Guido's girl is scratching in her laying bucket!

[Chameleons Northwest]

Oh my goodness! I just went into the chameleon room and heard scratching, and lo and behold, Matisse, the adult female veiled we bred Guido to 21 days ago is scratching in the egg laying container we placed in her enclosure. She stopped eating over the weekend, for the most part. I think she ate a few very small silkworms yesterday. I don't have photos of her, because we have been giving her alot of privacy and hands off since the breeding. But I noticed this morning when I misted her that I could see the outline of an egg on the back side of her torso.

Now I am nervous, and hope I don't become a nervous wreck. Ironically, I had just printed out Will Hayward's directions on the trash can egg laying method, and was planning to run out to get the stuff today, thinking she wouldn't actually be laying eggs till she was closer to the 30 day margin. We put a HUGE plastic planter with damp sand, in there weeks ago. Last week I changed the sand to a soil/sand mixture, nice and damp, so when I made a mound with it I could tunnel through it (to the other side) without it collapsing. But that was last week (Wednesday) and so now I don't know for certain whether the soil is till damp enough. Although I have been misting the whole area heavily.

QUESTIONS:
I guess I should expect this to be test holes she is digging? SHould I still do the trash can thing and put her in it, or leave her alone for now? My hunch is to leave her alone for now? I only glimpsed into the planter and saw her back, and I backed away right away and left the room. SO, I can't tell you whether she is digging or just scratching. Should I look again to find out?

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

OK, I couldn't stand the suspense, so I went in and peaked into the container and I see that she is digging a hole. SHe is inside the hole, head first, with about half of her body and all of her tale sticking out. I'll let you know how this progresses, and will get the egg incubators ready.

 

[royden]

Wow! That was fast. Seemed like just last week you had a horny Guido humping a glove. Now you've started a little cham family!

How exciting! Congratulations!

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Thank you. She is working so hard. Her entire body is in the hole now, and her little back legs are working hard to draw the loose dirt out of the hole and push it away. It is easy to understand why they become so exhausted.

 

[kinyonga]

Do not let her see you peeking at her when she is digging!

She may dig a couple of test holes or she may dig the same hole several times until she is satisfied with it. Some will lay in the small containers we provide in the cage but some do better in the larger (trashcan) containers.

If this is her first clutch after her first mating, that could be why its shorter than the 30 days. If they are already working on a clutch at the time of the first mating, some of the eggs will likely be fertile and some not. (There are several possible "senarios" with this.) Incubate all the eggs and you will know in a few days which are fertile, if any.

Good luck and patience! (If you think this takes patience....waiting for them to hatch takes more!

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Thank you so much for the advice. She was an adult when we got her, 14 1/2" from nose to tail tip and 125g. Don't know if this is her first clutch, but hope it is (although we realize that may be unlikely). But, right, she was likely already developing eggs when she mated with Guido. I didn't think she would lay so soon because she was not immense, like photos I've seen of other gravid chams. She was just well rounded, with an egg outline just beginning to be obvious today.

She started digging sometime after feeding time this morning. Last time I looked she was completely in the hole, head first. We will leave her alone for now. I have some shopping to do, and my husband is at work. We'll update later.

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Mom is sleeping, after a good misting and eating some nice fat female crickets and a few small silk worms (all dusted). She laid 48 eggs. She finished burrying the eggs about 10PM and laid down on her side in the egg laying container. Her head was so caked with dirt I couldn't make out her eyes or even her little casque. I misted her down with warm water until her face was clean, then placed her near her basking area, placed the food cup near her, and dealt with the eggs. When I came back the food cup was empty, she was asleep, and my husband had turned off her lamp.

About a third of the eggs look to be what I would consider white. Most of the eggs are creamy yellow. I am hoping that at least the whiter ones are fertilized. We'll keep an eye on them all and look out for spoilage. Here is a photo of the eggs.

NOW THE LONG, SUSPENSEFUL WAITING PERIOD BEGINS!

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Here's a photo of Mom. Her name is Matisse, and she is 125g of bad attitude, all the way. But, in our humble opinion, her colors are very striking (for a female) and more than make up for her lack of social skills. And, check out the muscle on that left forearm. She looks like she could easily scratch someone's eyes out !