Virgin female laying dud eggs

I have a female who has never been bred that has been laying infertile eggs. She laid 4 at the end of last season and has laid 1 for me so far about two and a half weeks ago. I actually wanted to try breeding her this year and already tried pairing her with a male but she showed NO interest in that what so ever. She was exactly 60 grams when I tried that pairing about a week ago.

Today I go in there and look and was rather taken aback by now much thinner she looked in the tail. She's also very pale and just looks exhausted the poor thing. She's clearly got eggs and is due to lay them any day.

So the questions are...Do you think breeding her is a 'good' idea? On one hand I feel like if she's producing eggs and it's taking that much out of her anyway they may as well be fertile...on the the other hand fertile eggs might do worse? How do you even breed a female that probably thinks she's gravid all the time? Is there a sweet spot between laying to shoot for?

If you have the means breed her. Leave the male in for longer this time.

She will ovulate even while she is producing eggs. Most females absorb these ovules, but your female is turning them into eggs. You can definitely introduce a male. I don't think fertile eggs would be any harder on her than duds. You can see the ovules by looking at her abdomen. They will appear as pink circles. Sometimes it will be before she lays her eggs and other times it will be right after she lays her eggs. You will just need to observe her. If your male doesn't bother her to much you can just put him in with her and he will know when she is ovulating. Some males will constantly pester females, though, and it can turn nasty so if you try this you need to monitor closely.

Producing eggs is really hard on a female's body and takes a lot of her resources. While she is producing make sure she has plenty of food readily available that is dusted with calcium and vitamins. I really like Repashy Calcium Plus. I also leave a small dish of plain Calcium (no D3) in their tank at all times. Then the females can lick it whenever they feel like they need extra. If you feel like she is getting too skinny you can give her a snack of a few waxworms occasionally. They're really fatty and a good weight builder, but Leos find them addicting so don't give them too often or they won't want anything else. LOL

Thanks for responding guys.

I'm NOW concerned about egg binding...Can that happen with infertile eggs? Or can she reabsorb them? She was trying to lay a few nights ago in her poop corner, but try as she did nothing but some liquid came out and she finally gave up. I have not seen her try since nor have any eggs showed up. She doesn't seem in distress but I haven't seen her eating anything and there still appears to be large white areas in her belly. I'm going to try soaking her tonight and see if that helps anything along. She has a dish of calcium in her tank and there's always vitamins in with her mealworms. She JUST came out of brumation though where she was barely eating anything at all so...I didn't even have time to bulk her up before she started cycling @_@

Do you have a lay box in there

I do, yes, kept moist, but she never lays them in the lay box

Try changing your lay box material LGs can be finicky. You can try vermiculite, coco fiber, moss, paper towels (last choice, IMO) and see which she starts hanging out in. If she wants to spend her time in there she is more likely to lay her eggs in there. Most Leos really like Econ-Earth (coco fiber) so I'd try that first, if you aren't already using it.

There is cocofiber in there now. I figured she just wasn't laying them in there because she knew they weren't fertile? She's never tried to bury them or anything, always has them in her poop corner or in her normal dry hide.

Did give her a warm soak last night and very gently rubbed at her belly a bit. I found her laying over by her poop spot later on when I checked on her like she might attempt to lay them again...but no luck