Female chameleon egg laying...

A

APajak

New Member
I have a question... I know that they lay eggs with out being bred, but If a female is receptive does that mean that she has started the egglaying process and will produce eggs reguardless of being mated? So, after becoming receptive, can someone say for sure(or not) that she will lay infertal eggs? If you get what I am trying to say...
I was just wondering that and thought I would ask.
 
I am fairly certain if your girl is receptive then she will develop eggs. Not all females will develop eggs but in order for this to happen the temps in the cage should be kept lower (generally 80*'s) and she should be fed very little from a young age (6 - 8 feeders). This does slow down metabolism and general egg production. Some members do this and have females who have never developed eggs. Right now my girl is receptive to my male AND she is developing eggs. How do I know this? I had her at the vet a couple weeks ago as I was concerned with a drastic weight gain and thought if she wasn't developing eggs, then perhaps she had an impaction. I have recently posed the question on this forum: how long into the development of eggs can they still be fertilized? The general consensus was the eggs can be fertilized up to two weeks before laying but if fertilization is left this long into egg development you may find you have eggs that don't hatch, unhealthy hatchlings or hatchlings that don't survive very long. Not sure if this answers your questions but perhaps it helps! Good luck!
 
APajak said:
If a female is receptive does that mean that she has started the egglaying process and will produce eggs reguardless of being mated? So, after becoming receptive, can someone say for sure(or not) that she will lay infertal eggs?
Click to expand...

To answer this question directly, I would say YES, regardless of being mated your female will develop eggs and will eventually need to lay infertile eggs!
 
I was just asking this cause I have read that you should not breed a female until she is about a year old, but if she is going to start producing her own eggs as young about about 8 months is it better to let her have the eggs infertile of to breed her, if she is going to lay eggs reguardless? I hope you get what I'm asking, it's easier for me to think it than to type it.

I have read that if you wait to breed the female when she is older she will most likely live a bit longer and produce healthy babys, and have heard that some people have bred them younger with no problems.

I have a veiled female that has never become receptive and she is about 2. She was very young When I got her and I have kept the temps lower and fed her less. The other I have is about 7 months old and receptive, I just got her a month ago.
 
ChameleonMom said:
The general consensus was the eggs can be fertilized up to two weeks before laying but if fertilization is left this long into egg development you may find you have eggs that don't hatch, unhealthy hatchlings or hatchlings that don't survive very long. Not sure if this answers your questions but perhaps it helps! Good luck!
Click to expand...
Are you sure that is true? I have never heard of it.
 
APajak said:
I was just asking this cause I have read that you should not breed a female until she is about a year old, but if she is going to start producing her own eggs as young about about 8 months is it better to let her have the eggs infertile of to breed her, if she is going to lay eggs reguardless? I hope you get what I'm asking, it's easier for me to think it than to type it.

I have read that if you wait to breed the female when she is older she will most likely live a bit longer and produce healthy babys, and have heard that some people have bred them younger with no problems.

I have a veiled female that has never become receptive and she is about 2. She was very young When I got her and I have kept the temps lower and fed her less. The other I have is about 7 months old and receptive, I just got her a month ago.
Click to expand...

I think that's a question with no straight answear. From what I know, laying fertile eggs take more out of female then laying infertile ones. I asked the same question not more then a week ago, when my 11 month old panther was gravid, but still was receptive to males. I deciced to breed her, because overall, she was healty and had a good weight (70g, panther). I think 8 months old is still too young, but that's just my opinion ;)
 
Not trying to sound silly but why whould it take more out of the female to produce a fertile cluch over a infertile one if the babys develope outside of the body?
 
APajak said:
Not trying to sound silly but why whould it take more out of the female to produce a fertile cluch over a infertile one if the babys develope outside of the body?
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I don't know, I think fertile ones are bigger and maybe females have to give more nutrishions to them? I'm just guessing, maybe someone more experienced will give a better answear :)
 
I think that a chameleon can show receptive but not produce eggs....at least for veiled chameleons.

Regarding them producing eggs before they are a year old...I don't think it's a problem. I don't know if it happens in the wild or not but wonder if it has to do with them getting too much to eat and thus reaching sexually maturity earlier.

Regarding preventing female veileds from producing eggs....i have done this by feeding them well for a couple of days after they lay a clutch and then cutting down the amount of food so that they aren't starving but are not overfed. I also decrease the basking temperature to the low 80's to slow the metabolism. I hope that what this does is prevent the follicles from ovulating so they don't produce eggs. However...if your husbandry differs from mine it might not shut the female down completely IMHO.
 
I have done that for one of my female veileds. She has not produced any eggs and has not ben receptive at all. Which does not bother me. The female that I am taking about is actually a panther.
 
While I have been able to keep clutch sizes small with panthers I have not been able to stop them from reproducing by the method I use for the veileds. :(
 
Have you bred female panthers before they were a year old and, if so, what were your results? I am going to wait, to see what happens. But have you had and personal experience with breeding them young?
 
APajak said:
Not trying to sound silly but why whould it take more out of the female to produce a fertile cluch over a infertile one if the babys develope outside of the body?
Click to expand...

From what I have heard, it doesn't take more out of the female to produce fertile eggs vs. infertile eggs - it just takes a lot out of them in general, to produce any egg, fertile or infertile and if you can stop egg production altogether then your female will live longer!
 
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