Any day now this girl will lay...

[Zephalia]

Never fails that every summer I get myself all worked up waiting for the gals to lay their eggs. This is my beautiful Ambilobe breeder, Stella, who is looking stunning! She's been outdoors since about May when the weather warmed up and this will be the first time I have a female lay in her outdoor enclosure so I'm hoping everything goes smoothly. *fingers crossed*

 

[Nibbz]

She's beautiful! Good luck, hope all goes well for you both!

 

[Zephalia]

We are still waiting - she's been nestled deep in her umbrella plant for the past couple weeks without much movement. She's still eating and drinking, grip is good and looking fuller by the day. It's been 27 days since she was bred, c'mon girl...this wait is torture!

 

[Zephalia]

Just an update that she laid on August 12th. She went a couple weeks longer than I'm used to but they are out and she looks fantastic. Phew!

 

[Rogue]

Just an update that she laid on August 12th. She went a couple weeks longer than I'm used to but they are out and she looks fantastic. Phew!

Woooot! Congrats!

 

[kinyonga]

Congrats!
How many eggs?

 

[Zephalia]

She laid 21 beautiful pearly whites. I have an inkling she will lay a 2nd clutch in another month or two...by the looks of her. Time will tell. I will not incubate those, however.

 

[kinyonga]

Why won't you incubate them?
21 is a good sized clutch!

 

[Scottsquatch]

What locale is she? Do you have a picture of the sire? Enquiring minds want to know! LOL

 

[Scottsquatch]

@kinyonga, I think she means she will not incubate the second clutch.

 

[kinyonga]

It's just a shame to waste good eggs. I would give them to someone who does want to hatch them rather than throw them out.

 

[Scottsquatch]

If she didn't live in Canada I'd love to try and hatch them out. I don't think it would be allowed to ship them here though...

 

[kinyonga]

There are lots of chameleon keepers in Canada who would hatch them out too I'm sure.

 

[Zephalia]

The first year I was breeding I had 2 clutches from my female - laid 2 months apart. There were 43 eggs and I incubated them all. They all hatched within 2 weeks of each other and I was overwhelmed. I did my best but it was a learning curve and there were some casualties. I had bins set up all over and was spending $200/week on feeders (did I mention I was a single Mom to 2 young children at the time? Not a lot of disposable income). It was also a female heavy clutch and although I found great homes for a number of them by the time they were 3 months old - I was left to house nearly half of them for the remainder of the year. By the time they were 1 year, I was left with about a dozen females. It took me another full year to sell those off, in addition to the smaller clutch of 10 I had that year.

I'm a small home breeder. I do it for the love of the animals and to produce quality over quantity. I learned from that first year. Since then, I limit myself to 15 to 20 eggs per season and it's been far more enjoyable to raise them up. I have more bin and cage space, plus I've since set up an outdoor area with enclosures - so my babies are raised outdoors for the first few months predominantly. Like I said, quality. The babies I raised this year vs. my first year certainly show the difference in my knowledge and attention.

I get that there are people out there who would incubate them all and try to sell them all for a profit but that's not what I'm about. It's a hobby for me and I am pleased to find loving/knowledgeable homes for each and every baby that leaves me. I'm in the middle of the Canadian prairies and there isn't a huge demand where I am - I do ship across Canada but, in the more populated areas, there are breeders available locally. This year I sold out of my clutch of 14 by the time they were 3 months and was able to keep a pair for myself to continue working with these bloodlines. That is all I was hoping for.

Selling/giving away eggs would be passing along the work I've done with these lines to someone that I have no clue about. Perhaps they would do bare minimum and sell babies just to make a buck. That most often means care suffers and then on top of it they get to claim my bloodlines in the process - no thank you!

 

[Zephalia]

What locale is she? Do you have a picture of the sire? Enquiring minds want to know! LOL

Her Sire is the beautiful red bar in my avatar pic. And she was bred to this guy...

Blue fired up

• Zephalia
• Aug 15, 2017

He has produced some beautiful offspring - including Norman!

Oddly enough, the male she was bred to comes from beautiful blue bar lines - and her Dam was from blue bar lines as well...which is no surprise why her Sister, when paired with the same male, produced babies that are looking like this at 3 months old....

Norman @ 12 weeks

• Zephalia
• Aug 14, 2017

There's those blue bars I've been waiting for!

 

[Scottsquatch]

I just realized you said that Stella has been outside since May. Your in Winnipeg? I am blown away that it's warm enough in May for her to stay outside. Is it warm enough for her stay outside all night too? I live about 20 minutes outside of Duluth, MN and we still get hard frosts in May not to mention occasional snowstorms. It must be quite a bit milder out your way.

 

[laurie]

I live about 20 miles south of Canada, in Montana. Sure not that warm around here in May

 

[nino]

Her Sire is the beautiful red bar in my avatar pic. And she was bred to this guy...

Blue fired up

• Zephalia
• Aug 15, 2017

He has produced some beautiful offspring - including Norman!

Oddly enough, the male she was bred to comes from beautiful blue bar lines - and her Dam was from blue bar lines as well...which is no surprise why her Sister, when paired with the same male, produced babies that are looking like this at 3 months old....

Norman @ 12 weeks

• Zephalia
• Aug 14, 2017

There's those blue bars I've been waiting for!

 

[nino]

How old is that lil blue bar. Looks older than 3 months. Pretty big and great color for 3 months. I think u should sell them or give them away. Be a shame to not hatch them. Good luck

 

[Zephalia]

I just realized you said that Stella has been outside since May. Your in Winnipeg? I am blown away that it's warm enough in May for her to stay outside. Is it warm enough for her stay outside all night too? I live about 20 minutes outside of Duluth, MN and we still get hard frosts in May not to mention occasional snowstorms. It must be quite a bit milder out your way.

It absolutely was warm enough since *about* May this year. We certainly did not have any snow in May - LOL. Seasonal temps vary by the year around here but this year things certainly warmed up earlier as we did not have that much snowfall over the winter. Not every day was warm enough at the start of Spring. If it was 72F or above, she was outside during the day. If temps don't reach into the low 80's at least during the day, she was also brought in so she could bask a bit - along with all the animals that were outside. As for nighttime, I'm surprised I have to say that of course they were not left out if there was frost. My chams really only started spending days and nights outside in June when the temps were consistently warm. Otherwise, they are brought in at night if the temps go below 60Fish.

Spending their time *predominantly* outdoors since May is a huge benefit to their health. In a climate such as mine, daily attention needs to be paid to daytime and nighttime temps. Right now, for example, the days are still very hot but the nights are getting quite cold. This means that some days they are still spending outside right now but they are all brought in at night. I have outdoor setups and indoor cages so it's no hassle for me to move them easily in/out as I'm not hauling cages around too.