27 days since mating
- Thread starter Doodleh
- Start date
I'm so very sorry to hear that your female died. Its never easy losing one.
Doodleh said.."My poor female died today. She'd not eaten for a week before laying her eggs, and hadn't eaten since. Is this normal?"...its normal that she didn't eat for a week before laying them. Its not normal not to have eaten since. They are usually ravenous right after laying eggs....especially as large a clutch as your laid. I think that you were overfeeding her when she was starting to produce the egg follicles which leads to a large clutch. She may have depleted her body of too many nutrients that it left her weak. Another possibility is that she retained eggs...but usually it takes longer than this to die from retained eggs from what I have heard. (I personally have never had one retain eggs.)
You said..."I feel so terrible.. my poor little girl I was going to keep one of her babies, but I don't think I'm going to now. This has put me off keeping chameleons, even though I love them.. has anyone ever experienced this?"...I have lost one or maybe two to egg binding years ago when I was new to keeping chameleons, but I haven't lately....thank goodness! I know you loved your chameleon and when you see your first baby hatch, you may change your mind about keeping one. We all make mistakes...and hopefully learn from them.
TreelionsUK...thanks for the comments!
Doodleh said.."My poor female died today. She'd not eaten for a week before laying her eggs, and hadn't eaten since. Is this normal?"...its normal that she didn't eat for a week before laying them. Its not normal not to have eaten since. They are usually ravenous right after laying eggs....especially as large a clutch as your laid. I think that you were overfeeding her when she was starting to produce the egg follicles which leads to a large clutch. She may have depleted her body of too many nutrients that it left her weak. Another possibility is that she retained eggs...but usually it takes longer than this to die from retained eggs from what I have heard. (I personally have never had one retain eggs.)
You said..."I feel so terrible.. my poor little girl I was going to keep one of her babies, but I don't think I'm going to now. This has put me off keeping chameleons, even though I love them.. has anyone ever experienced this?"...I have lost one or maybe two to egg binding years ago when I was new to keeping chameleons, but I haven't lately....thank goodness! I know you loved your chameleon and when you see your first baby hatch, you may change your mind about keeping one. We all make mistakes...and hopefully learn from them.
TreelionsUK...thanks for the comments!
