spawn
Member
So I don't know how common this is, but I figured there's no reason not to share in the event it helps others in the future.
I had a gravid female oustaleti that became very eggbound and it stopped eating. Anyways after a painstaking week of encouraging her to go into a lay bin and feed her, she finally died over night. She was obviously egg bound. Just noticeably bigger than my other female which tends to stay lean but has a healthy appetite. I've kept chameleons before, but never attempted breeding. There was no doubt this one was ready to pop (mated at least once with the male I kept her with).
Anyways, I figured there's no reason to toss the eggs with her carcass. I slit the stomach from chest to vent. I opened her up, and found 36 eggs. Most if not all appear to be white, and have a weight to them in-hand that suggests they may be viable, but only time will tell. I drug them out onto the top of the sand in the lay bin so the fluids and tissues would dry out.
Most of the eggs are connected via a thin membrane. I'm guessing I can just cut or remove the eggs from this membrane. I believe this is the way the eggs were receiving nourishment from the mother's blood stream. The eggs were somewhat soft but I believe have now hardened up being exposed to the air. I should note that this is something I am not experienced with - chameleon eggs. I've had frogs and lizards and dealt with breeding in other animals before, but this is the first time I have eggs that MAY be viable from a chameleon. I'm guessing if the eggs ARE fertile, it makes sense to just place them with the narrow point up, but on a slant. Since they were not LAID by the mother, and I did a post-mortem c-section, I cannot rely on the tried and true method of 'don't change the orientation' of the eggs. Common sense tells me to just lay the more bulbous side of the egg down against the ground. I've seen plenty of pictures of people's vermiculite bins with the eggs in them.
Anyone with a more in-depth understanding of the ova and the development please feel free to point anything out I'm missing. I figure I don't have much time to figure out the most-probable-successful orientation of the eggs before we run into die off of the embryos, so I just wanted to make this post for help as soon as possible. Mother has been dead for about 16 hours. I removed the eggs about 6 hours ago.
If you want pictures, I'm happy to post them. Just would like help from experienced people (again, these are oustaleti eggs and I have no reason but to assume the eggs are fertile - I saw ONE infertile, undeveloped ova within the innards of the mother) on proper orientation from this point forward. I figure it's best to try and save the babies so the mommy's death isn't in vain!
I had a gravid female oustaleti that became very eggbound and it stopped eating. Anyways after a painstaking week of encouraging her to go into a lay bin and feed her, she finally died over night. She was obviously egg bound. Just noticeably bigger than my other female which tends to stay lean but has a healthy appetite. I've kept chameleons before, but never attempted breeding. There was no doubt this one was ready to pop (mated at least once with the male I kept her with).
Anyways, I figured there's no reason to toss the eggs with her carcass. I slit the stomach from chest to vent. I opened her up, and found 36 eggs. Most if not all appear to be white, and have a weight to them in-hand that suggests they may be viable, but only time will tell. I drug them out onto the top of the sand in the lay bin so the fluids and tissues would dry out.
Most of the eggs are connected via a thin membrane. I'm guessing I can just cut or remove the eggs from this membrane. I believe this is the way the eggs were receiving nourishment from the mother's blood stream. The eggs were somewhat soft but I believe have now hardened up being exposed to the air. I should note that this is something I am not experienced with - chameleon eggs. I've had frogs and lizards and dealt with breeding in other animals before, but this is the first time I have eggs that MAY be viable from a chameleon. I'm guessing if the eggs ARE fertile, it makes sense to just place them with the narrow point up, but on a slant. Since they were not LAID by the mother, and I did a post-mortem c-section, I cannot rely on the tried and true method of 'don't change the orientation' of the eggs. Common sense tells me to just lay the more bulbous side of the egg down against the ground. I've seen plenty of pictures of people's vermiculite bins with the eggs in them.
Anyone with a more in-depth understanding of the ova and the development please feel free to point anything out I'm missing. I figure I don't have much time to figure out the most-probable-successful orientation of the eggs before we run into die off of the embryos, so I just wanted to make this post for help as soon as possible. Mother has been dead for about 16 hours. I removed the eggs about 6 hours ago.
If you want pictures, I'm happy to post them. Just would like help from experienced people (again, these are oustaleti eggs and I have no reason but to assume the eggs are fertile - I saw ONE infertile, undeveloped ova within the innards of the mother) on proper orientation from this point forward. I figure it's best to try and save the babies so the mommy's death isn't in vain!
