Chameleon eggs

[harley]

My panther and veil chameleons recently layed eggs. It has been 4 months now. The eggs seem to be getting bigger? Is that normal? Some of the panther's eggs has a few little pink spots on them. Is this mold?
Also, can anyone tell me the ratio for mixing the incubation matter and water? If anyone knows this in ml, that would be great.

 

[Brad]

Hello harley, welcome to the chameleon forums

I don't have incubation experience yet. However, I think the egg swelling and the coloration could be normal. There are two articles at ChameleonNews that will definitely answer those questions and probably your question on the mixing ratio as well.

• Eggs: Laying to Hatching (by Bill Strand)
• Incubation Strategies (by Francois Le Berre)

If you have a camera it would be cool to see the eggs as they approach their hatching time.

 

[ChamFreak]

are they fertile?

 

[harley]

Well, I do not know yet. It has been almost 4 full months for the first batch, and no mold or bad discoloring, uneven swelling or collapsing, so I am hoping they are fertile. However, I do not know what the signs are for fertility.

 

[Brad]

I do not have any experience with this, but from what I have read they sound fertile. Infertile eggs will begin to mold after a few weeks. What kind of panthers did you breed?

 

[ChamFreak]

Yes great point. Also do you have any plans on selling your new baby chameleons? Can you post any pics?

 

[harley]

I have Nose be panthers and blue/green veils. I am probably going to have to sell some, otherwise my husband will go insane. However, it is not something that I was considering in the beginning. If all of them hatch, I will have more enough to last me in my lifetime. I will post a pic of the chams soon. My one veil is about to lay a second batch, and the last time she laid 48 eggs.

 

[ChamFreak]

Wow, When you know when the clutch is expected and are willing ot sell, please inform me. I have room for 4 more chameleons and are looking for a veiled and nosey blues too.

[email protected]


ps, are they gonna be expensive?

 

[Reptayls]

My panther and veil chameleons recently layed eggs. It has been 4 months now. The eggs seem to be getting bigger? Is that normal? Some of the panther's eggs has a few little pink spots on them. Is this mold?
Also, can anyone tell me the ratio for mixing the incubation matter and water? If anyone knows this in ml, that would be great.

Hi Harley,

Are you using vermiculite or perlite for the incubation substrate?
If perlite, you can leave a small amount of water in the bottom of your plastic container. The water wicks up without getting the perlite soggy. If using vermiculite, you need to use caution. Too much moisture can drown the embryos. The proper amount of water can be done in several wasy - but the end result must be barely damp medium. You should be able to squeeze a large pinchful - with no water running down your fingers.

Mold comes in different forms - but most often it is white. The little pink spots - well, without seing a picture, it is hard to guess that one. What may look like a pink spot to one person, may look like nothing to the next.

Fertile eggs grow, yes. Unlike hard-shelled eggs, reptile eggs expand as the embryo forms.

What temperature are you keeping your eggs at? What kind of incubating device are you using?

Morgana
Reptayls, Ltd.

 

[harley]

Hi,
And thank you for the replies. I am incubating the eggs in vermiculite, and I am trying to keep the medium dry-ish. The sqeezing any water out of it is a bit more tricky. If I sqeeze really hard, I get water running down my fingers. There is quite a bit of condensation. The medium for my pather's eggs is a bit damper.The eggs for my veil is in a slightly drier medium. Currently I have the eggs in clear containers with lids at 70 F in the dark (my closet). It will get a little colder at night, but not by much.

Ps I have just changed the medium to a bit drier meduim, so that no water releases when I sqeeze. Do you think that the week and a half of incubation in slightly wetter medium has drowned my babies?

 

[Reptayls]

Harley,
No.... I don't think that is a danger when it was only a short time.

From our experience, these temperatures will help you:
The panther eggs we always kept around 74F - and the veiled could be 74-76F. I think it has to do with the amount of shade on the earth in their respective habitats - panthers always had more shady places to dig.

Anyhow, we have known lots of folks that incubated them hotter - veiled at 80F, for instance. This was in an effort to speed up the incubation time - and it usually worked. Some clutches hatched at 6-7 months, instead of 9-10. However, in all cases, we saw a trend: it made the babies smaller and frail and losses were much higher.

We got the digital thermometers (ones that show max and min temps too) and sat them in the closets until we found the right ones to incubate the eggs in. We had a panther closet and a veiled closet.

A good book to read about chameleons is Linda J. Davison's "Chameleons: Their Care and Breeding ". You can find it on Amazon or other book places. You can even get them used. We got one for our herp vet (a gift) and he enjoyed reading it. He said it was refreshing to read information from a keeper rather than a scientist.

Good luck with your eggs..

Morgana
Reptayls, Ltd.

 

[Brad]

harley,

How are the eggs doing?

 

[harley]

Eggs

Hi everyone,

Well, the eggs are doing fine. The veil eggs have become a little yellow and should I say, it looks like they have fatty stains on them in certain places. They are all full and round. No mold or discoloring so far. The veil laid another cluth a month ago. Then, my panther eggs are doing well too, I think. I have been keeping them at 74 in my closet.The are getting a little bigger, but also no discoloring or mold etc. It has now been 5 moths for the first clutches. My one panther just keeps on laying cluthces every 2 months. I have not bred her since the first time. The last time however, the eggs were smaller than the first two cluthes. And now, I have another female digging as we speak. I recently acquired her from another breeder as gravid. If 50% of them make it, I am sure going to have many babies..., considering that I did not get into this to become a breeder, But I love these guys. I also recently acquired 6 more panthers in various stages of development. I have 3 male panthers living together in the same set-up, sleeping together, crawling over each other. They are totally happy. Weird and amazing at the same time. They are 1.2 years old.

 

[reptileguy]

So whatever happened with the eggs? Did they hatch out? If so how many? I am looking around to buy a couple chams and would be interested.