Gravid Questions from Nervous Keeper

[prismwolf]

I'm a home-based exotic animal rescuer concentrating on herps with my first gravid cham! I've done the iguanas and have been in the Internet forum communities for years doing mainly iguana education and now I'm just as nervous as a chicken in a fox den with this young girl.

I have a veiled who is showing signs of being gravid. I've had her for almost a year now. She turned that in Feb. The last few days her colors have changed markedly. Sunday she was showing signs of dehydration with sunken eyes and a bit of lethargy. I took her out and offered some water and WOW did she drink a lot. I offered it from a syringe and she really sucked it down. I've been doing this 3x in the evenings after I get off work. She tolerates handling well, unlike my male (separated so no fertile eggs...ain't goin' there). Hubby places an ice cube atop the enclosure and mists during the day. Her eyes are no longer sunken in and she actually ate a cric for me tonight and a superworm is missing from the dish. She's now getting sassy again.

I've already added a "sand box" to her enclosure in hopes she really WILL use it! Should the sand be heated? Will this temp her more to lay there?

Stats:
Age: 1 yr. 2 mo.
Enclosure: ESU Fresh-Air Habitat 20"Tx18"Wx12"D
UVB: Desert Sun 7.0 (UVB meter to make sure it still emits the right amounts)
Basking light: 60W house bulb
Temps: mid 90s basking, mid 80s ambient, low 70s cage bottom and night
Diet: gutloaded crix, med. superworms, mealworms, iguana salad (collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, endive, escarole, parsnips, green beans, squash, cilantro...all in one tossed salad)
Supplements: Rep-Cal calcium (no phosphorous, no D3) dusted on bugs and salad.

Any additional advice, suggestions, or ask me anything to help me help her better...please don't hesitate. I don't know if I'll be able to get on this forum from work. Our filters work haphazardly allowing some forums through while others are blocked...but hopefully this will be one I can sneak into.

 

[Justin Carl]

Can you post a body picture of her?
A shower is great for hydration.
How are you offering her water?
Sand box is good, no heat is needed.
Cage is a bit small.

 

[prismwolf]

This was taken on Sunday.

 

[prismwolf]

I agree - Cage is small...but we're working on two. We have one already built from someone else. It needs cleaning and light modifying from use with another animal. It needs to be sanitized, dried and sealed...the second will be built from scratch.

Outside of the syringe offering...the cage gets misted several times a day...between 3-5 times, ice cubes atop the enclosure...and a sad little dribble system in need a a stronger pump, but in the meantime it dribbles on a timer.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/

-Brad

 

[prismwolf]

Brad ~ thanks for that link...and a well put together website for as much as I've been able to look through so far. I can't wait to see the other articles completed.

I think I could be worrying for nothing...but being a first-timer with a gravid cham...I would rather make sure I'm doing things right and get steered on the right path if I'm not.

 

[kinyonga]

With veiled females, once they are sexually mature, I recommend putting a suitable container of washed sandbox sand in the cage and leaving it there so that there is always a place to dig to lay eggs...this way you won't miss the sometimes subtle signs of the female being ready to lay eggs.

Hopefully she will not have passed the egglaying time and use the sandbox you have provided. Don't bother her too much right now and if she does start to dig, don't let her see you watching her or she might abandon the hole. If she abandons it often enough it can lead to eggbinding.

Has she been off food lately? Roaming the cage as if looking for an egglaying site? Has she exhibited the torquoise spots and mustard splotches for long? (Not including the dark background color.)

How much do you feed her per week?

 

[prismwolf]

kinyonga - she's had those colors now for about a week...but that's pushing the time-frame. It was most noticeable over the weekend. The av I'm using was her taken on March 2nd. Not a hint of gravid colors.

I have placed the sand box in there and will leave it in there. I would like to continue her regular routine of misting and feeding...and she does eat from my hand and a pair of hemostats. This way I know she's getting food. I leave greens in there everyday in case this is her pleasure. I leave several superworms in her dish everyday replacing them the next. Sometimes one is missing...sometimes they're all still there. She also gets crix which I had been out of for a week, but my order of 1000 came today. She'll be getting as many as I can get her to eat before she turns away.

Should I just stop normal routine period and just mist and feed from the dish?

 

[summoner12]

How deep is the sand? and is it moist enough to hold shape?

 

[prismwolf]

6" deep and yes.... The top layer stays misted since it's under the cham so inner moisture will stay pretty consistent.

 

[summoner12]

6" deep and yes.... The top layer stays misted since it's under the cham so inner moisture will stay pretty consistent.

I don't know if you have the room for this. I found that a 5 gallon bucket full of moist top soil works really well. If I were you I would look to expand your cage at this point. it is a good time for you to accommodate her needs better. If you have the cash on hand to buy a new screen cage, now is the time. This cage is a good size for an adult female. You could go to the 48" tall if you like, but a female is fine in a 36". It is a good idea to block any view you have of her when she is in her 'sand box'. I filled the 5 gallon bucket to about the top of the bucket with 3"-4" to spare. I placed a fake 'tree' on the side of it to block her view and then put card board around the front and side of the cage. Just like they said above, if she sees you watching her, she will abandon the hole she has dug.

 

[prismwolf]

I just purchased the 100 gal. reptarium. I've found a couple of sites that have really good prices on this.

* Squirrels and More - 100 gal Reptarium ($72.99 total) <---Excellent rehab supplies, too. I've used them for reptile rehab as well as squirrels and opossum. Cost is slightly higher then Reptile Supply for the cage, but the shipping is better still making it cheaper.

* Reptile Supply - 100 gal Reptarium ($74.04 total - if I bought it)

Will a cham dig test areas?

 

[Brad Ramsey]

She may or may not dig test holes ..
She will dig to the bottom of whatever you give her ... so, a 5 gallon bucket full of soil/sand creates a lot of extra work for her.
12" is enough depth.

-Brad

 

[prismwolf]

At least with the new cage I will be able to place a more appropriate size sand box for her. I'm using a critter keeper now which is about 12" tall. I can even fill it the rest of the way now.

I went into the herp room today to check on everyone and she was in the corner of the dig box and it had a partial hole dug. She's still eating fairly well. She ate about 10 med. crix today and when offered water from the syringe drank freely. The water was offered after she was back in the branches, of course. I kept going outside and peeking in through the windows to see where she was. I'm glad I don't have neighbors. I'm sure they would think I was nuts...

 

[summoner12]

She may or may not dig test holes ..
She will dig to the bottom of whatever you give her ... so, a 5 gallon bucket full of soil/sand creates a lot of extra work for her.
12" is enough depth.

-Brad

Does that mean chams end up in China?

 

[prismwolf]

Another question. I know now that before she became gravid Serenity was sporting "receptive" colors. This is actually shown in my av picture. Do they go back to their "receptive" colors once they lay promoting mating so soon after laying?

 

[prismwolf]

She keeps digging in the sand. Everyday she's digging, but so far that I've found there have been only 5 eggs laid. She is SUCH a good girl, though. She still drinks for me. I took her across the room to the cricket bin and filled a short mason jar full of crix. She ate SO well last night out of that. She drank again for me this morning and got a little bit of Cal. gluc. into her.

I finally completed her new enclosure, and while I had placed her old cage inside of it last night (wish I thought to take a pic before I removed it again) I just took her out and placed her in the basking spot and removed the cage this morning. She doesn't seem stressed about the move at all. Her colors are really good. I placed her same sand box in the new cage and added more sand.

I figured I go through the move anyway since if she didn't lay the rest soon she would be in real trouble (not like she isn't now), but it could be worse. At least she's still eating and drinking and her color is still normal.

Here's the inside of the new digs. If you look really, really close...you can see the cone of her head under the basking lights.

This is a comparison shot to what she had. That's Chaos's smaller enclosure cage which will be worked on being changed this week. Although the dimensions to both small cages were different...the square footage was the same.

Hopefully the stress of moving won't keep her from laying the rest of the eggs. I know the arrangements before weren't doing her any good. I'm wondering if placing a CHE to heat the sand (or the heating pad) will entice her just a little more to lay. I really don't want to use air heat since it dries the sand out quicker, but she gets SO cold in there.