i need help with my female veiled cham

Veiled_Tuna

New Member
Hi, I have a veiled chameleon and she had already laid her first clutch last year. She started getting restless and she was digging at the floor, I thought it was pretty early so i was surprised. but just moved her to her laying bin so she could do her thing. She didn't lay anything and was falling asleep while digging. When I put her back in her enclosure at night, she was so tired she couldn't hold on to a branch so i put her on the floor. She apparently kept digging all night and started moving around this morning which was good because at least she was awake. But I'm worried bc she has a light color, sunken eyes, and hasnt wanted to eat in 3 days or so. This is a picture of her (the dark brown is dirt) she just doesnt seem healthy and idk what to do.
Screenshot 2022-02-11 171026.png
 
Sorry she is not doing well--
Sometimes females don't gain the weight they need for laying, so it really is hard on them. Hope this is not the case but by the look of her it seems this might be the case. I was hoping someone able to explain better would have chimed in by now. I would get to vet asap so intervention can be done.

this is only my opinion - not a vet .

Good Luck!
 
IMHO, you shouldn't put the chameleon in the lay bin that is not in the cage and then take her out and put her back in the enclosure. She needs to not be disturbed when it's time to lay eggs. You need to not let her see you watching her when she's digging as well. You may have pushed her into egg binding. Are you sure it's dirt n her side? I don't like the that her eyes are sunken
 
IMHO, you shouldn't put the chameleon in the lay bin that is not in the cage and then take her out and put her back in the enclosure. She needs to not be disturbed when it's time to lay eggs. You need to not let her see you watching her when she's digging as well. You may have pushed her into egg binding. Are you sure it's dirt n her side? I don't like the that her eyes are sunken
thank you. i had taken her out the exact same way the last time she laid and she seemed fine. unfortunately she passed away later the day i posted this thread. i assume it was dehydration from her not wanting to eat or drink anything for a while, and the laying being too much for her to handle. she will be missed. but thank you for the advice.
 
Sorry she is not doing well--
Sometimes females don't gain the weight they need for laying, so it really is hard on them. Hope this is not the case but by the look of her it seems this might be the case. I was hoping someone able to explain better would have chimed in by now. I would get to vet asap so intervention can be done.

this is only my opinion - not a vet .

Good Luck!
thank you, she was doing perfectly fine but in a span of 15 mins she completely changed to that color and seemed weak. there are no reptile vets in my area and she passed away later that night. thank you for your advice.
 
I'm so sorry for your loss. It's always hard losing an animal. I still constantly think about my dog that passed away a couple years ago. At the time, he was my only friend so it hit especially hard. If you ever get another chameleon, let us know so we can make sure your chameleon lives a nice, long and healthy life. Plus, you are now part of the chameleon forums community, so welcome!

For the future, the best practice is to have a lay bin sitting at the bottom of the cage to minimize stress. Laying eggs can be especially stressful for chameleons so it's best to minimize our interactions with them until they lay. I'm not saying that having a separate lay bin outside of the enclosure made her egg bound--it's just a possibility. I'm not a vet so I couldn't say.

You came here for help, so I applaud you for that! Most people don't make it this far. I know that you don't know me, and possibly at the risk of sounding extremely corny, but here it goes: I'm proud of you. Just keep on being great and don't forget to ask questions. We will always be at your disposal. Again, I'm sorry for your loss.
 
Sorry to hear that your chameleon passed on. Keep her in your heart.

I'm telling you the following so that if you get another female someday, you will be aware of it and hopefully the female will live a long life.

Don't beat yourself up over what happened...if you don't happen to trip over this site and a few other good sites online you won't be aware of these things.

Female veileds require certain care or they can develop large clutches, egg binding and follicular stasis and often MBD, and other health issues that go along with these problems.

These reproductive issues can almost always be avoided by proper husbandry. The female is fed well until she is approaching sexual maturity by which time you need to control her basking temperatures and how much you feed her to prevent her from developing these reproductive issues. It controls the clutch size and helps take the strain of reproduction off her body. (We aim for a clutch size of 2 dozen eggs or less). Some females will even stop reproduction altogether when we use this method.

Providing a laybin in her cage gives her access to it at all times.
(You can have a laybin outside the cage too...but once the female is put in it, she needs to be left there until she lays the eggs...not moved back and forth to the cage....so you have to be sure she's ready to dig when you put her in there...and it's not always easy to know when that is.)

So...once again...sorry for your loss.
 
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