Do females stop laying eggs as they age?

[MrsM]

Hey I was wondering if female panther chameleons ever slow down or cease their egg production?
Also, how often do they cycle per year?
I’ve had my female panther chameleon since May. She is 1.5 years old. Former owner bred her. She is active, healthy, shows no signs of being gravid. She did appear receptive at one point but I didn’t have her near a male.
Will she lay eggs her whole lifespan?
How far apart?
Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[BECHARD4]

Hey I was wondering if female panther chameleons ever slow down or cease their egg production?
Also, how often do they cycle per year?
I’ve had my female panther chameleon since May. She is 1.5 years old. Former owner bred her. She is active, healthy, shows no signs of being gravid. She did appear receptive at one point but I didn’t have her near a male.
Will she lay eggs her whole lifespan?
How far apart?
Any insight would be appreciated.

My experience: females can lay infertile eggs all their life. How far apart: I think it’s different for every female.
We keep the basking temperatures low to mid 80’s. We feed three times per week, and assuming we are speaking of crickets we only feed 4 crickets. Worms would be only 2 or 3. Reduced temperatures and reduced feeding is less eggs which is less stressful for the female.
We have had only one female- 4 years old so far and has never laid a clutch of eggs. Other females are 2 -3 years old, maybe one or two small infertile clutches has been laid.
Even with breeding- we follow this guideline. Clutches are small and mama’s are healthy- less stress in my opinion.
I’m sure many others will chime in with their experiences.

 

[MrsM]

Thank you so much. I hope more people can chime in with their experience.

 

[jannb]

I think it could be different girl by girl. One of my girls didn’t lay anymore after 2.5 years old and a friend of mines girl laid when she was almost 4. @kinyonga would know more about this than most of us since she’s been keeping for almost 30 years.

 

[MrsM]

My girl has not been gravid only receptive and I’m trying to gauge what to expect.

 

[kinyonga]

I think it varies more in panthers than in veileds. It used to be said that veileds would only lay 8 clutches but I never knew how that conclusion was arrived at and it wasn't said about panthers. Pretty sure it was about as vlalid as the old myth that you had to breed a veiled female at her first "heat" or she'd die eggbound.

I was usually controlling them as much as I could for clutch size and even trying to stop egglaying in most of them...and that might make a difference too.

 

[salty dog]

The fact is, just like any natural female, every female is different, beleive me!! A buddy of mine has a female panther that goes receptive 1 time a year, fed the same and same conditions as another female 4 inches away that goes receptive every 2-3 months....