Female Veiled not Laying!

[Saucylongtongue]

Hi there,

We have a female veiled chameleon who is currently gravid, but she isn't laying. She's been showing signs of having eggs for about two weeks now, and we've tried a couple of different laying arrangements: First, we filled a 7-inch circular tub about 4 or 5 inches deep with sand. After about a week and a half nothing had happened, so we took to laying the sand in the bottom of the viv.

She will sometimes eat a hopper, and can still move around fine, but we've notice she's getting upset more easily in the last couple of days and we don't know if there's something we're doing wrong.

Thanks!

 

[kinyonga]

Please post a photo or to of her and the area you set up for her to lay the eggs in.

 

[Saucylongtongue]

Please post a photo or to of her and the area you set up for her to ly the eggs in.

Attached are pictures of the initial bin we used, the chameleon and of our current setup. Thanks!

 

[kinyonga]

Is the sand moist enough to hold a tunnel?
When she's digging don't let her see you watching her. If will make her abandon her hole.

 

[Saucylongtongue]

The sand is definitely moist enough, there's a tunnel in there that we made as a test. We also cover the bottom half of the viv with a blanket so she gets privacy.

Would you say the sand is deep enough?

 

[kinyonga]

How many inches deep is it. I'm no good at guessing from a photo.

 

[Saucylongtongue]

Sorry for the delay! The sand is about 4 or 5 inches deep.

 

[kinyonga]

IMHO it should be at least 8" deep.

 

[Saucylongtongue]

IMHO it should be at least 8" deep.

Ok thanks, we've got some soil coming this week so we can make the area deeper.

Is there anything else we should be checking? In the last day and a half her eyes have become slightly sunken, but her urates are white and the viv humidity is at 60% so I'm thinking it might be down to stress or pain?

 

[kinyonga]

Is she showing signs of lethargy or sitting low in the cage or sleeping during the day ...if so, she's heading towards egg binding. Her eyes being slightly sunken might be indicating that too. Might be time for a vet visit before she gets too weak to help. Has she dug at all?

Can you post a photo from today please?

 

[Saucylongtongue]

Is she showing signs of lethargy or sitting low in the cage or sleeping during the day ...if so, she's heading towards egg binding. Her eyes being slightly sunken might be indicating that too. Might be time for a vet visit before she gets too weak to help. Has she dug at all?

Can you post a photo from today please?

We've been keeping an eye on that too - she doesn't seem lethargic and she's awake all day. At the moment she gets annoyed really easily as well, but she still sits high up at the front of the viv sometimes.

She's had a go at digging a day and a half ago but covered it up and abandoned it.

Will post a picture asap

 

[kinyonga]

Don't forget...don't let her see you watching her when she's digging. Also don't handle her now unless absolutely necessary and especially not when she's likely to be digging.

 

[Saucylongtongue]

Don't let her see you watching her when she's digging.

She didn't, we heard her dig for a morning and then she just went back up to the top of the viv.

 

[kinyonga]

I just added to my last post.

 

[Saucylongtongue]

That's her this morning. She's a bit more grumpy than usual.

 

[Saucylongtongue]

Update: we jusy found a single egg at the bottom of the viv. It's directly below where she's been sitting and sleeping so maybe it fell out?