Gravid Veiled Chameleon may be having trouble laying her eggs

[Triple M's]

You said…”Nooo. The chameleon in the smaller cage isba 2 month old female. We completely covered her cage”…even though the cage is covered, I would move it away from the other chameleon if I could…she may be sensing the other female. This might be of interest to you and explain a bit…
https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/63/2/484/7208014

You said..”We feed her in the morning. 3 large calcified crickets. And 3 in the evening. The temperature is 80 and humidity at 60”… it’s important to feed the young chameleons enough that they can grow properly…but for the females, to keep them from developing reproductive issues…as they approach sexual maturity, they need to have less food and proper temperatures and husbandry.

You said…”Substrate 50 play sand. 50 perlite. I put some more water in there again and mixed it. Felt good enough to hold a tunnel”... female veileds tend to eat the substrate in the lay bin. Vermiculite and perlite can lead to blockages in their intestines, so should not be a part of the substrate in chameleon cages at all IMHO.

You said…”The chameleon is about 2 to 3 months. She is a female. I attached a picture showing the covering of her enclosure. Our gravid female.”…so do you have 2veiled females and a male?

You said…”The light bulb is reptisun. 75 watts just cause her cage is 7 feet tall”…you need to use the long linear UVB bulbs…not the round ones. @Beman …can you explain this please…you do it much better than I do.

You said…”He is a male chameleon. We moved him across my room. About a good 10 feet away from her”…see my link about vibrations. I think they can feel vibrations at times…even if they can’t see each other…so they can tell others are nearby. No scientific proof yet…just my opinion.

You said…”Thank you for your help it is much appreciated. I dont want to lose my beautiful Mazzy. Thank you so much for the information. I will double check everything”...you’re welcome. I hate to see people lose their chameleons too.

Clarification of this…”Vermiculite and perlite can be used in the egg bin”…I meant the bin that the eggs are incubated in…not the lay bin.

Alright we will move her around. I like keeping our chameleons in my room. I have visitors and I dont like too many people around our chameleons. As to not stress them out and disturb them. So they will all stay in my room.
The small female; Miwa, we have been upping her food. Will change the feeding habits of Mazzy (gravid). Cause yes I read the part of her producing more eggs and I just dont want her body to go through that.
Okay and will redo the lay bin. Thank you for the information. And the lighting I believe Beman did explain or somebody else. Yes looking into the linear lighting and changing out bulb every 6 months for health benefits for our chamildren. But we check the temperature and humidity and all 3 enclosures all the time. Especially Mazzy sense she is carrying eggs. But we get our bulbs from Petco. We go with reptisun and I did get a Zilla bulb from petco as well. But for right now since their enclosures have very recently been finished they have the dual lighting with the basking bulb and uvb for the plants.
Yes we have 2 female and 1 male veiled chameleon. Mazzy and Maynard were shipped in together at petco. And Miwa 2 weeks ago. They looked malnourished so we had to save them.
We had to take Mazzy out of her cage to fix her laybin amd add another live plant for privacy and cover. She let me feel her stomach. Her belly is round but I didn't feel any eggs. I didn't want to press too hard. But I attached a picture.
Thank you for all your helpful information. Going to definitely use this information now and in the future w our chamildren.

 

[Beman]

Linear UVB 5.0 or 6%. I recommend the Arcadia PROT5 with the 6% bulb. These need to run the middle of the cage from one side to the other. This fixture sitting on standard aluminum window screen you would want a 8-9 inch distance to the closest branches for them to get the right UVI level.

Per females. THis is the info I give everyone. NOTE if you have a receptive/gravid female I WOULD NOT do an extreme reduction in food intake depending on how much you are currently feeding. THis can be harmful when they are in the process of allready developing eggs.

She looks receptive to me not gravid. @MissSkittles what do you think?

Females

As she matures you will have to start cutting back her food. By about 6-7 months she should be getting about 5-8 small feeders each day. At about 7-8 months you want to slowly reduce by cutting down feeder amounts so that she is on a feeding schedule of 3 days a week with 3 feeders. You want them to be on this schedule by the time they are 9-10 months old.


You will not ever want basking to be over 78-80 for her. Very important for females because as she ages she needs this temp no higher at basking to help control the amount of eggs she produces. The hotter the temp the more their metabolism speeds up so we have to keep the temp lower since we are doing lower food intake.

A lay bin should be added as a permanent fixture by the time they are 6 months old so they get used to it and it does not cause stress.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/laying-bin-set-up-educational-video.77225/

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/veiled-chameleon-laying-101.2488/

 

[kinyonga]

As @Beman has said…”Per females. THis is the info I give everyone. NOTE if you have a receptive/gravid female I WOULD NOT do an extreme reduction in food intake depending on how much you are currently feeding. THis can be harmful when they are in the process of allready developing eggs.”…exactly what I would advise. She needs nutrients to produce the eggs you’ve put her in the position of having to deal with. Pretty sure that the number of follicles are already set at this time so she may be stuck with the number of eggs she’s producing too. Not enough studies have been done on these things yet IMHO to be sure.

I would not try to feel the eggs. You won’t likely be able to tell if they are eggs or follicles anyway…and you could cause damage.

I hope she gets through this cycle and that you can control the future clutches through proper husbandry. If done right, not only can the number of eggs in the clutches be lowered, the egg production can be stopped completely with appropriate husbandry in veiled chameleons and the females can live to be at least seven years old.

 

[Triple M's]

As @Beman has said…”Per females. THis is the info I give everyone. NOTE if you have a receptive/gravid female I WOULD NOT do an extreme reduction in food intake depending on how much you are currently feeding. THis can be harmful when they are in the process of allready developing eggs.”…exactly what I would advise. She needs nutrients to produce the eggs you’ve put her in the position of having to deal with.

No we're not reducing her food. We are giving her calcified crickets and cockroaches. She is eating well. She is still exploring the bottom of her cage. Having to deal with? Okay

 

[kinyonga]

Yup…having to deal with. I added to my previous post. The number of eggs she produces has to do with diet and temperatures and other husbandry issues.

 

[Triple M's]

Yup…having to deal with. I added to my previous post. The number of eggs she produces has to do with diet and temperatures and other husbandry issues.

Yes we been checking the temperature since we got our first chameleons. Like I said we are very attentive to our chameleons like they are our own children. We love them and want them to be healthy. That's why we been watching videos and the forum came up which I am greatful for (cause people were rude on Facebook pages). We have done alot of research. We have the correct bulbs in place for our chameleons and the plants. I didn't put her in a position where they are malnourished. We are not naive with our chameleons. But thank you. Have already taken the information provided and applied it.

 

[Beman]

Yes we been checking the temperature since we got our first chameleons. Like I said we are very attentive to our chameleons like they are our own children. We love them and want them to be healthy. That's why we been watching videos and the forum came up which I am greatful for (cause people were rude on Facebook pages). We have done alot of research. We have the correct bulbs in place for our chameleons and the plants. I didn't put her in a position where they are malnourished. We are not naive with our chameleons. But thank you. Have already taken the information provided and applied it.

Please be honest with us... We can not help you if you are not... You saying you have the correct lighting when you have already said in your other thread that you do not.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/mazzy-maynard-miwa.194883/post-1824401

Alot of research in this hobby does not mean finding the correct information. There are tons of incorrect sites, FB groups, Reddit threads giving out extremely incorrect info. By the time people find the forum we are left to pick up the pieces and teach them proper husbandry with an already sick chameleon.

I am glad you are open to feedback. And this forum is very kind in the way we help everyone that comes here. We do it without judgement but this does not mean that we sugar coat our responses either. I have seen more chams die in threads due to owners not wanting to listen or treat their chams as they need to be. This is why we are blunt. A female that is overfed produces massive clutches. They can retain eggs and die from it. It is a real issue. And a female that does not have correct supplementation or UVB lighting is higher risk due to the MBD and lack of correct calcium to calcify her eggs. Again have seen far too many die here because of this.

 

[Triple M's]

I threw some ones away of the other bulbs we are using. We already planned to get the linear lighting for their very recently built enclosures. But for now this is what we are using.

 

[Beman]

I threw some ones away of the other bulbs we are using. We already planned to get the linear lighting for their very recently built enclosures. But for now this is what we are using.
View attachment 364623

Ok so the 50 watts should be ok and are low enough wattage to not be too hot. Watch them though flat based basking bulbs can produce a hotter basking spot rather than warming an area like a plain white 60 watt household incandescent bulb. The 100 watt is way too strong for a cham. High risk for thermal burns with that one.

Ceramic heat emitter otherwise known as a CHI bulb. Not useful for chams. They move towards the light. These can only be useful if your household temps drop below 55 at night and you need an area of warmth. Otherwise they should not be used.

All of these are UVA bulbs so none of these are a UVB emitting bulb.

 

[Beman]

May I see pics of the supplements you purchased for them all? I would like to double check them for you.

 

[Triple M's]

I dont see where I said I do not have the correct lighting. We just dont have the linear lighting yet.
We are not using the 100 watt bulb. We swapped that out to a 75 watt bulb.
We have the dual lighting for now until we get the linear lighting.
I calcifie the crickets and cockroaches before I feed them to each of our chams. When we got them from petco they looked malnourished and tiny legs and bad color. When we got each of our chams they have grown stronger and look healthier than they did in the store. Miwa our recent save from the pet store is already bigger than when we got her.

 

[LizardLurkin]

Once you acquire your UVB lighting, it's good to refer to this chart in knowing the placement. As you'll either purchase the reptisun t5ho 5.0 or arcadia prot5 6%, you will want their basking branch, that is, the one which will also sit under the basking bulb, to be 8 to 9 inches below the top of the cage. This nullifies the risk of burns and overexposure, keeping their nice little casques and back spikes in tact.

I drew a top down view of my positioning (sans the other bits and bobbles) to help you out.

 

[Beman]

I dont see where I said I do not have the correct lighting. We just dont have the linear lighting yet.
We are not using the 100 watt bulb. We swapped that out to a 75 watt bulb.
We have the dual lighting for now until we get the linear lighting.
I calcifie the crickets and cockroaches before I feed them to each of our chams. When we got them from petco they looked malnourished and tiny legs and bad color. When we got each of our chams they have grown stronger and look healthier than they did in the store. Miwa our recent save from the pet store is already bigger than when we got her.

I am trying desperately to help you and make sure you purchased the correct supplements to use. They are not all created the same and some can cause harm.

You need a phosphorus free calcium without D3 this is to be used at all feedings lightly dusted on all insects. Then you need a multivitamin that has vitamin A and D3 in it. This is only used 2 times a month say the 1st and the 15th on all insects fed that day lightly dusted. There are two multivitamins readily available that have what chams need in the correct levels. Reptivite with D3 and repashy calcium plus LoD version.

I have already given you feedback for UVB lighting and what you want to have and at what distances to keep them in the correct UVI exposure level.

 

[Triple M's]

Yes we have the herpavite and another calcium supplement without D3. I attached a picture of the light bulbs we been using. We been buying and buying bulbs at 20 to 30 dollars each until we got the right one.

 

[LizardLurkin]

For supplements, you should dust with calcium without D3 at every feeding, except, and this is super important, two days of the month, that is, biweekly, you should use a multivitamin.

The best and most trustworthy one is repashy calcium plus LoD. However, a more commonly available one is reptivite, so if you can not wait for shipment, it is a good option to have. These are the only two multivitamins on the market with the vitamin A our chameleons require and, additionally, can utilize and absorb. It is greatly important to a chameleon's eye health to have either of those.

Luckily, supplements are rather cheap, you get a lot in a bottle, and they keep well for a time.

 

[Triple M's]

Thank you I appreciate you being kind and patient. I will take a picture of the vitamins we are giving our chameleons when I get home.

 

[MissSkittles]

UVB can be complicated. You’re being told what you need - a linear T5 fixture with either Arcadia 6% or ReptiSun 5.0 uvb bulb. I am going to add a caution about trying to save a few $$ by getting any other brand as they are not reliable in their output. Also, the Arcadia 7% is a bit cheaper, but will not work in any way for a chameleon. The fixture and bulb are designed only for each other.
Some of us (like myself) have a hard time grasping some concepts until we know the ‘why’, so maybe this will help.
An oldie, but still very relevant and explains it well.


Of course, this is a more in depth explanation. https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-cage-set-up-replicating-the-sun/
When I first started, I had no idea just how important correct uvb and supplementation was. I kind of thought the people here were just being overly dramatic. Thankfully I learned very quickly how wrong I was and soon after, saw some of the very sad results of those who didn’t learn until too late.

 

[MissSkittles]

She looks receptive to me not gravid. @MissSkittles what do you think?

Hard to say for me. I might expect to see some teal and brighter mustards or oranges for being receptive, and darker everything for being gravid. She may be in between.
@Brittneylc1981 what color were your girls when you first got them? Were they pretty much a soli green or did they already have some defined markings/colors?

 

[Triple M's]

UVB can be complicated. You’re being told what you need - a linear T5 fixture with either Arcadia 6% or ReptiSun 5.0 uvb bulb. I am going to add a caution about trying to save a few $$ by getting any other brand as they are not reliable in their output. Also, the Arcadia 7% is a bit cheaper, but will not work in any way for a chameleon. The fixture and bulb are designed only for each other.
Some of us (like myself) have a hard time grasping some concepts until we know the ‘why’, so maybe this will help.
An oldie, but still very relevant and explains it well.


Of course, this is a more in depth explanation. https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-cage-set-up-replicating-the-sun/
When I first started, I had no idea just how important correct uvb and supplementation was. I kind of thought the people here were just being overly dramatic. Thankfully I learned very quickly how wrong I was and soon after, saw some of the very sad results of those who didn’t learn until too late.

Yes I have been told by a few people we need the linear lighting. We barely finished both cages VERY RECENTLY. So fpr right now we are using dual lighting until we purchase the linear bulbs. I see that I am being told what I need. No need to be too forward about this. We do care about the lighting. We have e gon through bulbs to find the good lighting for our chameleons.

 

[Triple M's]