Plant Digging

chams1

Member
Related to another thread, https://www.chameleonforums.com/gut-instinct-saved-her-44297/, this is why you should always pay attention to your female cham (not only in general but...) if she starts digging in a plant:

While making my rounds when I got home from work last Friday, I couldn't find my female verrucosus. :eek: I knew she had to be in there somewhere. I heard some noises coming from inside the plant and found her tail barely sticking out. Knowing that she was gravid (she bred with my male a few weeks prior), I had been planning on putting a laying bin in her cage the following day anyway, but figured that she was on a mission, the soil was in great condition for a tunnel and I didn't want to get her out and make her start all over again and besides, to be on the safe side, I would be able to be home over the weekend to watch her every step of the way. (DISCLAIMER: I don't advise that people who are inexperienced with breeding to go without a laying bin in your female's cage. You should keep a laying bin in your female's cage at all times. I am experienced enough with breeding/egg laying that I know approximately the day when the female is going to start digging.) Well, digging continued inside the plant all night, including 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. when I checked in on her. When I checked again at 5:30 a.m., I found that the digging had stopped, but that the tunnel had collapsed. So, I took the plant out of its pot, only to find that she had (somehow) gotten all the way to the bottom, turned around to lay, successfully laid all the eggs at the very bottom, but now had gotten turned around trying to get back out and was stuck in between some of the roots of the plant.

Again, I advise you to pay attention to what your female is doing (at a distance) at all times when she is laying, especially if she is digging in a plant that is in her cage. Had I not been paying attention, it could have gone too long and she could have suffocated underneath the plant. This is merely for informational purposes.

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Man you should know all the rules by now. How many eggs did she lay? :DCongratulations on saving your girl!.
 
....and yes (before I get a barrage of responses), that is fertilizer in the soil. Sometimes, I just don't have the time to repot and change ALL of the soil, but I do make sure I change/put fresh layer of topsoil on top before it goes in a cage. I have never had any female dig in any of their plants to lay before this.
 
I'm glad she is safe. Don't tell, I leave some of the fertilizer in the bottom of my plants too!!! And make sure there is a good layer of regular dirt in most of the pot. Keeps the plants healthy and happy!! Frogg is a dirt eater :p!
 
Poor littel girl! What a fright for you too! Females can be such a worry. I am so glad you found her in time, bless her!
 
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