Please help our baby has eggs!

My husband and I are new to the Chameleon forum and need some advice please. We have browsed the forum but I thought I would just start a new thread.

We got out girl Bindi (veiled) in Oct 2011 everything was fine till she started going to the ground. We watched her different habbits till we took her to a wonderful vet and sure enough she has eggs. Her bones, color, weight everything else is perfect per the vet.

We tried adding just the soil, sand mixer to her cage and she would scratch at the sides some but spent more time on her ropes so now we got her a "trash bin" 20 gallon with play sand 12" deep and moist. We have her 75watt lamp along with her stip light on the laying bin and even started two holes for her. She is eating (not as much) but seems okay.

The question we have is it's been over a week since Dec 28th, 2011 and she has still not dug a hole or seems to want to lay the eggs. The xrays showed the eggs are not calcified enough that the dr was worried yet and she should be able to lay them. But it has been since Friday Jan 6th, 2012 and nothing yet.

We know that they should be left alone, but we do spray her and check on her from time to time.

Our questions:

1. How long can they carry before they lay and or we get really worried?
2. Should we have something in her laying bin to crawl up on? We had a stick but she would just hang on the stick, so we took it out and now she is just on the dirt.
3. At night do we put her back in her kennel or keep her in the laying bin?
4. Will she eventually end up digging and laying or could this take days, weeks, months? (the time frame is our biggest concern)

Please any advice and help would be greatly appreicated, we love her so! We will have our eyes glued waiting to her from you all!

P.S We do not have a male.

Welcome to the forums. Do you have any pictures? Do you have room in her cage so that you can put a laying bin in the cage? If it's a small one, once you see her showing interest you can move her to the big trash can bin. There's not a set time frame for them to lay but at the first sings of weakness or illness, I would get her to the vets for oxytocin injections. I do keep a branch in the big laying bin so they will have a place to go besides in the sand. I've never put lights on the laying bin but never leave them in it for days at a time. They normally start digging in the late afternoon and lay in the late evening or at night. It just might not be time for her to lay yet. Once she does start to dig she will need complete privacy or she could leave her hole and then become egg bound. I'm attaching my egg laying blog for you below. Jann

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/jannb/345-egg-laying-laying-bin.html#comment1103

Thank you so much for replying~

We have pictures but none recent. What kind of pictures would help?

We have a 4foot screened cage that should be here tomorrow for now it's just a 20 gallon glass that we did fill with about 6 or 7 " of dirt/sand mix. She would only really scratch at the sides of tank and act restless bit no true digging. We put her in the trash bin yesterday about 6pm and left her over night. She is only scratching the side of the trash bin, we even made 2 holes but she did nothing with them.

Do you think we should put her back in her 20 gallon glass till our other tank get's here and we can set it up with a laying bin inside so we can just let her be and stop moving her?

Or should we just leave her in the trash bin with a stick and the lights as is till she lays?

As her mom.. I really don't like her in the trash bin the entire time but we want what is best for her. I trash bin is just so lonely

We have your blog printed out and have been going over it a 10000 times thank you for writing it.

When we look at her you can't see that she has eggs really, no lumps just a big belly. The xrays did confirm she has eggs. The vet said she looks great so that is good.

My questions is i guess just to clarify she can have eggs and just not be ready to lay? what has your experiance been when it comes to laying after you know they have eggs? Is it different because she does not have a male?

Thank you for your time!

another question...

when will we know she is ready?? If we see her digging we don't want to move her right? So what is the best way to go about it.

Pics of Bindi

Normally I cannot tell mine have eggs when the eggs are infertile. I watch for the signs they give me of roaming. I free range so they will get off the tree and roam around. Often they do not stop eating. I can't tell you what to do about your cage situation. I don't use cages and would never use glass for a veiled. I can say I would not just leave her in the laying bin for days.

CurtisGalle said:

another question...

when will we know she is ready?? If we see her digging we don't want to move her right? So what is the best way to go about it.

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She will start digging when she's ready. If you put her back in the glass cage the sand in the bottom would not be deep enough to dig and lay so you would have to move her. If you put a large bin in the 48 high then I would not move her. She looks small in the picture. How old is she?

Also it's important to have the sand/dirt not to wet and not to dry or they want use it.

Her 20 gallon till the 4 foot comes and her laying bin.

We are not sure on age but we are guessing around 8 months old. These pictures were taking a few weeks ago, she is a bit bigger now.

We are now more educated on the glass housing for her and can't wait till her new screened housing to arrive tom!

I think if we put her back in her reg tank she will be able to show us better signs of being ready to lay. I feel the same way and do not jus want to leave her in her laying bin for days.

We will have her new cage all set up tom and will provide her with plants and big pots and just let her be till she shows us more signs.

I just want her to come out of this perfect!

Thank you again.

You are very welcome and I'm glad you liked the blog. Some people that I pass it to never even take the time to read it.

Ha we have it printed out and took it to Home Depot to get everything you said to get. My husband moved her back into her noraml home and he says her colors are back and she seems much more comfortable.

We can't wait to get her all set up this week. I will post new pics and keep you updated. I think my husband, Bindi and I all might get a good night sleep after the information you have given us to help us all rest a but more.

Have a great night!

Update:

Bindi started to dig in her 20 glass gallon today she would dig then take a break and back to digging. We took her out and put her in her trash bin but she seems to hate it in there and seems more comfortable in her glass tank.

We are lost and not sure what the right thing is to do! She is still eating and looks great!

Should we leave her in the trash bin or add more dirt to her glass tank where she is actually digging?

Thanks!

How much sand does she have to dig in? I have had females lay in a 9" tall by 9" wide plastic planter filled with moist sand. I would try and leave her in her cage and cover the cage with a garbage bag or something with a little peep hole so you can peak in to see if she has buried the hole after laying and she can't see you then. Not disturbing her is best if possible

Thank you! now we are really worried because we moved her into the laying bin but she was not happy so we moved her back. UGG.. we feel a mess!!

We added more dirt to her glass tank and she has 10" and we moved her back, put black the black towel we had covered it before.

do you think we messed up by moving her into the laying bin after she showed us signs of digging? and now moving her back into her home where she did dig.

What about misting and feeding if we are not to mess with her do we still do that if we she has has taken a break from digging?

Suzi this sucks!

i forgot to add the reason we moved her is because she seems to just stand on her hind legs and scratch at the glass sides a lot. then she did the same thing but worse in the trash bin.. the hole she dug out in her tank was in the corner and wide (small at bottom large opening at top like a cone) not like the tunnel types that i have seen on youtube etc...

My female scartched at the sides of her laying bin both times she's laid. You just have to be patient with her and she'll start digging after a while. I don't think you messed up by moving her, just don't move her again from her laying bin or you may cause her to not even lay at all and become eggbound. Don't want that to happen! Usually I give my female a long shower before she is put into her laying bin making sure she is going to be well hydrated while she is digging her tunnel. Then if she hasn't finished digging that day, I turn of the lights and when she wakes up in the morning I give her another long misting session (about 20 minutes. But I don't remove her from her laying bin). I usually spray the sides of the trash can so if she stayed in her tunnel during the night, when she comes out of it she has the option to drink on her own time.

When she finishes laying and covers up her hole you can give her a long misting session again to remove all the dirt from her body and rehydrate her again. This whole process takes a lot away from them. I'd give her some heavily dusted (with plain calcium) silkies for the next three or four days after she's laid as well.

Thompson said:

Usually I give my female a long shower before she is put into her laying bin making sure she is going to be well hydrated while she is digging her tunnel. Then if she hasn't finished digging that day, I turn of the lights and when she wakes up in the morning I give her another long misting session (about 20 minutes. But I don't remove her from her laying bin). .

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I totally disagree. If you spray her for 20 minutes while she is where she will lay you will have a soggy mess. Her tunnel would most likely collapse, and she could be trapped. I will do a light misting so my girls can get a drink but that is all. I am not trying to be difficult but I have never know of anyone spraying 20 minutes into a laying bin, or a tank where she will lay. JMO

Thomson, thank you for making me feel better about the side scratching. we ended up adding more sand/dirt to her tank(about ten inches now)where whe is most comfortable and began digging in the first place and wrapped it with a dark towel. I did hear hydration is important so i will be careful on how to mist without interupted, like the sides of the tank.

Laurie, thanks for the extra clarification. i can see where you wouldnt want to change the composition of the sand too much by too much extra water.

i really appreciate all the imput from all of you experts and will continue to check for updates. So far it is helping a completely stressful and confusing situation get a little better by learning what everyone else does/and has been through.

For now i believe and have decided i will leave her un-interrupted for the next day or two and hope she ends up digging again in her enclosure and laying her dang eggs!!!-Curtis

Hang in there Curtis, she will soon have this past her, be in her nice new cage, and you can finally relax and just enjoy her again.

Oh how nice that sounds, thank you Laurie. I might even be more productive at work...ha. Her new set up is very cool and i am excited to see what she thinks