Egg laying question

Sharon12

Established Member
My 3 year old veiled chameleon has been on strict temperature and diet control for egg laying. She becomes receptive about 4 times a year. She laid 45 eggs 11/13/2019 and that’s when I started all the controls. Well she never laid any more eggs until yesterday when she successfully deposited 46 eggs. She always has her lay bin. So she hadn’t laid any for over 2 years but this is still a big clutch. Or is this success as she rarely lays? Any suggestions. Her temp is 79 and I feed her equivalent of 3 gutloaded largish Dubias every 3 days along with a few BSFL or flies for hunting. Thank you. She looks good today.
 
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So the gap of time is a good thing but the clutch size is still large. The temp and feeder amounts are meant to reduce clutch size and frequency of laying.

Just a note feeders would need to be a medium size. And it would be no more than 3 feeders 3 days a week. Temps your looking for 78-80 max where she rises up into the heat so if you have a heat probe on the branch it should read a few degrees lower than that target 78-80.
 
That’s great that she hasn’t laid for two years! Did something happen that may have caused her to lay now? Did she see another chameleon (a male), have any stress or anything else that you can think of? I’m just curious. :) While we’re inclined to think that a clutch of 45 isn’t bad considering she hasn’t laid in so long, the larger the clutch size, the increased risks of having complications laying them. As @Beman has said, trying medium sized feeders may help. Sometimes we can do everything just right, but it’s ultimately up to our girl’s biology.
 
Thank you for your replies. I was so disappointed with Etosha’s large clutch. She did come through like a champ and weight down to 121g. I did worry she might not make it though. The only thing I can imagine is we went on vacation the 18-25th of May and there was a pet sitter. She was only fed every 2-3 days as normal but could have stressed her maybe.
 
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