Mary (bottom) and Bailey, December 2003

After weeks of watching fat Mary scratch and dig at everything in sight, and her climbing up our legs whenever we got near her, we decided that what she needed was a nesting box. It wasn't difficult to build, just took a little time, some clever thinking, and a few trips to various stores to get the right parts. When we first put her in the closet with the nesting box, she climbed right in and started digging away. We checked her after 24 hours, that's when the first pictures below were taken. It would be another 12 hours before we thought she was done and began to excavate the eggs.

(LEFT)   These are the first pictures taken of Mary after she had been in the closet with the nesting box for approximately 24 hours.  Although we could only see one egg, it was clear that she had been digging like mad, and she was very skinny... like a deflated balloon. We knew there had to be more eggs in there somewhere. Still, she continued to scratch and dig while we were with her, and we even witnessed some "contractions" (see video links below).  So... we put a little more potting soil in the box, gave her some water to drink, and left her alone for another twelve hours.

(RIGHT) These are close ups of the first "good" egg that we found and removed. It was lying on top, just as you see it - we did not have to dig for it.

(LEFT, top two pictures) Digging the eggs out was both tedious and time consuming (okay, it was also quite exciting). It took all afternoon to find and remove all the eggs without damaging any of them. The whole experience reminded me of an archaeological dig. I wore thin plastic gloves (so i could feel the eggs, but not transfer any germs to them), used a soft brush, a spoon, a ladle, and lots of blowing at dirt. I used the brush and my fingers to remove about 1/4 inch layer of dirt at a time - sometimes less. (LEFT, bottom picture) This was our first indication that we had hit the mother load. We uncovered a pile of eggs in one corner, but when we tried to dig them out it was obvious there were more eggs underneath. This was the most difficult part of the excavation.  Over 40 eggs were stacked in that corner. (There are seven eggs visible in this photo... can you spot them all?)

(LEFT) Assorted pictures of eggs as they are being excavated.

Two pictures of the first tray of eggs we filled.  There would more eggs added to this tray after we filled the second one, for a total of 60 eggs. UPDATE: There were a total of 61 eggs laid. Four of them were bad from the get-go (too squished, leaking), 30 were frozen for disposal, and 27 are being incubated.

This is the egg we found the next day, on the bathroom floor behind the toilet. You can see that the shell is too thin in some spots. Later that day, we found yet another defective egg behind the toilet. I guess she wasn't quite done yet!

Exterior of the nesting box after it was converted into an incubator.

(LEFT) Interior shots of the incubation chamber. After we had retrieved all of the eggs, we removed the potting soil from the nesting box so we could convert it into an incubator. We placed two standard heating pads in the bottom of the box. On top of the heating pads we placed upside down freezer racks to raise the surface several inches above the pads.  9 plastic bowls were filled with moistened vermiculite, and 2-4 eggs were placed in each bowl.  The bowls were then placed on the racks.  A double-size heating pad was taped to the lid, and heat reflective material was used to cover the hole Mary used to climb in and out of the box.  In order to provide moisture, two bowls of water (the brown and orange circles in the photos) were also placed inside - one sitting directly on a heating pad and one sitting on the rack with the eggs.

It was no use putting a bowl of water in the closet with Mary, she knocked it over almost immediately... but as you can see from the photos above, she had no trouble taking the water we offered. (see video links below).

These are the eggs (30 of them) which we culled out. The culled eggs were placed in the freezer overnight to prevent accidental incubation and hatching at the city dump (where they will undoubtedly end up come trash day). The two yellow eggs are the ones which were found in the bathroom the next day - they both had obvious thin spots on 25-50% of the shell, even if they were viable eggs, the hatchlings would probably have been deformed.

VIDEO LINKS: CONTRACTIONS - DRINKING - TLC - Bailey & Mary Out for a Stroll please note - the first three videos are in Windows Media Player format Visit our CafePress shop Iguana merchandise: coffee cups, mouse pads, calendars, greeting cards, and more!

PROGRESS REPORTS
March 28, 2004 Second day of incubation	We're having some difficulty finding the right temperature and humidity combination. We haven't gone out of the proper ranges yet, just experiencing a lot of fluctuation. I think our latest modifications are going to do well, though.
March 31, 2004 Fifth day of incubation	The temperature is stable, and we've got a good humidity level. However, I'm beginning to think that the eggs may not be fertile as they appear to be turning brown and shrivelling up when they should be absorbing moisture and filling out.
April 3, 2004	We culled some of the eggs today. Many of them were obviously not good, as they had turned brown and shrivelled up. When we were done removing the bad ones, there were 13 good looking eggs left - though some of them are quite small. At the advice of iguana friend Frank Arconti, we lowered the incubating temperature as well.
April 4, 2004	Good Grief! We found two more eggs in the bathroom this morning! It's been over a week since she laid the first eggs, but these two late-comers look textbook perfect and were immediately placed in the incubator.
April 6, 2004	The temperature is stable at 85 degrees, along with good humidity. The remaining eggs all seem to be doing fine, but additional culling will be done over the coming weekend.
April 10, 2004	We culled five very moldy and shrivelled eggs today, leaving us with ten still being incubated. A couple of the remaining eggs have signs of mold, so we will be dusting them with athlete's foot powder. Of the two "late" eggs, one appears to be shrivelling and one continues to look remarkably healthy.
April 13, 2004	Of the ten remaining eggs, five of them are getting moldy. We put athlete's foot powder on all the eggs, just to be on the safe side. Other than the mold, all but two of the eggs look remarkably good.
April 16, 2004	I've decided to wait at least a week before culling anymore eggs. I want the next cull to be the last, and we'll incubate-to-term however many eggs make it past the next cull.
April 24, 2004	As I feared, we are now down to one egg. The other nine were all collapsed and extremely moldy. The one remaining egg is well shaped and has no mold. If this one does not hatch, we'll have to try again next season. However, now more than ever before I think that Bailey is not capable of fertilizing eggs.
June 13, 2004	The lone egg continues to just sit there, LOL. No mold, no shrinkage. June 30th will be the 94th day of incubation. Iguana eggs should hatch at 90-120 days. We will wait until we reach the 120 mark before opening the egg manually.
June 29, 2004	Junior is doing fine. The egg shell is still soft and pliable. Temp and humidity are fine. Held a stethescope to the egg yesterday and thought I heard the faintest rustling... but it could have been the coffee maker in the next room. We will continue to be patient and hope the egg hatches naturally.