Chameleon Guarding Infertile Eggs?

Diinomos

Member
So my 1 year and 1 month old veiled chameleon has done her first egg laying. I made sure to cover her area up real quick so she can have some privacy while egg laying. She started eggs laying around 3 hours (maybe more) after digging her hole but that was when it was getting close to sleeping time. I looked online to see if she needs her lights kept on but they said to leave the schedule as is so I guess she slept while laying? This morning I see her gone from the hole and I see a few eggs, but then she's on a little branch near the bottom and it looks like she's guarding them? She doesn't usually hang out where she is right now, she does have a different pattern that seems to me is how she looks when she's gravid. Do I wait until she gets back to the top to take out the eggs? Is there a reason she didn't bury the eggs back with the sand?
 
Turns out she went back down and looks like she was filling in the hole. I sneaked in a pic of her right now!
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I put a dark sheet to cover her when I saw her digging, but I saw that it's not good watching them at all because they'll hold onto eggs if they see you while laying, so I definitely resisted.
 
Update!!! So during the entire day she spent it closing up the hole? Eventually her colors went back to normal and she went to her little sleeping spot and stayed there till the lights went off. Just took out the eggs while she's sleeping and I counted 57 eggs!! So crazy to see that many in person, I've only heard they lay so much but it's so different when you actually see them ( I just wish they were fertile 🥺) just want to make sure that's a good amount? I'll make sure to give her some extra food and hydration tomorrow for her hard work :D
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Wow! That’s a lot of eggs! Too many, I’m afraid. Not only do large clutches increase the risks for egg binding, retention and other problems, but in general take so very much out of her that it shortens her life span. Are you practicing ‘the regimen’ to decrease egg production? If not, I highly recommend it. It’s quite simple and can be extremely effective. Feedings are limited to 3-4 feeder insects, 3 days a week. Basking temps are kept no higher than 80. This explains it quite well. http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/2007/12/keeping-female-veiled.html This is what I do for my girls and one hasn’t laid any eggs since right before Covid started! The other veiled girl lays a clutch of 34/35 eggs once a year, but I think it’s mainly triggered by her stolen glimpses of her handsome forbidden love, my male. My sweet panther girl is 1 1/2 and has never laid. For some it takes a couple of cycles before really showing results.
 
Oh my, thanks for letting me know! I've been feeding her less bugs everyday since maybe December, but I was going to transition to every other day since she's getting older. I'll definitely look into that regimen and will implement it for her schedule. Thank you for your help!!
 
@MissSkittles said…”For some it takes a couple of cycles before really showing results.”…it usually takes a couple of clutches before they turn off the reproduction and panthers can be even slower sometimes.
 
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