Regarding female veileds and reproduction, diet, temperatures, etc...

[kinyonga]

I have a request...
For those of you who have been trying to follow the "diet" and temperature control of female veileds to try to control their clutch sizes or even stop the reproduction...
I would be very interested in the results.

How long are your females living?
How much are you feeding them in a week?
How many eggs does your female produce with that treatment?
How many clutches does she produce in a year?
Have any females ended up with follicular stasis or eggbinding while on the diet?
Any other information you would like to share....supplements, food fed to the insects, etc.

 

[MissSkittles]

I think you know all that I do already.
Both of my girls are about 3 1/2 years old.
I’m not as strict with their diet as I started out as. 3 days a week I give them 4 smaller sized feeders (1/2” or slightly smaller). If the feeders are smaller, they’ll get 5 and if bigger, they’ll get 3. On one day of the weekend I feel bad for them and give them a feeder. I do tend to give Grumpy an extra bug with every feeding or give her the larger ones. I’ve been doing this since she was sick in the spring. I do catch both of them on occasion appearing to be hunting the isopods in their enclosures. No idea if they eat any.
Both girls got started on the stricter regimen after they laid their first clutch. Grumpy hasn’t laid eggs since Feb 2020 and her clutches were in the mid 30’s. Stella has been laying one clutch a year of also mid 30’s, although her last was of 26. I do suspect though that Stella’s being triggered by seeing Hammlet at times. However, Grumpy has also seen Hammlet but not been affected at all.
Neither has had any difficulty in laying. The only ‘problem’ has been with Stella not liking the bioactive substrate of her enclosure and I had to give her back her old lay bin of play sand before she would lay her eggs.
It has become very difficult to determine when or if they are receptive as they no longer become so colorful or restless. Grumpy has almost reverted back to her solid green coloration.
Supplements are Zoo Med ReptiCalcium every feeding and ReptiVite with D3 one feeding every other week.
Standard T5 6% uvb with UVI of approx 3.0 at basking branch.
Basking temp stays around 80F. Grumpy basks frequently through the day. Stella doesn’t bask as often.
Both are plant nibblers, however Stella tends to devour hers.
All are kept in the same room with their enclosures side by side. Noticed something a bit strange…Stella and Hammlet really do have some odd ’love’ for each other. Hammlet and Grumpy saw each other and neither had much of a reaction. Hammlet seemed reluctant to puff up just a bit and show some of his handsomeness. It was like his heart just wasn’t in it. Yet not long after he saw Stella and immediately did his full puff up and danced his best moves.

 

[Sonny13]

My story about Bella is also pretty known, as she lives already 3/4 of her life free range. She also doesn´t have troubles laying in the bioactive soil and laid already 4 times in it. Bella is now 2 years old and she´s on the edge for a 5th clutch (should have been the 16th this month). Basking are 78 and normally during summer she basks only in the morning and later in the afternoon, however now during autumn room temps have dropped and she basks longer throughout the day. The first time egg laying was difficult for her, she needed to figure out how and what and now she has no problems with. Because of CF I was early with the strict regime of 3 days a week feeding and same as with @MissSkittles it depends on the feeder size if it will be 3 till 5 per feeding. And occasionally I give her a treat. Clutch sizes all laying in the mid 20. Supplements Arcadia Pro-A and RevitaliseD3. She doesn´t eat plants, sometimes pure occasionally due feeder walking on the leaf. Standard T5 6% uvb with UVI of approx 3.0 at basking branch. Always same behavior and a few days before laying she gets gular oedema, which disappears within a few days after she laid.

 

[kinyonga]

Thank you @Sonny13 and @MissSkittles for your replies!!

I think it's important to talk about this/document it so that people can see the results of diet and temperature control. Hopefully it will help people see the results and adopt the practice with their female veileds so that they will hopefully live longer.

It may also give us insight into any changes that might need to be made.

 

[Sonny13]

It’s absolutely an interesting topic and good you started it. This kind of information is still scarce, but yet outmost important, because it‘s still 1/5 of the major errors in husbandry and unnecessary suffering of these beautiful lady’s.

I‘ve kept a “dairy” of mine laying her eggs.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/first-successful-free-range-bioactive-egg-laying.182715/

 

[kinyonga]

It’s absolutely an interesting topic and good you started it. This kind of information is still scarce, but yet outmost important, because it‘s still 1/5 of the major errors in husbandry and unnecessary suffering of these beautiful lady’s.

I‘ve kept a “dairy” of mine laying her eggs.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/first-successful-free-range-bioactive-egg-laying.182715/

I think it accounts for much more than 1/5 of the husbandry errors and for sure way more than 1/5 of the premature deaths (shortened lives) of female veiled chameleons either from follicular stasis or dystocia.

 

[Sonny13]

I think it accounts for much more than 1/5 of the husbandry errors and for sure way more than 1/5 of the premature deaths (shortened lives) of female veiled chameleons either from follicular stasis or dystocia.

I was just guessing and found 1/5 already alot/too much. Even more is just terrible!

 

[kinyonga]

It is terrible....but hopefully diet, temperature and husbandry will lower the numbers...as long as the information is picked up by people and followed. Studies that are being done on follicular stasis and dystocia will hopefully shed some more light on the issues as well.