Panther Chameleon Lay Box OUTSIDE of Habitat?

[himynameiznick]

This might be a weird and stupid question but has anyone ever heard of or had experience taking a gravid female panther chameleon when she is showing signs of looking for a place to deposit eggs and removing her from her habitat and placing her in a lay box outside of her habitat? This is the method I used when breeding bearded dragons and was kind of interested in whether this method would translate well with chameleons?

Couple other breeding questions:
1.I am currently using calcium WITHOUT D3 daily on my gravid female to make sure she has enough to compensate for eggs. Should I increase the amount of times I administer calcium WITH D3 while she's pregnant? (Currently do it 2 times a month)
2.Best lay box substrate? Eco earth, play sand, vermiculite, mix?
3.Does female in attached picture look to be showing gravid colors? From what I can tell, she isn't showing the super dark background that most gravid females display, but this is the first time she is showing this color and pattern (typically just pink color). She was introduced this morning to a male but I had to leave the house so I cant say for sure they mated.
Thanks

 

[DeremensisBlue]

Removing the female and putting her in a bin with dirt is a common method used with chameleons. I, though, prefer to have the dirt brought to her. But that is personal preference only. Either way works and has its pros and cons.

I now put my cages on top of the laying bins.
Bill

 

[fluxlizard]

Like Bill- I prefer to have a bin in the female's normal cage.
But some females prefer something bigger than I can give them in the cage while leaving their plants in there, etc, so if it looks like a female isn't happy with the situation (digging and giving up or pacing the floor ignoring the bin) then I'll move her into a special nestbox outside of the cage. I used to use a 5 gallon bucket filled with substrate and a cage I built out of coated wire that fit over the lip of the bucket and extended above it (bucket diameter wire tube cage) and it worked really well, but now I just use a big rubbermaid garbage can with a foot or bit more substrate in the bottom, branches on top for climbing and lights suspended. It gives the female more privacy with the solid walled garbage can. I also sprinkle a few dead leaves over the substrate- makes the females feel safe and secure about digging- gives them some natural cover. For substrate I use dirt freshly dug from my yard, but in the past I also used a sand/peat mix with just enough moisture added so it would hold a hand dug tunnel without it collapsing with great success. My yard dirt is always the correct moisture content and I feel like my chameleons respond to the smell of the earth really well compared to the sand/peat- but that *might* be my imagination. Also I had complications once with a female iguana that got a bacterial infection from very tiny abrasions from digging a nest in damp sand- but maybe that was a bad batch of sand as I've never heard of anyone else with that problem. Still- earth from my yard is much softer and less abrasive...

 

[Balizar]

I do the same as well. I have bins under my cages and if they are refusing to lay then I resort to a trash can filled with soil/sand mix.

This site can answer a lot of your questions on breeding and maintaining the females health

http://muchadoaboutchameleons.blogspot.com/2012/11/panther-chameleon-breeding-eggs.html

Also:
http://muchadoaboutchameleons.blogspot.com/p/blogs-archived-by-category_18.html Scroll down to the breeding section.