Miss Lily
Chameleon Enthusiast
I would like to share some observations that I have made during my time keeping female veileds. I am so glad I keep rather detailed records of all my chameleons' behaviour or I would never have realised the significance of what happened.
My first female laid two clutches of infertiles. Both times she had a day where she looked 'poorly' - brown/drab colours and she looked very bloated, inflated almost. Both times she laid a clutch 3.5 weeks after the 'poorly' day. I put this down to being just something about her and how she was at the time.
However, Amy has just laid her first clutch at 21 months of age and I noticed the same pattern recurring with her. About 4 weeks ago I noticed that Amy wasn't herself and was hiding and she was also showing those dull brown colours that Lily had. She also had the bloated/inflated look and I was worried that maybe she was ill. The next day she was fine again and back to her normal self. Thinking nothing of it at the time I wrote her symptoms on her sheet and also noted on my calendar on the date 3.5 weeks later that she might be due to lay. Well, last week (exactly 3 weeks after her poorly day) Amy started digging around a bit in her laying bin. She had never really paid it much attention before and it had been in her viv since she was 6 months old and it was just part of her furniture. The date I had 'predicted' for her to possibly lay was Sunday 21st November. She actually laid her clutch on Saturday 20th, so pretty much bang on for timing that Lily used to follow.
I am hoping that someone with more knowledge than I could perhaps shed some light on what exactly is happening 3.5 weeks before laying. Is it the time that the eggs start to become oval and more calcified in readiness for laying? I am really intrigued to know, but don't know much about the different stages of egg formation.
My first female laid two clutches of infertiles. Both times she had a day where she looked 'poorly' - brown/drab colours and she looked very bloated, inflated almost. Both times she laid a clutch 3.5 weeks after the 'poorly' day. I put this down to being just something about her and how she was at the time.
However, Amy has just laid her first clutch at 21 months of age and I noticed the same pattern recurring with her. About 4 weeks ago I noticed that Amy wasn't herself and was hiding and she was also showing those dull brown colours that Lily had. She also had the bloated/inflated look and I was worried that maybe she was ill. The next day she was fine again and back to her normal self. Thinking nothing of it at the time I wrote her symptoms on her sheet and also noted on my calendar on the date 3.5 weeks later that she might be due to lay. Well, last week (exactly 3 weeks after her poorly day) Amy started digging around a bit in her laying bin. She had never really paid it much attention before and it had been in her viv since she was 6 months old and it was just part of her furniture. The date I had 'predicted' for her to possibly lay was Sunday 21st November. She actually laid her clutch on Saturday 20th, so pretty much bang on for timing that Lily used to follow.
I am hoping that someone with more knowledge than I could perhaps shed some light on what exactly is happening 3.5 weeks before laying. Is it the time that the eggs start to become oval and more calcified in readiness for laying? I am really intrigued to know, but don't know much about the different stages of egg formation.
