Female Veiled Not Eating!!

[Dyesub Dave]

I have a male and female veiled chameleon. The male is approx. 1-1/2 yrs. old and the female is 2-1/2 yrs old. They are both housed separately in 175 gal. flexariums. They get dusted crickets with occasional butterworms or silkworms and sometimes fruit.

The female has been rather large for some time now but never dropped any eggs. I put them together a little over a month ago and about a week ago the female started pacing the bottom of the cage. She hadn't been eating that much which is usual for chams about to lay eggs. After digging for several days she buried some eggs and was back up under the heat lamp.

I removed the laying container and found 23 small eggs which I don't believe to be fertile. However she is still fairly large so I'm thinking that she may have more to lay. I put the laying container back in the enclosure but she doesn't seem interested. She's been staying up by the heat lamp and not eating at all that I can see.

I've bred veileds before and know that they can go for some time without eating but I'm starting to get concerned. I had another female that was about the same age as the male that I bred with him only to have her lay a few infertile eggs and shortly after die which I believe was from being egg bound. I certainly don't want that to happen again but don't know what to do to get this female to either finish laying her eggs and/or start eating again. I was thinking that perhaps a nice warm bath or shower may help.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks ... Dyesub Dave.

 

[Lancecham]

How long has it been since she laid? Sometimes it takes several days for the females to resume eating.
You can try to gently palpate her abdomen and feel for remaining eggs.

 

[Dyesub Dave]

It's been about a week since she laid the eggs. I put some pieces of grape in the enclosures yesterday which the male eagerly accepted but there is only one piece missing from the female's enclosure.

I tried silkworms but she doesn't seem interested in those either however it looks as if there aren't as many crickets anymore. I'm going to feed some more crickets today and hopefully I will see her eat a couple.

I will try to check her abdomen as well but she doesn't like to be handled very much.

Thanks ... Dyesub Dave.

 

[kinyonga]

I think you should take her to the vets.

I also think that because you already lost one to eggbinding you should go over your husbandry here.

 

[Dyesub Dave]

Yes .... I've been thinking about a vet visit.

However I've been keeping Veileds for several years now and haven't had many problems until recently. I hatched out 27 babies about 1-1/2 years ago which all survived and the male that I now have is one of those babies. I've had no deaths ( well except for one female that I received already in very bad condition ) and the last female that didn't make it. I've also had females lay infertile clutches without being mated with a male and all have come back to eat within a couple of days of laying the eggs.

I had moved the previous female that I bred to a smaller enclosure for egg laying purposes and thought that perhaps the change of environment stressed her out too much to lay all of her eggs. She died only 3 or 4 days after laying her small clutch of eggs. I have left the current female in her original enclosure (175 gal. flexarium) and just provided a laying container which seemed to work fine.

So I'm assuming that a warm bath or shower wouldn't help her at all? And should I try to get her to open her mouth and see if I can get her to eat that way? The only chamleon that I've ever had stop eating was a very old male and females that were about to lay. However every female (except for the one that didn't make it) started eating shortly after laying the eggs.

Dyesub Dave.

 

[OldSkoolxReasons]

Although it is not a parasitic problem or anything I would suggest some reptaid. All three time I have given it to a cham that has been on a week long hunger strike due to me running out of locusts and having to offer crickets which they do not like at all. A few hours after reptaid treatment they readily accept crickets. I believe it is an appetite and libido stimulant as it made my male who never even looked at any of the 4 females I put in his cage finally breed and now he's been a machine ever since. I know reptaid is the miracle cure for everything but it has been working for me since i got it and am not changing it up til it stops working. good luck.


Justin

 

[jamncristian]

if she is on a hunger strike give her a bright green feeder like a grasshopper or a giant cicada

(it is like chameleon crack, they will go crazy)

 

[kinyonga]

If she's not eating because of egglaying issues, then IMHO its not a hunger strike and although forcing her to eat may keep her alive for a while, if the egg issue isn't solved she will likely die....if it really is an egg issue.
Just my 2 cents worth...but I think I would take her to a vet.