it will go bad and eventually kill her from internal infection. It could be some stool that she hadn’t passed before becoming gravid but it sounds more like an egg impaction to me. It is very important that it gets identified and removed asap.
I would recommend taking her to a vet for an xray immediately. That will ID what it is and go from there. If it’s an egg you can try manipulating it out. It may need to be drained 1st to help. It could also be a twisted oviduct which could tear and cause an infection or blood loss, again most likely fatal. Being this is your 1st clutch I do not recommend you try any of this on your own. Get her to a vet, get xray and let them try to remove it.
Goodluck, keep us posted.
Thank you! We definitely won’t try anything on our own. I know who the reptile vet is here, but they are only open M-F. I will start calling vets and see if someone will see her tomorrow, or at least X-ray her so we know what is going on.
