2y/o veiled not laying eggs

thertz

Member
Looks like a long post but my main problem is: My female veiled is a little over 2 years old and has yet to lay eggs, or even express any interest in it. I have a potted umbrella plant at the bottom of the cage 12"D of soil.

She is still eating and drinking, although her skin (for the past few months is always somewhat wrinkly and dehydrated (not terrible, eyes are normal, I see her drink). I took her to the vet for sub q fluids a couple times but that didn't change her skin much. The vet also felt her for eggs and felt nothing. She didn't seem very concerned which makes me think I could be overreacting, but she also didn't give me any clue about when she will/should lay eggs, or what I should be doing differently (bin-wise and hydration-wise).

I'm not a very experienced owner (she was given to me as a gift), but I love her to death and have done my research, put in the daily work, bought her cream of the crop everything:

CAGE: 2x2x4 dragon strand clear side enclosure with one side and top mesh.
WATER: dripper and Mistking: 9am 6 min, 12pm 5 min, 6pm 6 min (I read in a thread that it's better to do fewer mistings for longer and I originally had much longer duration times but it was too much)
LIGHTING: Arcadia T5 UVB + plant tube lamps, 150W ceramic heat emitter (24hrs), 125W basking bulb usually, and using an even hotter one now because it's such a struggle to heat the cage in the winter, and my vet told me my basking area needs to be 90-100. I'm changing it back to the 125W today in case it has something to do with her dehydration.
PLANTS: pothos, schefflera, sticks, and fake vines
FOOD: about 10 med-large crickets/day (sometimes i mix it up and give her a little less or a little more or skip a day)- crickets fed Flukers calcium hydration cubes, Repashy gutload (gel form), and random produce (spinach, sweet potato, carrots etc). Mealworms once in a while, but she likes to hunt the crickets and I think it's good exercise.
SUPPLEMENTS: crickets dusted with calcium daily, D3 2x/mo, multivitamin 1/mo
HEALTH: She came with nasty parasites that took 3 months to get rid of so I've checked about 3 times since then and she's in the clear. I am VERY stressed and concerned about her right now but the vet doesn't seem to be.
CURRENT BEHAVIOR: Eating and drinking, mostly basking but moves around the cage, almost never goes to the bottom. Normal BMs. She's like a sourpatch kid sour then sweet and always has been. The only weird thing I notice is that she looks a little weak sometimes- not always, but I'll see her kind of leaning sideways as if she can't hold herself up and she does that in my hands too, but she can still move around so once again I may be overreacting.

This is my first post sorry for the length! I"m just kind of freaking out.
 
I'm so sorry to hear about your problems! At least the magnitude of your stress reflects how much you care about her and your care sounds pretty darn good :) And no worries about the length, we love long, detailed posts like yours. It means we have to ask less questions and can address the problem faster.

Do you have a separate lay bin for her separate from the plant's pot in there for her? I was unclear about that. I've never kept a female chameleon before, but I know enough to know it needs to be its own separate entity. We'll have to wait to hear from more experienced members. In the meanwhile, it would be great if you could post some pics of your chameleon and her enclosure
 
I have a 3yr old female veiled who has never laid any eggs. She has had receptive colors before but she never dug or laid anything and those went away. I got her at 3 months old and she has never produced any eggs. I wouldn't be to concerned about it but keep an eye on her and make sure she has a place to lay incase you miss any signs.
 
I have a 3yr old female veiled who has never laid any eggs. She has had receptive colors before but she never dug or laid anything and those went away. I got her at 3 months old and she has never produced any eggs. I wouldn't be to concerned about it but keep an eye on her and make sure she has a place to lay incase you miss any signs.
I have a year old female who I thought might have been gravid but I was wrong, and she is going strong with no eggs.
 
Also, it entirely matters on what type of care she is receiving. I know that there are posts about the special 'diet' that you can put females on if you do not want them to lay any eggs, but again, nothing you do to the chameleon will give any guarantees. As long as your female is healthy, I would say that everything is fine.
For my female, I have a good sized laying bin put aside for her just in case. You never know, and just like @#Chams4life said, just be prepared in case you miss any of he signs and keep an eye on her. To be honest, you should always watch your cham, female or male, because they each have their own issues.
That is just my two cents :) The pictures would be great.
 
All of you who are saying their veileds have never laid eggs need to be somewhat concerned and prepared. Although diet and temperature can play a part in reproduction you still have to be concerned. Overfeeding the female veiled constantly will lead to producing a big clutch and can push the female towards MBD, prolapsing and difficulty laying the eggs....and other health issues. @thertz... IMHO you are overfeeding her...she should be fed every second day and about 5 to 8 crickets per feeding...or equivalent calories in other insects. I try to keep female adult veileds basking temperature in the mid to low 80's F.

There should be an egglaying container IN their cages at all times once they are sexually mature....showing their yellowish mustardy splotches and bright blue dots or sometimes an almost black background color. This gives them a place to dig to show you that they are going to lay eggs.

You need to be aware of the signs of impending egglaying...drinking more, roaming the cage, possibly eating less (but it applies more/mostly to those that are producing a big clutch)...more grouchy sometimes...basking more...etc. a lot of the veileds will eat substrate when gravid too.

You need to watch for signs that they are becoming eggbound...lethargy...sleeping during the day...sitting lower in the cage...very chunky in the back end...phantom laying...etc.

I hope this helps!
 
IMG_7380.JPG IMG_7793.JPG IMG_7797.JPG IMG_7799.JPG IMG_7800.JPG IMG_7804.JPG
 
I'm so sorry to hear about your problems! At least the magnitude of your stress reflects how much you care about her and your care sounds pretty darn good :) And no worries about the length, we love long, detailed posts like yours. It means we have to ask less questions and can address the problem faster.

Do you have a separate lay bin for her separate from the plant's pot in there for her? I was unclear about that. I've never kept a female chameleon before, but I know enough to know it needs to be its own separate entity. We'll have to wait to hear from more experienced members. In the meanwhile, it would be great if you could post some pics of your chameleon and her enclosure
I have 3 plants in there apart from the lay bin which I put a (small) schefflera in there, just following examples I saw on here/youtube. I posted a couple photos- one with the pothos I have hanging in front of it (for privacy), and one with it pulled out so you can see the bin in the back corner. Thanks for your reply! You guys are awesome
 
All of you who are saying their veileds have never laid eggs need to be somewhat concerned and prepared. Although diet and temperature can play a part in reproduction you still have to be concerned. Overfeeding the female veiled constantly will lead to producing a big clutch and can push the female towards MBD, prolapsing and difficulty laying the eggs....and other health issues. @thertz... IMHO you are overfeeding her...she should be fed every second day and about 5 to 8 crickets per feeding...or equivalent calories in other insects. I try to keep female adult veileds basking temperature in the mid to low 80's F.

There should be an egglaying container IN their cages at all times once they are sexually mature....showing their yellowish mustardy splotches and bright blue dots or sometimes an almost black background color. This gives them a place to dig to show you that they are going to lay eggs.

You need to be aware of the signs of impending egglaying...drinking more, roaming the cage, possibly eating less (but it applies more/mostly to those that are producing a big clutch)...more grouchy sometimes...basking more...etc. a lot of the veileds will eat substrate when gravid too.

You need to watch for signs that they are becoming eggbound...lethargy...sleeping during the day...sitting lower in the cage...very chunky in the back end...phantom laying...etc.

I hope this helps!
Thank you so much! Per your advice I just swapped out the bulb for a lower basking temperature. I just posted some photos- do you think the bin I have in there is adequate?
 
my female never gets the dark colors like that but in the picture where she's just relaxing on the branch she looks identical to my female
 
Her color range is extreme. I've seen her very light green and yellow, and also almost black (usually when she's cold). Her patterns change too- sometimes she gets that extreme "watermelon" look.

So- if I'm assuming she's female, 2 1/4 y.o., and she hasn't yet laid, and hasn't expressed interest in laying, do I have to leave the bin in the cage forever, "just in case"? I know the answer is probably yes, I just hate that thing. It's such a pain for cleaning/daily maintenance. I feel like I might be spending wayyy more time than necessary on maintenance because I am always stressed and don't feel like I have things streamlined- most people here seem like they're really comfortable and it's smooth sailing.

Another question- is it necessary to get a solarmeter? After all I've spent, I can't afford another $250 on something I'll barely use, but then again UVB is essential. I get the arcadia t5 bulbs once every 6 months, but before the most recent 6 months were up, I suspected low/no UVB output and replaced it (my vet gave me those color changing beads to detect UVB). Has anyone used these? My vet says they work just fine, but Todd from lightyourreptiles says the solarmeter is the only way to go and everything else is a waste of time/money.
 
This is the wrinkly skin I was talking about. Does anyone ever syringe water? I used to do it once in a while when her saliva looked stringy. She will absolutely not sit still to soak (which is what the vet suggested and I almost laughed), and I don't want to keep spending $35 per sub q fluid injection, which didn't really change much anyway. I'm hoping lowering her basking temp will help.
IMG_7816.JPG
 
Back
Top Bottom