starting to lay eggs

[dumbblondie]

my female lives with a male shes been digging for a few days seen 1 egg so far it looked soft and dented so i put a ot of sand in there 4 her do you have any advice on wat to do when she lays her eggs? & how do i tell if they are fertile or not?

 

[kinyonga]

I assume you are talking about veileds?

Most chameleons should not be kept together in pairs. Its stressful in most species and they will mate as soon as they are both sexually mature....not always the best idea for the female.

I always recommend that for any egglaying female, there should be a suitable place for her to dig in her cage once she is sexually mature to indicate the need to lay eggs. This helps avoid missing her need by missing the sometimes subtle indications that she even needs to lay them.

No...that being said...do not let the female see you watching her while she is digging. It may make her abandon the hole. If it happens often enough, it can push her towards eggbinding.

Let her dig the hole, lay the eggs and fill it in, tamp it down and return to the branches before you dig them up.

Carefully dig up the eggs. Do not rotate them or turn them when you move them to the incubation containers.

For incubation containers, I use shoebox sized plastic containers with lids. I put two very tiny holes in the lids. I fill the containers half full of barely moist coarse vermiculite. To test the dampness...take a fist full of the vermiculite and if you can only squeeze a drop or two out of it, it should be right.

Lay the eggs in the containers in rows spaced about 1" apart in all directions in dents that you have made with your thumb. Put the lid on and incubate them in the dark in a place where the temperature is about 76F.

 

[lanceman]

just a thought but would the male's presence disturb her

 

[dumbblondie]

how long will it take her to lay & how many eggs should i expect?

 

[kinyonga]

The number of eggs will in part depend on how much you fed her....could be anywhere from about 10 to about 90. If she produces more than about 30 I would control her diet to keep the number down.

The length of time it will take her to lay will depend on how satisfied she is with the site that you have provided for her to lay the eggs in and and how long it takes her to be satisfied with the depth of the hole.

She might dig a couple of test holes but should settle on one which she could dig in for a couple of days (or more) until she is satisfied that its deep enough. The thing I would worry about more is if she stops digging for a couple of days.

Do not let her see you when she is digging the hole...it could cause her to abandon it and if it happens too often it could lead to eggbinding.

Let her finish filling the hole and tamping it down and return to the branches before you dig the eggs up.