Why did she do this?

[Lehuanani]

Hi there, I had 2 chameleons yesterday and when I woke up, one of them was dead. They were both veiled females. The one who passed away was always brown or a really dark green with black. I never watched when it came to food very much. I just know the other one was a pig and usually ate most of the meal worms so I made sure there were crickets in there she could get to and eat. She ended up digging her own grave in the back corner of the enclosure. I saw that she was on the ground and thought it was to maybe get water, but I guess not. My little sister saw her digging and was confused by it. Has anyone else seen this before? :,(

 

[carol5208]

First of all you made a mistake by housing them together, unless they were babies. Chameleons need seperate enclosures. They are solitary animals. For the future please do not put two in one cage. Also, digging can indicate she was looking for a place to lay eggs. If she was atleast 5 months or older she could have produced infertile eggs, meaning they do not have to be mated to develop them. A pic of your set up would be helpful to us. You must have the proper laying bin set up for your females. If they do not have one, they can become eggbound and die. Without seeing a picture of your female we cannot tell you if she had eggs. Sometimes you cannot tell by their appearance and you need to do an xray. It maybe very likely she was eggbound. Also putting the two of them together and having them compete for food could have been part of her demise also.

 

[carol5208]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/
Please read the links I have attached for you.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/laying-bin-set-up-educational-video-77225
Also, filling out the attached form will be helpful so we can see if anything in your set up, besides what I already mentioned, led to her death.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

 

[Lehuanani]

Thanks for those links. The weird thing is, she isn't dead. I was only informed by my sister and mother that she was.

 

[Lehuanani]

And I'm looking at her now and she is moving around, but still in the corner

 

[jannb]

Pleas separate them ASAP or she will be dead. Each chameleon needs it's own enclosure.

 

[odduc748]

You need to remove that cham to it's own enclosure. From reading your post, I can only assume that the one you thought was dead has been bullied and dominated by the other.

Additionally, if she needs to lay her eggs, place a lay bin in the new enclosure. And, have another lay bin ready for your dominant cham (assuming that they're both female).

 

[kinyonga]

How old is she?

If she's old enough to lay eggs it sounds like she needs a proper setup for her to do so NOW! You can use an opaque container at least 12" deep by 12" by 8" filled with washed playsand that is just moist enough to hold a tunnel.
When she is digging do not let her see you watching her while she is doing the digging.

 

[carol5208]

As I stated before, it would be helpful to post pictures of your set up, fill out the form and also pics of both of your chameleons.