Arnie and Desi 8-21-08 - veilds

[BocaJan]

Geesh, am I in trouble or what. Desi turned receptive and I showed her to Arnie. Well, my boy is a hunk, he scratched me all up trying to get to her. So, I let him go. It was slam bam thank you ma'am. She moved to a better branch because she wasn't in a good position, and I don't believe anything happened that first time.

She moved to a better branch and they are doing the deed. It is going on 10 minutes. WOW. Should I leave him in her cage or is once enough? I know it is happening. I guess I should watfch for gravid colors, but I think Lucy showed her gravid colors the next day.

I am hoping with all my hope that they both have small clutches. ACKK My third female is the one that had MBD as a baby and will NEVER be mated. I don't want to take the chance of passing along any weakness she had from that, nor do I want to stress her. She is my nasty b****ch lady, not genes I would like to passs along.

I guess I'll have to get another plastic trash can.

Wish me luck although I won't have to do too much but just let things happen as long as I provide proper containers, temps, food. LOL

1 - calcium 5x/week
2 - vitamins 1x/week
3 - calcium w/D3 2x/month

How does this sound for gravid females?

Well, I guess my ladies are all about the same age for sure. My 3rd one is flashing receptive colors. Too bad for her. Will she show gravid colors at any time? I want to be sure to offer her a place to lay her unfertile eggs.

 

[BocaJan]

Can someone please tell me if a non-mated female will produce gravid coloration?

Also, I have had a female that I have mated (I saw the goings on) but she has not turned the pretty gravid colors her sister did. Is this normal? How long does it take? Sister turned on her second day meeting up of the male.

 

[boothy]

with veiled chameleons you can leave them alone until they have hooked up a few times i usually go with 3 cause then the female starts to get dark and all pissy cause shes done, and this usually happens with in an hour sometimes longer but soon as she goes dark take her out shes had enough, but cut the calcium to 3 instead of 5x a week she will make alot of eggs with that much calcium but the others are good , and yes a female will show gravid colouration even though she hasnt been bred this warns the males that she has eggs or has already been bred so dont come near me or ill pour the ivory to yea but sometimes you get some females that dont show any gravid colouration at all , because all chameleons are different , i had a female veiled that didnt show any gravid colouration wat so ever , i just had to watch her closly then the others , to see when she would start to scratch at the bottom and her intake would slow, i would then put in the lay bin and she would lay but you have to act fast with these females that dont show any gravid colouration at all , because if not then they die from being egg bound so as long as you keep a good eye on her and watch for signs of scratching and lose of appetite and you will do fine

 

[BocaJan]

Thanks for responding to my post.

I thought you had to give calcium to make strong eggs???? I will cut the calcium back to 3x/week if that is the accepted way of caring for gravid females. What do others do? I don't want 60 eggs, but I do want healthy ones.

 

[BocaJan]

Calcium question for gravid female

Could I please get some opinions on the how much for calcium for gravid females? I understand that you have to supply enough calcium for the eggs because the calcium will leach from the mother's bones. I have healthy females and don't want to damage their health.

Thanks

 

[kinyonga]

IMHO its the amount of food that affects the clutch size (not the calcium)...and the time to cut food back is NOT when the female is already gravid. She needs her calcium and a good diet when she is producing eggs.