veiled chameleon infertile clutch

mattyice0530

New Member
I got my veiled chameleon about a month ago. She has been doing great. However, she has begun to be less enthusiastic about eating (she usually bolts right to her food, but lately she will stare at it for awhile and eventually make her way down to eat it). She also has been sitting lower on her sticks (like belly closer to the stick). But this morning, when she reached up to climb, I noticed that her belly has some bumps (eggs). She also has been gaining weight.

I have the sand and everything ready. Should I go ahead and put her in now? Any advice for making sure she is safe and that everything goes well?

Additionally, I was wondering about the gestation period for veileds. Since I got her a less than a month ago, should I call the pet store I got her from to see if she had any contact with males? I am pretty confident that it's an infertile clutch... but I would hate to be wrong.
 
Yes, put in her laying bin now. Give her complete privacy to dig and lay her eggs. Afterwards she will need allot of water to drink and give her liquid calcium if you have it or dust extra heavy wifh calcium without d3 for 3 days after laying the eggs. Then I recommend keeping her cooler (80 or 81) to bask and feeding her 5 or 6 feeders (depending on size) everyother day.

It never hurts to keep the eggs but a phone call to the pet store would be good, too.
 
Yes, put in her laying bin now. Give her complete privacy to dig and lay her eggs. Afterwards she will need allot of water to drink and give her liquid calcium if you have it or dust extra heavy wifh calcium without d3 for 3 days after laying the eggs. Then I recommend keeping her cooler (80 or 81) to bask and feeding her 5 or 6 feeders (depending on size) everyother day.

It never hurts to keep the eggs but a phone call to the pet store would be good, too.

Where can I get liquid calcium? Also, how many days should it take for her to lay the eggs? Is it normal to take more than one day or should I be worried if she doesn't lay them tonight.

Additionally, should her UVB light and basking light be avaliable while she is in the laying bin? Or just the UVB. I am scared the basking light will dry out the sand.
 
Additionally, I was wondering about the gestation period for veileds.



Mine always laid their eggs between 21-28 days after breeding.
 
Where can I get liquid calcium? Also, how many days should it take for her to lay the eggs? Is it normal to take more than one day or should I be worried if she doesn't lay them tonight.

Additionally, should her UVB light and basking light be avaliable while she is in the laying bin? Or just the UVB. I am scared the basking light will dry out the sand.

I use a big 32- gallon garbage can filled with at least a foot of moist sand. With your own hand, start digging a hole- the sand should not seem as if though it would collapse. I cut a section on the back side of the can and screen it. Cut a section on top and screen it for a basking lamp. Don't use a bulb any greater than about 40 watts to avoid it getting too hot in the garbage can. The screen ventilation hole on the side of the can should be placed facing a corner or a wall where she will not be able to see any activity; they need extreme privacy during this time. I drilled two 5/8 " holes on top of the lid and used the peice of the lid that I cut away for the basking light and Put a screw in each one over the 2 hole. I make it so that I can CAREFULLY slide the piece over and use it as a peep-hole to check on progress, as I don't want her to stay in there any longer than necessary. Mine almost ALWAYS have their entire head covered in sand after they've laid. It's a good indicator she is finished. She will also be noticably thinner.
 
Unless you have one of the very few good pet stores I would not trust what they say about her contact with a male. Also they may not know based on how long she was at the pet store. For me I would always keep the eggs until I was sure if the would hatch or not.
 
I use a big 32- gallon garbage can filled with at least a foot of moist sand. With your own hand, start digging a hole- the sand should not seem as if though it would collapse. I cut a section on the back side of the can and screen it. Cut a section on top and screen it for a basking lamp. Don't use a bulb any greater than about 40 watts to avoid it getting too hot in the garbage can. The screen ventilation hole on the side of the can should be placed facing a corner or a wall where she will not be able to see any activity; they need extreme privacy during this time. I drilled two 5/8 " holes on top of the lid and used the peice of the lid that I cut away for the basking light and Put a screw in each one over the 2 hole. I make it so that I can CAREFULLY slide the piece over and use it as a peep-hole to check on progress, as I don't want her to stay in there any longer than necessary. Mine almost ALWAYS have their entire head covered in sand after they've laid. It's a good indicator she is finished. She will also be noticably thinner.


I noticed that most people have the laying bins in her actual cage. Is it bad to have a separate bin altogether? Her cage is too small to have a giant laying bin in it (with the size of the container I have for it). Since it's separate, should I take her out at night? Or should she just stay in there? Should I also put other plants or anything in the bin with her?
 
The idea of the smaller bin in the cage is that it provides a place for the female to dig to show you that she is ready to lay the eggs. It means if you miss the sometimes subtle indications that the female needs to lay eggs you will (I hope) notice that she is digging. Once she is digging with intent then she can be moved to a bigger container to lay the eggs. Some females will actually lay the eggs in the small container as long as its big enough for them to dig a hole and be completely inside the hole.
 
My female veiled has laid eggs several times before and will never use a laying bin. She likes a large trash can. You can see a picture in the link below. I know my female very well and I can tell when she's ready to lay and that's when I put her in the trash can. You could use the smaller bin as kinyonga said above and then move her to the large bin. https://www.chameleonforums.com/camilles-eggs-43-them-they-fertile-28568/


Thank you. That looks similar to what I have.
 
Hey guys, she still has yet to lay her eggs. She did shed earlier this week. She has become pretty aggressive. She looks like she has gotten bigger (but this is more length wise versus fat), but when she does get aggressive and goes "flat," you don't see any eggs or anything. Although, sometimes when she's just sitting it looks like she has the large bump above her back legs.

Today, when I went to turn her lights on she was sitting under a plant's leaves on her soil. She sat there for a bit and looked at me, then slowly went onto a vine.

Thoughts?
 
My first female laid two enormous clutches (104 and 102) and both times she could still 'suck herself in' and flatten herself! I had no idea she was carrying that many eggs!
 
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