Lights will shut off during laying process

MangoTango

MangoTango

Established Member
hey everyone, my girl is laying her 5th clutch of eggs I believe (may be 4th but i’m pretty sure it’s 5th). she chose to start now, 8pm est, and her lights shut off at 9 pm est, she’s digging the hole and is pretty fast, and will probably be in the middle of laying when the lights shut off. if she stops, i’ll be super afraid she won’t go back to lay the rest of them. I know everyone says they either sleep in the hole or continue thru the night, but she is very responsive to the lights shutting off. as soon as they shut off she goes to her bedtime spot. I’ll be super afraid she’ll retain the remaining eggs if the lights shutting off make her stop. should I keep the lights on for the last hour or so that she finishes the process? at least until she gets them all out?
 
update:
hey guys! thanks for the replies. I let the lights shut off and she was still making the hole. I think she contemplated sleeping because she’d stop for a few minutes and then start to dig again 😂 but after a few, she turned around with her booty in the hole so I guess she’s finishing tonight !
 
it’s the next day. she finished through the night at 2 am. but every single time she goes into “auto-pilot”, like she just keeps covering and covering to the point where the soil is coming out of the bin and it’s this huge landslide and she never pats it down. she literally almost UNCOVERS THE EGGS AGAIN. I ALWAYS have to stop her myself for fear that she’ll keep going until her body can’t take it anymore and she collapses. when I take her out and put her on a branch, she continues to dig on my hand (which hurts like you’d never believe btw) and the branch. she acts weird the next day, sometimes looks for the bin in the morning (which i had to pull out right in front of her the night prior so wouldn’t go back in), but always eats and drinks, and is still alive so hasn’t retained any eggs. I HATE that I have to do that because it goes against ever fiber in my being and everything i’ve been taught. but she’s a special case and there’s only like 2 or 3 threads on here from over 10 years ago who had the same experience. I wish it was more researched. we are struggling, but we are okay :( she used to do it textbook perfect. laid 30 which is her lowest, and they smelled kinda bad tbh.

UPDATE: BIT OF A CRISIS:
She’s going in a potted plant and patting it down!! what do I do!! she keeps going up and around to other branches and around the enclosure and then going to a random pot and digging and patting down !! she’s still stuck in autopilot. i’m so upset !! and digging on branches too @MissSkittles @Beman i’m sorry for tagging i’m just so upset and have to leave soon
 
Last edited:
elizaann2 said:
Has she eaten and drank since she laid her eggs?
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yes she had 5 dubias today with nooo hesitation, and drank from a cup last night after I took her out. I always offer her a cup after laying and it’s the only time she drinks from one
 
I would say put the bin back in, maybe with just about half of the sand. She’s not going to stop until she feels she’s finished. It is strange and I don’t know what else to tell you to do. Taking the lay bin away, she’s not going to feel she’s done with no substrate to move around. It’s her instinct. Poor sweet lady. She’s eaten and drank and hopefully will realize she’s all done and choose to rest. How did you get her to stop before? What do the old threads say to do?
 
MissSkittles said:
I would say put the bin back in, maybe with just about half of the sand. She’s not going to stop until she feels she’s finished. It is strange and I don’t know what else to tell you to do. Taking the lay bin away, she’s not going to feel she’s done with no substrate to move around. It’s her instinct. Poor sweet lady. She’s eaten and drank and hopefully will realize she’s all done and choose to rest. How did you get her to stop before? What do the old threads say to do?
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to get her to stop before, I would just take her out of the bin and not replace it, obviously only when she was on the last step. she’s never tried to do anything in a pot. this time some soil was exposed but usually there’s enough leaves where she can’t see it. she’ll head near the bottom usually but again I never knew she wanted to continue patting down. here’s one old thread: https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/is-this-normal-after-laying.23436/#post-207594.
so I put it back in around 5:30 when I came home, and she went into it around 6. I took out half the substrate but tried to remake her hole but less deep so she had smth to fill. She started filling up the “correct” way which I haven’t seen in a while (kicking it backwards with the back feet and then patting it down with front feet), last night she just seemed disoriented. the lights shut off at 9, and she came out of the bin (yay I can sleep tonight and don’t have to watch her !), should I leave it in for tmr in case she wants to go back or do we think she’s had her fill? (also according to the old thread, she may just go into autopilot again and I may have to just pull it out tonight). she’s sleeping near the top of the enclosure now.
 
okay nowww we’re getting into the stuff I don’t understand. today she had her normal morning routine. lights went on at 9 and she went up to bask. a sheet has been up and I didn’t interfere today at all. at noon she heads downward because it was misting and she didn’t like it lol and THEN FOR ANOTHER HALF HOUR, she sits above the bin on a branch contemplating whether to go in or not. She finally does and has been in there ever since (3:30pm est), creating a hill, not a level plain, and sometimes, covers in the wrong direction which I don’t understand. She’s even looked like she wants to come out, had her hands on the edge, and has even fully stood on the edge of the bin, and then decided to go back in. idk if she has overactive hormones or smth but I feel like for her own health so she doesn’t get exhausted, I should just take her out. if she wanted to do it that badly wouldn’t she have started immediately in the morning? it seemed like an “oh this is here, guess I gotta do it” type of thing after the pot problem. tbh none of it makes any sense.

edit: she just came out on her own at 3:38!!! yay!! should I leave the bin or take it out??
 
Last edited:
MangoTango said:
okay nowww we’re getting into the stuff I don’t understand. today she had her normal morning routine. lights went on at 9 and she went up to bask. a sheet has been up and I didn’t interfere today at all. at noon she heads downward because it was misting and she didn’t like it lol and THEN FOR ANOTHER HALF HOUR, she sits above the bin on a branch contemplating whether to go in or not. She finally does and has been in there ever since (3:30pm est), creating a hill, not a level plain, and sometimes, covers in the wrong direction which I don’t understand. She’s even looked like she wants to come out, had her hands on the edge, and has even fully stood on the edge of the bin, and then decided to go back in. idk if she has overactive hormones or smth but I feel like for her own health so she doesn’t get exhausted, I should just take her out. if she wanted to do it that badly wouldn’t she have started immediately in the morning? it seemed like an “oh this is here, guess I gotta do it” type of thing after the pot problem. tbh none of it makes any sense.

edit: she just came out on her own at 3:38!!! yay!! should I leave the bin or take it out??
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Again, I have to say to leave the bin in. You may want to make a vet appointment just to make certain she hasn’t retained any eggs.
 
MissSkittles said:
Again, I have to say to leave the bin in. You may want to make a vet appointment just to make certain she hasn’t retained any eggs.
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i’ll see if she goes back in. here’s the condition of the bin. she lays in the back left if you couldn’t tell 🤣 and this was with half the substrate like suggested
 

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MangoTango said:
i’ll see if she goes back in. here’s the condition of the bin. she lays in the back left if you couldn’t tell 🤣 and this was with half the substrate like suggested
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Such a pretty (and sandy) face. It’s really odd and yet interesting how she wants to keep digging even after she’s completed everything. Chameleon OCD - having to make sure repeatedly that she covered the eggs? You say she is very quick in laying. I wonder if that somehow plays into it. Just questions and no answers.
 
MissSkittles said:
Such a pretty (and sandy) face. It’s really odd and yet interesting how she wants to keep digging even after she’s completed everything. Chameleon OCD - having to make sure repeatedly that she covered the eggs? You say she is very quick in laying. I wonder if that somehow plays into it. Just questions and no answers.
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I know! it is very strange :( hopefully she’s done this time for good.
 
The first and second time my panther laid eggs, it took three days both times! My feeling is to let her do her thing and not interrupt as that could cause eggbinding. i know veileds are different and lay a lot more eggs. Still its a natural thing which they know much better than any human. As long as she is not bound, she has a maternal need to do what shes doing so you got to let her complete it! So glad everything has turned out well.
 
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