Egg reabsorption

[Jevin]

Egg reabsorption?

Just got a quick question. My year old female veiled chameleon has had her receptive colors for about a month yet has stayed exactly the same size and gotten no heavier. Is it possible that she is reabsorbing the eggs and if so, how long will it take?

Thanks,
Jevin

 

[james L]

Do you have a place for her to lay? Encourage here to lay. They dont always reabsorb.

 

[summoner12]

As far as I know veileds don't obsorb their eggs.... I think this is safe to say because new keepers with females who don't provide laying bins find their females having issues....

does she look fat? does her belly look like a marble bag?

To be on the safe side I would provide a test laying bin so you can see if she is digging... and if she is put her in a real laying bin. a five gallon bucket works pretty well. fill it up about 11-12" of peet moss and sand. make it wet enough so the peet moss holds it's form when you make holes in the dirt with your hand. You don't want it too wet..... but not too dry. Too wet or dry and it'll cave in on her as she digs.

 

[Jevin]

Yes she does have an egg-laying bin and she has laid twice before. However, this time she does not look like she has eggs other than the colors. She does not look like she has eggs because her belly does not look like a bag of marbles it looks like it does normally.

Thanks,
Jevin

 

[summoner12]

Does she have a flower pot?

My females tend to dig in them when ready to lay.... one time my female veiled had dug out her nest and was ready to start laying when I caught her. Maybe your female laid in her pot?

 

[sallyb]

Gizzy, our veiled had surgery to remove a huge amount of eggs and folicles recently and both of us and two vets were unsure if she even had any. she did not have a belly like a bag of marbles and only began to put on weight a few weeks before things came to a head. It was astonishing to see just how many eggs and folicles there had been. She had tried to dig once, but quickly gave up and refused to return to the laying bin.

I`m not suggesting for a minute this is the case for you, but i just wanted say that the "marbles" may not always be the case. As far as the vet said, veileds do not usually reabsorb their eggs.

I hope she lays soon - good luck

 

[Jevin]

But what I am wondering is if it is possible for her to be reabsorbing them because her behavior is like it normally is she isn't at the bottom of the cage nor is she extremely mobile. So, could she be in the process of reabsorbing the eggs?

Thanks,
Jevin

 

[justjumpit621]

My female stayed bright green, yellow, and blue all the time, which meant she was receptive. But she never produced any eggs because I didn't give her the chance to. I kept temps low as possible (she was sick so not too low) and I limited her food intake, although it was more difficult to actually GET her to eat, the little bugger but anyway sometimes they are just showing receptive colors. Maybe it just means they are ready to breed, not necessarily that they have eggs.

 

[kinyonga]

justjumpit621...."I kept temps low as possible (she was sick so not too low) and I limited her food intake"...IMHO the idea is to keep her on a diet (such that she is not starving but not being overfed) while keeping the temperature a little lower than what the male's basking temperature is to slow the digestion just a little to make the female less hungry. If you lower the temperatures as low as possible you are going to cause her health issues.

As for resorbing the eggs, I know of one female that was full of eggs (x-rays showed oval eggs inside the female). After months of seeing a vet and consulting on the issue, she still didn't lay eggs but never became sick from it. She also got slimmer in the back end. Whether she truly resorbed the eggs or not was never proven since she was never taken back in for more x-rays. The eggs were definitely not laid in the cage though.

 

[justjumpit621]

justjumpit621...."I kept temps low as possible (she was sick so not too low) and I limited her food intake"...IMHO the idea is to keep her on a diet (such that she is not starving but not being overfed) while keeping the temperature a little lower than what the male's basking temperature is to slow the digestion just a little to make the female less hungry. If you lower the temperatures as low as possible you are going to cause her health issues.

As for resorbing the eggs, I know of one female that was full of eggs (x-rays showed oval eggs inside the female). After months of seeing a vet and consulting on the issue, she still didn't lay eggs but never became sick from it. She also got slimmer in the back end. Whether she truly resorbed the eggs or not was never proven since she was never taken back in for more x-rays. The eggs were definitely not laid in the cage though.

I meant low as possible because she was sick. I had to keep the temps at around 85-90 for her immune system but I would have kept it at 80 if she wasn't.

 

[kinyonga]

I wanted to make sure that the temperature was mentioned in case other people who don't do this know what it should be. The way you said it I thought that people might think you meant really low.

 

[justjumpit621]

Sorry my bad. But at least I clarified

 

[Elizadolots]

It was sort of "verbally difficult"...I think you were both good.