female ready to lay??

[kinyonga]

You said..."So she could very possibly lay a 2nd clutch without being bred again right?? So should I leave her pot in or take out until she starts digging in her container that always stays in there?"...I always leave a place for an egglaying female to dig in the cage at all times. However, she won't likely lay the next clutch for a month or so. I would give her a week or two and then see if she would mate again because she may not have enough sperm left to fertilize a whole clutch. Be sure you only mate her again if she is in the mood.

The eggs look good and healthy! Hope you are a patient person...you now have a long wait until they hatch!

 

[danielle609]

You said..."So she could very possibly lay a 2nd clutch without being bred again right?? So should I leave her pot in or take out until she starts digging in her container that always stays in there?"...I always leave a place for an egglaying female to dig in the cage at all times. However, she won't likely lay the next clutch for a month or so. I would give her a week or two and then see if she would mate again because she may not have enough sperm left to fertilize a whole clutch. Be sure you only mate her again if she is in the mood.

The eggs look good and healthy! Hope you are a patient person...you now have a long wait until they hatch!

Thanks for the reply, I am happy to hear that the eggs look good. To be completly honest, I thought they would be larger than that. I guess not (I am use to snake and beardie eggs) So if in a couple of weeks I show him to her and she gets all pissy does that mean she is probably forming a new clutch? I am not a patient person..... but I guess I am going to have to learn to be It will probably be the worst for me once one hatches and then I have to wait for the others!

 

[kinyonga]

They are virtually always working on the next clutch....if she's pissy it means she is non-receptive....or gravid. They seem to know if they need more sperm and will mate if they do. If they show signs of agression/dark coloration then you can try again a few days later...just don't put them together if she's not in the mood!

 

[Kent67]

Hey new chameleon breeder,

You've got some great looking eggs. In the pic to the left with the most eggs showing, the ones against the left side, are those just really dirty or do they have a different color and shape? It's interesting that you also have a couple eggs that are much larger than the rest. I'm sure you know about putting a little pencil mark on them so that you can always return them to 'up' if an accident were to happen. Just for curiosity sake, if i was you, i'd probably add an extra little mark on those big ones just to see if they are abnormally large hatchlings or anything. I've had a couple sets of twin pardalis from one egg too. Ya never know.

Anyways, I'm going to go with the assumption that mom knows best and wouldn't have laid them if it was too wet from the morning's misting. And by the way, she looks smaller to me! Twenty six eggs is a lot. Glad to hear she's eating. Make sure she gets as much to eat and drink as she wants because I can't remember any of my female pardalis not having a second clutch. That one will likely not have as high a hatch rate as the first though. I like to keep eggs from the second clutch spaced a little farther apart because of the tendency to go hairy too.

Btw, the reason they look small is the eggs will grow and expand as they incubate. You'll notice it after they come out of the diapause.

 

[danielle609]

Hey new chameleon breeder,

You've got some great looking eggs. In the pic to the left with the most eggs showing, the ones against the left side, are those just really dirty or do they have a different color and shape? It's interesting that you also have a couple eggs that are much larger than the rest. I'm sure you know about putting a little pencil mark on them so that you can always return them to 'up' if an accident were to happen. Just for curiosity sake, if i was you, i'd probably add an extra little mark on those big ones just to see if they are abnormally large hatchlings or anything. I've had a couple sets of twin pardalis from one egg too. Ya never know.

Anyways, I'm going to go with the assumption that mom knows best and wouldn't have laid them if it was too wet from the morning's misting. And by the way, she looks smaller to me! Twenty six eggs is a lot. Glad to hear she's eating. Make sure she gets as much to eat and drink as she wants because I can't remember any of my female pardalis not having a second clutch. That one will likely not have as high a hatch rate as the first though. I like to keep eggs from the second clutch spaced a little farther apart because of the tendency to go hairy too.

Btw, the reason they look small is the eggs will grow and expand as they incubate. You'll notice it after they come out of the diapause.

I just got called a chameleon breeder yay!! I have been waitng a while to be able to be called that, I feel honored! Now hopefully they hatch so I can be a "successful chameleon breeder" I will definetly mark the eggs, and put a special mark on the larger ones. It would be cool to have twin panthers seeing as I am a twin myself! She drank a ton this morning with an extra long misting and sat under the dripper drinking for about a half an hour. I saw her eat 10 crickets, but offered her more, and there arn't any in the corner of the cage. About how long does it take to come out of diapause or does it vary from clutch to clutch? Once an egg does come out of diapause is there a set amount of time before it hatches?

thanks
Dani

 

[danielle609]

Oh and I forgot to mention the eggs that are dark are from the dirt. I didn't want to rub off that protective slime layer that I have heard about, so I just left it on. Is that okay??

 

[Kent67]

I just got called a chameleon breeder yay!! I

Haha, neat. Well, I should've said it a little different. You may notice the eggs getting larger throughout, just that it will be more noticeable in the second half of the incubation period. Diapause occurs in the wild because of cooler ground temperatures. When the season changes it triggers them to start developing. The time it takes them to hatch will be determined by a lot of factors such as when they come out of diapause, the temperatures (high or low) after diapause, perhaps geographic locale, and probably other factors we're not aware of yet. Yours are Ambilobe right?

I've only tried to break diapause once myself and it didn't really seem to affect hatch time. On hindsight, I think there's nothing wrong with a 7 or 8 month waiting time and I've had healthy babies that way. So, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Probably won't try it again. If I had to guess about how long it takes on average for them to hatch after diapause, it would be about 4-5 months. Kinda like the melleri, quads, etc that lay eggs that are already showing some vascularization and hatch in 4-4.5 months.

 

[Kent67]

Oh and I forgot to mention the eggs that are dark are from the dirt. I didn't want to rub off that protective slime layer that I have heard about, so I just left it on. Is that okay??

Yep, just made them look kinda weird in the pic. You can rub the dirt crumbs off gently if you want, just don't rinse them. So now I can say glad they "all" look good.

 

[danielle609]

Mine are actually Sambava, but one day I would love to have some Ambilobes and at least one of each locale....but probably not. I'm not going to mess with the whole diapause thing. I don't mind the wait...time to get me prepared for the fun part! But it has been a long day! Time to get some Z's!

Dani

 

[PardalisGirl]

Congratulations!

Congratulations Dani! As usual, I was a total spaz when I posted my last post on this thread. I was still giving you advise on being patient with her digging and did not see the other pages of posts showing that she had already laid her eggs! Sorry for that. Congrats on the eggs. Thats a good number. Sounds like you have everything under control and are off to a great start. Best wishes for many cute babies in 2008

 

[danielle609]

Congratulations Dani! As usual, I was a total spaz when I posted my last post on this thread. I was still giving you advise on being patient with her digging and did not see the other pages of posts showing that she had already laid her eggs! Sorry for that. Congrats on the eggs. Thats a good number. Sounds like you have everything under control and are off to a great start. Best wishes for many cute babies in 2008

Thats okay because then I can just put the good advice to use when she is ready to lay another clutch! I sure hope I have everything under control, but that doesn't mean I won't freak when they start hatching....but I have a while before that happens Thanks for the congrats, I really can't wait until I get to see one of the little buggers climbing out of an egg!! I will probably cry

 

[Dyesub Dave]

Hey Danielle,

Congrats on your eggs!! I know exactly how you felt! My female veiled has been digging for 5 days and still no eggs that I know of. I'm getting a little concerned about her as you were about yours. I think if she doesn't lay them soon I will get a large pail and fill it with sand/topsoil and start a hole for her.

I give her an occasional cricket but don't want them running around in there when she's laying eggs. It was suggested that I try some baby food in a little container for nourishment but I don't think she's touched that either.

If she doesn't lay them soon I think that I may FREAK OUT !!

COME ON EGGS!!!

Dyesub Dave.