1st Time Gravid Female...

[kawa9]

She's so full of eggs her little ribs are sticking out and she feels like shes full of marbles. She won't eat and she's really not very active. I've increased her baths because she seems to be dehydrated. I usually bathe her twice a week and she never tries to drink until lately. So I have increased her baths to every other day and shes still trying to drink. I don't like letting her drink because she doesn't know how and she'll start coughing.
 
A brief history and then some questions. Shes 2 and a half years old and has positively never been with a male. When I got her she was 5 and a half inches long and weighed 7 grams. She is now 19 inches long and weighs 668 grams. She fluctuates in weight from 680+ grams to 640 grams, depends on her cycle of consumption if you will. There have been several times I have had to force feed her when she was ill and very week. She has always rebound thankfully. She hasn't been the most healthy of dragons and to say the least and it's been allot of work and vet bills to get her to where she is at and to keep her in her current condition.
 
Anyway, this is my first dragon and when I finally figured out shes a female I have dreaded the day when she was going to lay.
 
Here are my questions.
 
When will I know when to put her in her lay box?
What temperature should I keep her at?
How long do I leave her in her lay box?
How do I know she has laid all her eggs?
How do I know if she's having problems? (my main concern)
 
One weird thing that's been going on is when she is having a bowel movement she starts vibrating, as best as I can describe. No stress marks at all, white beard and belly but she seemed to be straining a bit and vibrating!? Anyone ever experienced that before?
 
Any and all feed back would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance...

[ladyknite]

the production of infertile eggs is hard on a female.  It robs their system of most everything, including fluid. Prepare your laybox, give her a warm bath, let her drink, then put her into the laybox.  I set mine up with a heat lamp and a heating pad on the bottom, but i use a large rubbermaid tub approx 3 ft. long.  Give her 12-24 hours to start digging. If she's ready she will.

The easiest way to tell when a female is ready to lay will be she begins digging in her enclosure, regardless of her substrate. They commonly go off food a few days prior also.

Keep a heat light inside her laybox, but do not let the substrate dry out completely. it will not "pack" if you do, and her hole will cave in when she digs. Temp is not important at this time, but i usually try to make sure that the spot the light is on is around 95-100F.

When she has finished she will attempt to cover her hole.  She may also move away from it.  If she stays in place, and you do not observe any "spasms" or straining during a 12 hour peroid, take her out and give her another bath.

If she is straining, but without success, you will know it.  She will become very lethargic, turn quite pale as to her color now, and you will notice that the spasms that come as contractions seem to be very hard on her.  Do not mistake the lethargic behavior for the simple "tired" that should come with laying eggs.  They are quite different.

[kawa9]

Thank you for your response ladyknite!

[kawa9]

I've been putting her in her lay box but she just looks up at me like, hey Dude what the heck are you doing? So, I clean her up and put her back in her Viv and all is well. Tonight I put her in her lay box and she started digging and digging and I thought it's time. But, all she did was make a huge poo and then looked up at me as if to say, " hey, thanks for the nice poo box now get me out of here"!

I'm going to leave her in the lay box tonight and see what happens. More later...