Carpet Chameleon egg question

[Scott2142]

Hi everyone, newbie here, I just experienced a egg laying situation of my female carpet chameleon.

Here is the thing:
I had my carpet chameleon pair mated at the end of this October, after which I assured that they both lost interest to each other and put them back to their own cage. Then I started to notice that the female started to change color, but instead of bright blue/red/white patterns as the pictures shows on most website, I got a very brownish-red/dark/white pattern of her which made me doubt if she was gravid or not for a while, but she did get bloated day by day, so I just treated her as she had some eggs there.
And then I moved back to east coast from west, and unfortunately the male died during the moving period because of my irresponsibility, but the female was OK all the time except the dark color. And because of moving I'm keeping her temporarily in a 12x12x24 high tank with a plant(her own cage is still in moving company's truck), and just now when I got home I found her really skinny sitting on the branch and eggs were everywhere on the floor and leaves of the enclosure.
I check her out everyday and she didn't show any sign of digging nor any color changing, I feed her 2-3 times a week with 3-5 Cal/Vita dusted Dubia roaches, give her 3 sprays everyday with plant mister, I collected the eggs as soon as I saw them and tried not rotating them as much as possible(as of the moment I collect them). I had bred Veils, pygmy(R.temporalis) and Jackson's and haven't dealt with this situation, my question is will these 11 eggs still have chance to hatch from this accident? Also I just found out my female got her bright green/yellow color back, and she looks weak, what nutrition do you guys use for recovering your females?

Thanks

 

[ERKleRose]

Always extra calcium and hydration after laying. Could you fill out this form, please? https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/ As for the specifics, I don’t have experience with carpets, so I’ll let someone else chime in with more info

 

[Syreptyon]

Carpet chameleons are notorious for dropping their eggs! You can try as you like to get them to dig, but oftentimes they can't be bothered and will just drop them all over the place like you have experienced. While it is possible that the fall could damage the eggs, I would definitely not give up on them. Good chance that at least some, if not all, will still be okay

 

[Scott2142]

Carpet chameleons are notorious for dropping their eggs! You can try as you like to get them to dig, but oftentimes they can't be bothered and will just drop them all over the place like you have experienced. While it is possible that the fall could damage the eggs, I would definitely not give up on them. Good chance that at least some, if not all, will still be okay

Hi Syreptyon

Thanks for replying, the eggs were still moist when I collect them, and I found no major shell damage on any of them so that might be a good sign, what I'm really worry about is the egg rotation from the dropping.

 

[@chris]

Hi Syreptyon

Thanks for replying, the eggs were still moist when I collect them, and I found no major shell damage on any of them so that might be a good sign, what I'm really worry about is the egg rotation from the dropping.

The chameleon breeder podcast has had a few episodes on Lateralis and there is one episode where a few of community members who have all worked greatly with the species speak about their experience with lateralis and their eggs!

 

[Scott2142]

Thank you everyone for replying, unfortunately I just found my female died this morning, laying eggs drained the last energy from her. I fed her water immediately after I found the eggs and it’s just not enough to keep her for another night, what I can do for her now is taking good care of her eggs...

 

[ERKleRose]

Thank you everyone for replying, unfortunately I just found my female died this morning, laying eggs drained the last energy from her. I fed her water immediately after I found the eggs and it’s just not enough to keep her for another night, what I can do for her now is taking good care of her eggs...

I’m so sorry for your loss!

 

[CoChameloncompany1990]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Ive had both my male and female carpets since they were tiny little hatchlings and dread the day either one of them passes. I have had 6 successful clutches and NEVER once did my female burry her eggs. No matter what i tried id always find her eggs spread throughout her cage. Ive learned that if u find the eggs within a couple hours the majority of them will survive once they are places on a moist medium, even the ones that appear to have collapsed. Dont give up on the eggs untill your positive they are bad, you may get a surprise.

 

[Scott2142]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Ive had both my male and female carpets since they were tiny little hatchlings and dread the day either one of them passes. I have had 6 successful clutches and NEVER once did my female burry her eggs. No matter what i tried id always find her eggs spread throughout her cage. Ive learned that if u find the eggs within a couple hours the majority of them will survive once they are places on a moist medium, even the ones that appear to have collapsed. Dont give up on the eggs untill your positive they are bad, you may get a surprise.

Thank you very much, I'm very glad to know that, my pair was wild caught and I acquired them not very long ago, I really did my best to take care of them and learnt a lot, loosing them was heart breaking but the eggs from her last moment meant a lot for their brief life. Is there any idea about how long the eggs will hatch? I'm using one of the method I read from reptile magazine that use room temp for the first 45 days and give a drop to 60F for another 45 days and turn it back again for the rest of the days, is that going to help?

 

[Dooley1]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Ive had both my male and female carpets since they were tiny little hatchlings and dread the day either one of them passes. I have had 6 successful clutches and NEVER once did my female burry her eggs. No matter what i tried id always find her eggs spread throughout her cage. Ive learned that if u find the eggs within a couple hours the majority of them will survive once they are places on a moist medium, even the ones that appear to have collapsed. Dont give up on the eggs untill your positive they are bad, you may get a surprise.

Getting lateralis to lay is actually very simple and is very rare for them to drop if you take the proper steps (as captive-breds). You must be stubborn and put them in a laying big OUTSIDE of the enclosure and not expect them to begin digging immediately like pardalis or calyptratus are known to do. You may have to do this over a period of many days. They also appreciate a more moist substrate and spotlight over the laying site.

As far as the rotation of the eggs is concerned, it does not matter in the slightest for many months until after eggs break diapause and begin embryogenisis...and even then I'm not convinced.