veild, odd egg laying behavior

[TeslaMia]

Hello my boyfriend and I have two veild chameleons named Tesla and Mia. We have successfully mated them and now Mia is in the process of laying her eggs.

Our concern is that she is not dropping them all at once and not in the same places. From our research we have seen females will lay their clutch in one spot over two days. Our Mia has dropped five eggs, one on Tuesday, and four in a different spot on Thursday or Friday. She is still super full of eggs and it is now Saturday.

Does anyone know of a chameleon taking so long in between laying eggs from the same clutch? We are starting to worry, but I don't think she is egg bound as the five she dropped are very healthy looking and larger than I expected. Perhaps since this is her first clutch she's just working out what she should be doing? Mia is super tired but definetly has a minimum of 20 eggs still to lay.

I feel kinda bad for her lol our male is a beast and is three times her size, although when it came to breeding little Mia was an instigator lol Tesla is one impressive boy!

Any advice is welcomed! We are having troubles finding information on her odd egg laying behavior.

*note* she has the best set up possible, large laying bin which she has been digging nests and is very well taken care of! When I say dropping I'm referring to watch she has laid, there has been no eggs falling out of her from high places.

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the forums. You said dropping eggs? Do you have a laying bin for her? She should dig a hole and lay her eggs about 12 inches down. They can become egg bound and die if they are not provided with a laying bin.

Video on making a laying bin.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/laying-bin-set-up-educational-video-77225/

Egg laying and the laying bin
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/jannb/345-egg-laying-laying-bin.html#comment2073

Female veiled care
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/2007/12/keeping-female-veiled.html

General veiled care
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html

 

[TeslaMia]

Yes she has a laying bin with over 6inches of sand/peat moss mix. Proper care and requirements are not an issue here what so ever. She is not literally dropping eggs lol she has dug out three different nests so far and we provide plenty of water and food even though she us not eating at the moment due to nesting. Our pets are both in the best set ups you can have including their lighting with bulbs costing us over 100$

Also she still looks very healthy, bright colors and still has a strong grip. Her lack of appetite is not surprising and so far other than how long its taking there has been no signs of distress or that something has gone wrong.

 

[jannb]

Yes she has a laying bin with over 6inches of sand/peat moss mix. Proper care and requirements are not an issue here what so ever. She is not literally dropping eggs lol she has dug out three different nests so far and we provide plenty of water and food even though she us not eating at the moment due to nesting. Our pets are both in the best set ups you can have including their lighting with bulbs costing us over 100$

Also she still looks very healthy, bright colors and still has a strong grip. Her lack of appetite is not surprising and so far other than how long its taking there has been no signs of distress or that something has gone wrong.

A veiled would need more than 6 inches to lay her eggs. It also has to have the correct moisture.

 

[TeslaMia]

I honestly believe her set up if fine, she has been using it, and we have done a lot of research before even introducing our two together.

I would be concerned with her laying bin if she wasn't digging and if she didn't lay any eggs. She has already had five very healthy eggs which she dug a nest and covered it back in. I have watched many videos of successful laying in much worse set ups then what we have provided.
It is not a question of her set up, she is still digging today and using her laying box properly.

What we are concerned with is that she is only laying a small number of eggs at a time instead of the whole clutch at once. With the size of the tunnels she digs I know there is enough room for the whole clutch.

 

[jannb]

I've give you my opinion. I think maybe the reason she's not laying all the eggs maybe because the laying bin is not correct. I've had several female veileds and they can be picky about where they lay and none would ever lay in a short bin. One of my girls had to have a giant trash can. If you check out my links you might find them helpful. She could also have eggs that are too big or not formed correctly and may need surgery, only an X-ray would tell you that but if she were mine I'd get a bigger laying bin in there ASAP.

The very best of luck with her.

 

[rshewfel]

Proper care and requirements are not an issue here what so ever.

Why isn't she laying her eggs then? I agree with Jann that that the conditions probably are not correct. Not necessarily the depth but maybe the moisture. Or you could be interrupting her. Just spectulating.

 

[TeslaMia]

It could very well be that she is getting interrupted, but she is laying eggs. Its just that its happening very slowly and that she is digging down, laying a few, burrying them and then starting another hole. She has done it now for the third time. Maybe they are also too large possibly too many I'm not sure but if she doesn't get them all out tonight then I think it is best to get an x-ray.

 

[rshewfel]

From what I have seen, the worst mistake new breeders make is being impatient. If you give her a proper place to lay, and leave her alone, she will most likely lay her eggs.

 

[kinyonga]

Does she see you watching her when she's digging and laying the eggs? It's almost always bad news when they don't lay the whole clutch at the same time.

 

[TeslaMia]

I'm sure a couple times she has seen my man checking on her... She seems to be doing okay right now, she's in a nice deep tunnel but I'm not sure if she's starting to lay the clutch yet. Just trying to give her space right now, we also covered up the cage so she can't see us walking through the room anymore.

 

[TeslaMia]

For her first clutch Mia had in total 51 eggs, all large white and healthy looking so far. She is not well, very weak and we have been hand feeding her plus dripping calcium water into her mouth. We hope she pulls though.

 

[rshewfel]

Lot of eggs, and very strange laid in so many places. Good luck with them. I hope she pulls through.