Egg fertility and retained clutches

bradley

New Member
I had a female panther lay quite a large clutch of 38 eggs 13-14 days ago now. I have been keeping them at 18c to recreate a diapause. It seems very few, if any are fertile as most seem to have or be moulding. This was the females first clutch. I have spoke to someone who said if she has a retained clutch this may be more fertile than the one I have now. I myself thought the fertility of each clutch decreased as each retained clutch was laid? Is there any truth in this?

I am hoping even a few eggs may be ok but at the moment it does not seem this way. I am just happy my female is doing well though and hopefully I will have better luck next time!
 
Is this the same female that you thought to be receptive last month? If it is and you mated her when she was already carrying eggs then they will all be infertile and I doubt there will be a retained clutch.

They can have a retained clutch 2 to 6 months after the first fertile clutch.
 
This was that female. I found out she was older then a year from the breeder so decided to go ahead and breed her.

I never thought of that. She had been receptive for about a week or two before she mated with the male. I suppose it was too late by then and any eggs had formed.
 
My female mated when she was already gravid. Only one egg was infertile, I'm still waiting for the retained clutch.
 
Why do you think the fertility of each retained clutch decreases? Each clutch uses the sperm it needs until there is none left....so the last retained clutch would contain infertile eggs. The first clutch after a mating can be infertile, contain some infertile eggs or be completely fertile depending on where the chameleon was in her cycle at the time of mating.
 
That was just something I have always believed. I personally do not want to mate her again until next year but obviously would like some fertile eggs from her so hopefully if she has a retained clutch they will be fertile.
 
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