Egg bound or fat?

[Sturt]

The main question is:

If a female was egg bound, after 5 months would she not appear seriously ill?

The reason I ask is that my female failed to lay her last clutch. The last lay was 5 months ago, and for the last few months she has not been in contact with a male because I am concerned that she has retained her last clutch. However, she is active, alert, eating and pooping well, and shows no signs of being ill whatsoever. She's just still huge. Her tail is very fat, so is it possible she's just overweight and needs to go on a diet? There are white areas on her stomach but not the usual defined ones related to eggs. Can these just be fat pads?

How long would it take for her to appear unwell if she was egg bound?

Stuart

 

[Mel&Keith]

Fat can certainly appear as white masses. Egg bound females usually look very uncomfortable and you can pretty much see the huge eggs in them. Did her food intake increase after she laid her last clutch? It could just be that she reabsorbed the last follicles that you saw starting to form.

 

[Sturt]

Yeah her food intake returned to normal after the last clutch, she generally doesn't eat for the day or two before she lays. She certainly doesnt look uncomfortable she's as alert as ever, ad does her exploring when she's out.

That's whats confusing me, after she missed the lay date for this clutch I've been monitoring her very closely for signs of illness and discomfort so I can take her to be seen by a vet and there just aren't any... its been so long now I wonder if she's just overweight. I feed her a little more between clutches when she's gravid because of the reduced eating for the week before laying, I guess its possible she just didn't produce more after that clutch and instead became fatter, not more heavily pregnant because of the additional food.