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. 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.
While making my rounds when I got home from work last Friday, I couldn't find my female verrucosus. 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.