Extreme receptive behavior

[Sonny13]

Dear all,

I´m living with a big question mark at the moment. My girl is been living freerange for about 6 weeks now, without problems, 2 escapes and that´s it. She was eating normal, active and urate is all white. Once a week we give her the chance to freely explore and supply her with an escape from her ´enclosure`.

Bottom of the cage is bioactive with a diameter of 24".

Now what´s the problem? Since 4 weeks she has her big girls colours and was still full of appetite when she was fed, within minutes she would eat. Now since 3 days she lost her appetite, so maybe she´s getting close to laying, however she´s in no interest for digging or anything. Even placed an extra laying bin (covered for privacy) with access through a branch from her enclosure, also non interest in it. The only thing she´s interested is leaving the enclosure, 1 hour after lights go on and basking, she´s on the move. She will exit her enclosure and wander through the living room and kitchen, exploring every inch. Sometimes she´s back again in her enclosure, basking for an hour and off she goes again. I´m wondering if this is a case of extreme receptiveness?! I know this phenomena with female dogs, some will take their chance escaping their home, just to find a mating partner. When she´s on the move she always wears her best dress, the most amazing light colours, even when she´s cold. Most of the time I find her on a radiator in front of a window, garden as well street view.

Is this behaviour normal? I´m now a bit afraid, she will hurt herself climbing everything artificial as well as not getting enough UVB and heat. And I need to handle her way too much, because I need to put her back in the enclosure. She´s definitely more agitated, hissing and biting. She has no direct plumpness, maybe just a small pot-belly. 9 out of 10 she doesn´t show her receptive colours inside her enclosure.

Any advise or experience on this?

Her enclosure

Her majesty at the moment, in full innocent

 

[Jevin]

It's been a while since I had a female veiled however I do remember the first time mine went receptive and had to lay out eggs she stopped eating for a while before. She zoomed about her enclosure non-stop until finding the lay box, dug a few test holes and then finally laid a clutch of infertile eggs. I didn't free-range though so different experience, however the following lay period my female knew where to go and what to do. From the looks of the bioactive pot, it may have too many roots to be suitable for laying. What are the dimensions of the lay bin you've provided?

 

[Sonny13]

I got an extra laying bin with the dimension of 12" x 12" x 8", filled with play sand. The bioactive pot hasn´t that much roots, only the centre piece, around that there´s at least 10 till 14" digging room. Haven´t seen her digging or try to dig. When she´s on the bottom it´s only because she is trying to get out.

 

[Jevin]

Might be lack of suitable substrate, I used a soil sand mix for my lay bin. Let me find info on laybin substrate as it also needs to be moist enough to be able to tunnel in without collapsing but not too moist either.

 

[Jevin]

Just checked the caresheets as a refresher here: https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/

According to this the lay bin you've provided may be a bit on the small side however from personal experience I'd say the biggest issue would be depth and ensuring it's suitable for digging in safely.

 

[Sonny13]

I´ll get another one today, luckily the store are open again on a normal basis. I hoped she would just lay inside her enclosure.....there´re enough success stories regarding this.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Jevin]

No problem, they can be picky their first time laying. Although from experience, she should lay soon as going off food is usually an indicator they are ready to lay. It is important to try to avoid interacting with her or viewing her during the egg laying period as it can cause issues. They tend to like to be secretive about it. My lay bin for my veiled was in her enclosure but draped by a Pothos for the privacy and usually I would cover her enclosure when she was ready to lay to give her privacy.

So far though her behavior seems normal. Just give her space, privacy and access to a laybin and things should go well. Also receptive colors are the blue/cyan and mustard yellow coloured areas.

 

[MissSkittles]

I’d say she’s receptive now...she’s wandering them the house because she can and she really wants to find a handsome male. You may want to confine her in an enclosure to keep her safe and also for when she is laying. When they start digging, they need absolute privacy and if they don’t have it, may stop digging and become eggbound. I love your free range set up, but have you planned how you’ll cover it for when she’s laying?

 

[Sonny13]

Hopefully this will do the trick. Just bought her a large laying bin with 25kg of play sand. Put it underneath my fireplace for 90% with a led light inside. Covered everything up with exception of the entrance and branch to enter and leave whenever she wants.

I always hoped the foliage on the bottom would cover up for the privacy, however she’s receptive faster then I expected. So this will be the solution every time she’s on her period.

 

[Sonny13]

Already put her in it and now she’s back at her basking branch. At least she knows it’s there for her

 

[Sonny13]

@kinyonga FYI

 

[kinyonga]

I thought I remembered a thread about your lay bin!

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

The only thing she´s interested is leaving the enclosure, 1 hour after lights go on and basking, she´s on the move. She will exit her enclosure and wander through the living room and kitchen, exploring every inch. Sometimes she´s back again in her enclosure, basking for an hour and off she goes again.

....

Is this behaviour normal? I´m now a bit afraid, she will hurt herself climbing everything artificial as well as not getting enough UVB and heat. And I need to handle her way too much, because I need to put her back in the enclosure. She´s definitely more agitated, hissing and biting.

Any advise or experience on this?

Not with female veileds, but with male panther & bearded dragon, female spayed cat, several neutered dogs of both sexes, quite a few rodents, and they're all almost identical.

I'm reminded of an old saying (and song):

“How ‘ya gonna keep ’em down at the farm now that they’ve seen Paree?”​

Once exposed to the world outside their known world, they want to explore, experience more.
I think it's very natural.

 

[Sonny13]

Not with female veileds, but with male panther & bearded dragon, female spayed cat, several neutered dogs of both sexes, quite a few rodents, and they're all almost identical.

I'm reminded of an old saying (and song):

“How ‘ya gonna keep ’em down at the farm now that they’ve seen Paree?”​

Once exposed to the world outside their known world, they want to explore, experience more.
I think it's very natural.

She’s settling down a bit, and is going her own way. In the enclosure, exploring, in the enclosure, exploring and so on. Always back before the lights go out. And I’m happy to see her basking UVB between the exploration round. They’re probably more intelligent has we think they’re and just know what they do. We had the same experience with our iguana’s.

And 100% true what you’re saying

Normally I wouldn’t care and let her do her thing, now with the egg laying thing, it made a bit nervous. Always good to get here your backup from experience feedback.