Advice needed.

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pierce1987

New Member
Hi everybody, I have had a chameleon since November. She is in a bioactive tank which is 90 cm x 90 cm x 60 cm. The roof of the tank is mesh. She has a heat lamp on a dimmer switch and a large UV strip lamp that goes across the top daytime temperature near the heat lamp is 30° and the humidity varies between 60 and 70% throughout the day. The tank has many live plants in there as well as grapevines.
The chameleon herself is very active still although she is demonstrating a larger abdomen with blue spotting at the top of her and yellow stripes which I believe is the start of the egg laying process?
She hasn’t eaten for roughly 7 days now, which is why I am concerned. She is still very active her eyes aren’t sunken in and I have a camera on her 24 hours a day and throughout the day she’s constantly moving around the tank.
She has started to dig. whenever we go towards the tank door to mist it She comes out to say hello and has a bit of a wonder for 10 to 20 minutes and then goes back in the tank quite happily.
My big concern is the fact that she’s still not eaten after this period of time and I don’t want her to start getting weak and end up losing her because she’s not eaten.
She’s got a lay bin in the bottom of the tank and we recently removed the branches in the bottom so there’s plenty of space for it to dig if she doesn’t want to lay in the lay bin.
Does anybody have any advice on how I get it to eat or how I get any form of nutrition inside of her when she’s refusing to eat. She does still have life food in the tank just in case she changes her mind, but it doesn’t appear to be the case at the moment.
As stated before, she does have a fat looking belly and her colourations have changed within the last week. Do I need to get a vet or do I need to just monitor as she seems to be happy with what she’s doing and it isn’t showing any signs of slowing down?
 

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Ok, good…it hasn’t been very long. Has she laid eggs before? If so, are you using the same lay bin? If not, can you post some pics of her laying eggs bin? How big is it and what substrate are you using?
 
MissSkittles said:
Ok, good…it hasn’t been very long. Has she laid eggs before? If so, are you using the same lay bin? If not, can you post some pics of her laying eggs bin? How big is it and what substrate are you using?
Click to expand...
No she hasn’t laid eggs before I have made one. I used an old container which is 9 inches deep by 9 inches by 6inches.
The rest of her enclosure is about 8 inches deep with soils. But the lay bin has a mix of sand and soil enough to support a tunnel. The main enclosure is coir soil.
 
That sounds a bit small for a lay bin. My girls have always preferred larger bins of about 12” long and wide…deep as well even though I only put about 5-6” deep of sand. They can be very particular. Mine refused smaller bins. One even refused not just a smaller bin, but her entire double wide (4’ long) bioactive as suitable! After a week of trying everything, I finally put her old lay bin in and she got right to work. If your girl is digging a little in various places and stopping on her own (not being disturbed), safe to assume she doesn’t find any of those places as suitable. Try a bigger bin. Play sand with or without some soil, moistened enough to hold a tunnel without collapsing is the correct substrate.
Equally if not more important to her is that she and her precious eggs are safe. She is very vulnerable when coming to the ground to lay her eggs. If she sees anyone, she may stop laying. She needs absolute privacy and no interruptions at all for anything, literally unless your house is on fire. I cover the lower half of the visible areas of my enclosure with a light sheet. If I want to keep watch of her, I cut some tiny peek holes in the sheet so she won’t see me. While she is busy digging, eating is the last thing on her mind and drinking comes right after. Instead of opening her enclosure to mist/spray, set up a dripper for hydration. A simple plastic party cup with a pin hole in the bottom is an easy and effective dripper. Even putting some ice cubes on the screen top is enough. She has to lay those eggs! She probably has no interest in eating because she is not only focused on laying, but they are probably taking up all the room in her belly.
So, if she has been digging and only stopping because she is disturbed by you or another, then cover the bottom half of her enclosure and give her the absolute privacy she needs. You’ll know when she’s done - you’ll find her basking and looking quite dirty and much thinner. It usually takes about a day or two to dig, lay and then fully cover their tunnel.
 
MissSkittles said:
That sounds a bit small for a lay bin. My girls have always preferred larger bins of about 12” long and wide…deep as well even though I only put about 5-6” deep of sand. They can be very particular. Mine refused smaller bins. One even refused not just a smaller bin, but her entire double wide (4’ long) bioactive as suitable! After a week of trying everything, I finally put her old lay bin in and she got right to work. If your girl is digging a little in various places and stopping on her own (not being disturbed), safe to assume she doesn’t find any of those places as suitable. Try a bigger bin. Play sand with or without some soil, moistened enough to hold a tunnel without collapsing is the correct substrate.
Equally if not more important to her is that she and her precious eggs are safe. She is very vulnerable when coming to the ground to lay her eggs. If she sees anyone, she may stop laying. She needs absolute privacy and no interruptions at all for anything, literally unless your house is on fire. I cover the lower half of the visible areas of my enclosure with a light sheet. If I want to keep watch of her, I cut some tiny peek holes in the sheet so she won’t see me. While she is busy digging, eating is the last thing on her mind and drinking comes right after. Instead of opening her enclosure to mist/spray, set up a dripper for hydration. A simple plastic party cup with a pin hole in the bottom is an easy and effective dripper. Even putting some ice cubes on the screen top is enough. She has to lay those eggs! She probably has no interest in eating because she is not only focused on laying, but they are probably taking up all the room in her belly.
So, if she has been digging and only stopping because she is disturbed by you or another, then cover the bottom half of her enclosure and give her the absolute privacy she needs. You’ll know when she’s done - you’ll find her basking and looking quite dirty and much thinner. It usually takes about a day or two to dig, lay and then fully cover their tunnel.
Click to expand...
Ok I’ll get a better bin immediately. I’ve watched her digging on the camera. So luckily we haven’t disrupted her she has just done it herself and stopped. She has done it herself. I just don’t want to keep putting bins in and out and changing them all the time. But I’ll give it another go. I can mist without getting in her enclosure. It’s set up at the top. And I’ve a fountain in there too. What have you used for a lay bin so I know what to buy. Seems like it will take up so much of the tank if I put one bigger in their but if you think it’s needs bigger I’ll give it a go
 
pierce1987 said:
Ah ok I know what they are. So you put the plants and vines in there so she can go in and out of it. And that stays in there permanent?
Click to expand...
I’ve tried plants inside it and they didn’t do well with so much sand. They do prefer to lay against root balls though. Without that, mine just dig down at an angle until they reach a bottom corner. I always make sure to have a long vine of pothos hanging into the bin along with a secure branch for her to get in/out of.
 
MissSkittles said:
I’ve tried plants inside it and they didn’t do well with so much sand. They do prefer to lay against root balls though. Without that, mine just dig down at an angle until they reach a bottom corner. I always make sure to have a long vine of pothos hanging into the bin along with a secure branch for her to get in/out of.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I’ve just ordered a bin and will be trying this tomorrow then she will be left to do her thing. Thank you for the advice.
 
Oh..,and yes, after she lays and you remove the eggs, place the bin back and keep it there permanently. My veiled girl hasn’t laid in 3 years, but I keep her lay bin in her enclosure just in case.
 
pierce1987 said:
Thank you. I’ve just ordered a bin and will be trying this tomorrow then she will be left to do her thing. Thank you for the advice.
Click to expand...
🤞🤞 and 🙏🙏 that everything goes along smoothly. As long as your husbandry is as close to perfect as possible, she should have no problems.
pierce1987 said:
How come she hasn’t laid in 3 years. Do they not lay every year
Click to expand...
They can lay a few times a year. It takes so very much out of them and shortens their lives though, so we take some simple measures to try and reduce their egg production. We keep their basking temps at 80F and no higher and limit how much we feed them. After your girl has laid her eggs, you’ll want to feed her well for a couple of days and then start her on being fed 3-4 large feeders (or equivalent) 3 days a week, plus occasional treats. For some, this keeps the number of eggs they produce low and for others, they don’t even produce eggs. Anything below 20 eggs is perfect! 30 is meh. Over 40 is too many and over 60 is at the point of dangerous and risking that she may have problems laying them.
My veiled girl used to lay once a year. She and my male veiled had a forbidden love (used to sneak peeks at each other at every opportunity, but never allowed to mate). When he passed 3 years ago, she stopped producing eggs. Even though she couldn’t see him, she knew he was there in the same room and it somehow triggered her fertility. It’s funny, because I had another female veiled before and she and that male had no interest in each other.
My girl escaped to the very top of her screen door to peek over the barrier at her love and once he saw her, he danced for her. It was so beautiful, what they had.
 
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