I was told to use 100 watt heat bulb is that too high? I haven't got a thermostat at the minute but I will be getting one hopefully today or tomorrow
Also they also said this small vivarium would suit her for all her life. Me and my partner totally disagree and want to get a much larger cage style for her. Would it best to wait until she grows a bit bigger or get one sooner?
And is it normal for her to take this long to lay? Should I take her to a vets?
I'm sorry if my post below might come across as somewhat critical. I do understand that you were doing/are doing what you believed to be good husbandry. It must be really upsetting to believe you are doing everything perfectly and then find out it wasn't so right after all. I understand how you might be lulled into not acting as quickly as I might want you to act because you really just can't believe the store got it so wrong. Honest, I do understand that, and I'm sorry if I have come across harshly. I really want you to get this right--she's a really cute little girl and I know you care very much about her.
Did you read the care sheets? The misinformation the store gave you is no longer their responsibility--it is now up to you to do the research and figure it out and get it right. I haven't found any reptile to be so simple that I can just open the box and turn on the lights based on the recommendation of any store clerk. It takes a lot of fine tuning to get it right.
You absolutely must use common sense. If the temps are too high it is because you are putting too much energy (heat) into the environment and not enough is leaving it.
Reduce the wattage. The wattage you use is dependent on many things such as the ambient temperature of the room, the air circulation in and out of the enclosure (and yours doesn't have much), the amount of energy (the wattage) you are putting into the enclosure, whether or not sunlight falls on the enclosure. You can reduce the wattage (or turn it right off) or lift the bulb higher but I worry that the whole area around the cage will still be just too darn hot.
I just can't imagine any house that people live in that would be so cold it would need a 100w bulb over a small glass enclosure--and make no mistake, you have a really small enclosure.
Personally, I suspect this little girl is under a lot of heat stress. I don't think her digging in her cage is related to laying eggs so much as being stressed by a small and extremely hot cage.
I could be wrong, of course. If she does need to lay, putting off getting her into a good environment to lay could very well kill her or cost you a lot of money.
Also, just because they are huge and full of eggs does not mean they are necessarily ready to lay them. We've all seen very heavily pregnant women but we aren't fretting about them delivering even past their due dates. Chameleons are the same. It doesn't matter how they look if they are not ready to lay. The trick is to know when they are ready to lay and not allowing them to become egg bound.
There are a couple of things you could do. They will take a lot of time to get it right.
You could put her in a garbage can with about 10" of proper substrate to lay eggs. Set it up for her to live in for awhile until you get a feel for whether or not she needs to lay eggs or her going to ground was simply her desperately trying to cool off. Put in some plants--plant them right in the substrate in the garbage can. Give her places to climb up to. Suspend her lighting over top and make sure she has enough light getting down to the bottom. A lack of light will shut them down and they will basically just go to sleep. Take temps at the bottom of the bin, in the middle and at the basking area. I would be inclined to have her ambient temps during the day lower than 75F except right under the basking bulb, and I would have the basking temps on the low side that the care sheets recommend. I would keep the bottom at 72F during the day. Give her a really good temperature gradient with cool temps in the middle of the cage. You'll know soon enough if she is going to ground to escape the heat or going to ground because she is either sick or trying to lay eggs. If she doesn't go to ground when you have dropped the temperatures, you will know it wasn't because of egg laying. However, her going to ground might be because she is sick.
Since it seems you haven't been on top of the temperatures, I would suggest you get three temperature gauges. I use both probes from the reptile store and indoor/outdoor thermometers from the hardware store.
The other option is to set up a bigger cage asap. Same temperature suggestions as above. I like laying bins that completely cover the whole floor of the cage. You might work that out by making a sub floor over top of the laying bin. Just make sure it is safe and it won't collapse or she could find someplace to get wedged in.
Based on what you've written, it is possible that this little girl has been severely stressed by too high temps and of course a new home. She is going to need a lot of TLC for a long time for her to recover from the heat stress--not days, but weeks.
Good luck. Please keep us posted.
