HELP! Stuck or laying eggs?

Aaronbos

New Member
Hey guys so I have this female panther chameleon. Shes about 8 months old. I got her from a breeder at an expo on october 5th 2019. She had been showing signs of being ready to lay eggs. In the last two weeks she has been spending more time looking around the bottom of the cage. Eating and drinking less. Showing off really dark colours with deep pink and orange areas. I put a laybin in there 4 days ago. She went in a few times and then left back to bask. I took the feeding bin out and that night she went to sleep hanging up side down. The next morning she was still hanging. I tried to move her to the basking spot. She hesitated then came along but after being on the basking branch for a few min she moved to the underside of the branch and backed her belly and eventually let go with her back feet and just hung on with her tail and arms. I got the laying bin back in there and dug a hole for her. I put her in the bin and she went in head first. Before bed I peaked in and seen she was in butt first then. This morning is awoke and she was still in the hole butt first. But the hole seems to be caved in. My question is do you think shes stuck or still laying eggs. She is pretty weak right now and she is moving around a bit but it kinda looks like shes trying to dig out but not sure if Shes just laying the eggs. Unfortanitly I only have the one pic. I have a little vid but cant seem to up load it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
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What are you using for dirt in her lay bin? You should be using either play sand or play sand/organic soil mix moistened just enough to hold a tunnel.
 
The problem now is if she was starting to lay eggs and it collapsed, is she done...should she be taken out....left in for a while...will disturbing her stop her from laying...will leaving her in hurt anything?

If she's not laying eggs then she needs to be taken out I think.

Anyone else have any ideas on what to do?
 
Looks stuck to me. Also that soil dose not look moist at all. Maybe it’s nust the top layer but I don’t think so I hope she is ok.
 
I think she isn’t showing stress colors(she maybe she is I’m not familiar with panthers) so she doesn’t seem concerned with the collapse, if she starts trying to dig her way out, then I would help her IMHO
 
Ohhh right. You posted about your chameleon sleeping weird. Well it's a good sign she went down to try and lay because I know even that was up in the air.

She definitely looks stuck. I'm not sure there is a right answer because there is no way to know if she's laid or if disturbing her will impact anything like @kinyonga pointed out. But I do know she is not in optimal conditions to try to lay being stuck like that with such dry soil.

If this was my chameleon in this position, I'd probably take her out and add a lot of water to that soil mixture until it can hold it's shape and won't collapse. Dig her a starter hole and then put her back down there and hope for the best. It's all about giving her the best chance possible and I don't think being stuck in dry soil is a recipe for success. That's just my 2 cents.
 
Agree with Ginger on this one, provide some moist soil that can hold its shape and start a little hole to make it as easy as possible on the cham.
 
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