Help with Egg laying bin

[LouiseKelly]

I need some advice with my egg laying bin, my chameleon is showing signs of having eggs recently she has had an egg laying bin provided to her months ago, just to be on the safe side incase I didn't notice any signs.
I had sand in there first of, but she avoided it all the time, so I changed to topsoil. I've never seen her go in it, just around the edges, my concern is that, to me, the topsoil seems like it would be to hard for her to dig through, I didn't want to add to much water to it so it just was sloppy, but want her to be able to dig and lay her eggs.
She has been bred with my male aswell, and that was 35 days ago.

Any tips or advice would be much appretiated

 

[jannb]

They normally lay around 30 days after mating. The girls can be picky and at this point I would try several different kinds of laying bins or put her in a large trash can bin with no way out so she can do nothing but concentrate on digging. The sand should be moist enough so that when you pick up and squeeze a handful that you can only get out a tiny drop or two of water out.

You might find my Laying bin/Egg laying blog helpful and I'm also attaching Dez's video on the laying bin.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/jannb/345-egg-laying-laying-bin.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/laying-bin-set-up-educational-video-77225/

 

[LouiseKelly]

Thank you, Im using topspoil at the moment so should that be the same when I pick some up? x

 

[jannb]

Thank you, Im using topspoil at the moment so should that be the same when I pick some up? x

I've never used topsoil. I always use sand but I would think it should be the same.

 

[LouiseKelly]

Okay thank you.

She is in her normal cage at the moment with her egg laying bin in there with her, so she can still crawl around everywhere and avoid the bin, do you think I should remove all the branches and leaves so that it's just her egg laying bin with a plant or something left in there so she can get in and out of the bin? So as you said, she's restricted.

 

[jannb]

Okay thank you.

She is in her normal cage at the moment with her egg laying bin in there with her, so she can still crawl around everywhere and avoid the bin, do you think I should remove all the branches and leaves so that it's just her egg laying bin with a plant or something left in there so she can get in and out of the bin? So as you said, she's restricted.

That might work or you could just take her out and put her in a large trash can bin that she can't get out of. My girls normally start digging in the late afternoon and lay that night or the next morning. Give her total privacy for the digging and egg laying. That's very important so she want become egg bound. Also I dig a started hole for my girls and often they will use it.

 

[nimax67]

Hi

Newbie London UK here. Ok reading with interest the multiple posts on egg laying and egg bins and behaviour etc. At the risk of repeating, can I get some advice?

I have a female nosy be amilobe cross, hatched mid Jan so I was told by the pet shop (though the guy in the shop also totally assured me I was buying a male), which makes her a little over 4 months.

I brought her home start of April and set her up in the reptibreeze medium start up viv, 16 x 16 x 20, mix of live and plastic plants and vines, mister set up, heat and light as advised (82f or so basking to 64f bottom of viv), all in all a happy home for Freya, she's healthy and eating.

So couple of questions. Some advice in here suggests a permanent laying bin from 5 months, which would of course mean a change of viv (repti large, 18x18x36 ready to go). Should I move her now to get used to her new home before she reaches sexual maturity? She has been going to the lower vines in her viv recently.

Also, temp drop to reduce infertile egg clutches should be what temp basking and lower viv started from what age? Again some posts her suggest providing optimum temp and full feeding schedule up to 6 months whilst still growing.

Help please? Nick