Information on bearded dragon eggs. https://www.beardeddraco.com/information-on-bearded-dragon-eggs/

1. Bearded Dragon Eggs
www.beardeddraco.com

2. How Many Eggs?
On average bearded dragon will have between 16 and 24 eggs in a clutch and
they’ll lay multiple clutches depending upon various factors.

3. If the bearded dragon eggs are infertile then they may only lay one clutch, but
if they’re fertile then expect around 6 batches – they’ll normally stop laying
eggs as soon as they lay infertile eggs and that depends on how much sperm
they’ve stored and how much energy and calcium they have.
How Many Eggs?

4. Nutrition while laying eggs
Whether laying infertile or fertile eggs, the dragon will need plenty of calcium
and energy, if you don’t provide additional calcium supplements, the eggs will
use calcium from the dragons bones.
Also all that digging and egg laying will exhaust the dragon so you’ll want to
feed daily with more insects and vegetation – after all this is what the beardie
will use to create the eggs. You should find that their appetite substantially
increases during this period.

5. Nutrition while laying eggs
If your lizard should stop eating for more than a couple of days, it’s time to see
a vet to get an x-ray and to monitor the condition.
If the dragon doesn’t lay the eggs it can become egg bound, where the eggs
solidify and bind internally with the dragon causing paralysis and even death. So
be sure to keep an eye out for this.

6. Laying eggs
You need around 6 inches at least, 10-12 inches is better, of substrate for the
female to dig a burrow in, the best stuff I found is a mixture in equal parts of
vermiculite (to retain moisture), play sand and topsoil. Add to this some water
to ensure it can hold it’s shape without collapsing and get a big piece of bark to
go over the top.

7. Laying eggs
I also found that in the vivarium, the female will tend to prefer to dig a burrow
in the warm end, normally under the heat lamp.
Although before doing this, she’ll create several test burrows over the course of
a few days, so you’ll need deep substrate for all of the viv – I slope it up
towards the back to give varying height.

8. Laying eggs
After she’s dug her hole, she’ll lay the eggs in under 30 minutes and then spend
a while burying them up again. What you need to do is to carefully remove the
soil again and taking note of the position of the egg, transfer them to the
incubator keeping them in the same position (more on that later).
If she just laid one set of eggs, you may be able to leave them in the tank, but
in a few weeks she is more than likely to dig another burrow for the next clutch
and she’ll always choose the same place when in the vivarium, thus ruining the
eggs if left in there. Generally bearded dragons do not care about their eggs.

9. Infertile Bearded Dragon eggs
These will be yellow and smaller than average. Remove them straight away and
throw them out. This also signifies that that’s the end of the egg laying.
I mention infertile eggs also because lizards will develop eggs anyway
(providing they’re not stressed), even if there is no male present, this works out
in two ways, either they lay the infertile eggs or in some cases the eggs get
reabsorbed into back into the body.

10. Fertile Bearded Dragon eggs
Fertile bearded dragon eggs are white in colour and will start to swell over a
few days, the important things here are heat and moisture. If you notice the egg
beginning to sag, don’t worry just add more moisture carefully and the egg
should swell up again. If you leave it too long then the egg will die off.
Healthy fertile eggs will positively glow and will double their original size as
they swell as the embryo begins to develop.

11. Incubating the eggs
You can buy custom made incubators or create your own. Since you’re likely to
get many batches of eggs you have the opportunity to test different setups.
First of all the heat source – you can use a light bulb or heat mat or an airing
cupboard. Light bulbs are expensive to keep on all day every day for a few
months, so I preferred to try heat mats, however, I found that the direct heat
from the light bulb above the eggs worked better, but I still had low success
rate using either. I also tried creating a water bath to retain the heat and this
seemed to work marginally better than just heating the incubation tub.

12. Incubating the eggs
So far I have had 100% success rate leaving the eggs in the airing cupboard and
this is what I would recommend.
Secondly you need to look at what to keep the eggs in, the small plastic tubs
you get the insects in I found are unsuitable, too many small air holes which
dried out the eggs too quickly. Instead you can get purpose made plastic
hatchling boxes that are of a decent size, cheap, have a lid and enough airholes
to allow the air to circulate without losing too much moisture.

13. Incubating the eggs
Thirdly you need a medium to rest the eggs in and to retain heat and moisture, for this
I found vermiculite to be the best. Add it about an inch deep in the tub and add water
until it’s all damp and you can leave hollows in it.
For each egg create a hollow using your thumb about a centimeter deep and gently
move the egg and rest it in this hollow giving at least half an inch in space between the
eggs.
It is important to ensure that the egg remains in exactly the same position as it was
laid, otherwise turning the eggs could lead to the embryo being malformed or other
complications – such as the tail wrapping round and choking the embryo.

14. Incubating the eggs
So rather than shell out for an expensive incubator I have now had 100%
success rate with just a few plastic tubs, some vermiculite and an airing
cupboard, and this has produced perfectly healthy mail and females, taking
about 2 months to incubate and hatch.

15. Incubating the eggs
Remember to check on the eggs daily and add more water if the it looks dry or
eggs begin to shrink.
Incubation times can be as little as 45 days and can be up to 85 days, in my
airing cupboard it took about 56 days and the ideal mid range is about 82 – 86°
F if it’s hotter then you risk a higher chance of losing eggs.

16. Temperature-Dependent Sex
Determination (TSD)
Interestingly the temperature you incubate the eggs effects the sex of the
dragons rather than the chromosomes at the time of fertilisation. Higher
temperatures lessen the incubation time but are more likely to create males
where as lower temperatures are more likely to produce females but take longer.

17. Hatching
The eggs took between 1 and 3 days to all hatch, the best advice here is to
ensure that they are still in a moist environment to prevent the egg shell from
drying out or sticking to the new born bearded dragon. If there are issues then
carefully help the dragon out of the egg, but adequate moisture should prevent
the need of this.
When they have hatched transfer them in to the vivarium but maintain the
temperate the same as the incubator for the first few days. During hatching if
you’re careful you can move them to the vivarium and leave them to hatch there
as long as they don’t dry out.

18. WWW.BEARDEDDRACO.COM
For more information on bearded dragons please visit our website:
https://www.beardeddraco.com
Thanks