Female Veiled Coloring and Behaviour Question

[TwiceVeiled]

Hello everyone!

I was wondering if your gravid female veiled has ever flattened herself out while climbing in her free range areas, but in her light pastels and gravid colors and not in her aggressive/scared colors? Our veiled has done this about three times in the past week and I don't know why. She has beautiful light green, baby blue, pale yellow and orange ( no dark green) I have a lay bin for her and this will be her second (infertile) clutch. I have been covering her cage off and on forabout a week. Healthy, handles well, good color and good appetite.

Thanks if anyone has info on this!

 

[kinyonga]

Post a phot of it if you can.
When did she have her other clutch?

 

[TwiceVeiled]

Thanks, kinyonga! I take and post a pic of her after feeding tomorrow morning. She had her last clutch the beginning of January.

 

[TwiceVeiled]

Good morning kinyonga!

We took pics this morning so you could see her colouring. She didn't do the pancake behaviour but this will give you a sense of her and see her from different angles:

Coming for breakfast...

? Yum

Sips after breakfast

This next pic is the coloration (including the gular region) that she was when she was "pancaking" during her climbing.

Side profile

From behind and above

Free ranging for a few minutes after breakfast to see if she would do it again - she did not All the times she pancaked she was.climbing vigorously and there was at least one person in the room she didn't know we'll but that usually doesn't phase her too much...

Her cage including her lay bin...

Thanks for any input! I was curious but because she (Camilla) looked over-all healthy and unstressed I wasn't super worried - it just seemed weird....

Hope you have a great day!!

 

[kinyonga]

If there's a stranger in the room when she does the pancaking it could be that's the reason.

Nice looking chameleon! How many eggs did she lay the last time? Looks like she's going to lay quite a few eggs again this time.

 

[TwiceVeiled]

If there's a stranger in the room when she does the pancaking it could be that's the reason.

Nice looking chameleon! How many eggs did she lay the last time? Looks like she's going to lay quite a few eggs again this time.

Thank you!

She laid about 66 eggs last time. I wanted to then lower her temps and reduce diet so that she would have a smaller clutch this time but after a couple weeks of lower temps her feces started looking unhealthy so we stuck to generally reduced bugs (3-4 crickets a day with approp. gutload/supplements)

I hope she is OK She hasn't started digging yet.... should I cover her cage anyways or wait for her to give more signs? Thanks if you have any advice. She is our first cham and this is only round 2 for egg laying for us. The previous clutch started dropping out of her before she would dig...

Hope you have a beautiful day!

 

[kinyonga]

How much did you lower the temperature?

I never worry about covering the cage until they start to dig usually.

66 is a lot of eggs. It would be better for her to produce less for sure.
Did she dig the hole last time, lay all the eggs in it that were left in her and then fill the hole in and tamp it down...or just drop all the eggs all over?

 

[TwiceVeiled]

How much did you lower the temperature?

I never worry about covering the cage until they start to dig usually.

66 is a lot of eggs. It would be better for her to produce less for sure.
Did she dig the hole last time, lay all the eggs in it that were left in her and then fill the hole in and tamp it down...or just drop all the eggs all over?

I only chamged it from high eighties 90 tops..doen to low eighties, or so I thought. I have a digital temp with the little probe bar so I place the probe either on the branch or in the air at the approx spot of the middle of her body to guage temp.

Thanks..I'll wait till she starts digging to cover

I noticed her drop an egg in her free range in my presence...then found a few more in her cage, so covered her cage and after adjusting her lay bin to her liking, she dug, laid the other 60 and covered properly. I started the hope for her and sheseemed to take it

I will try temp adjustments again after this clutch....thanks for your advice!

 

[kinyonga]

That's too much of a drop all at once IMHO. You would have slowed her digestion more than I would have wanted to see.

The time to cut the food back also is a couple of days after she lays the eggs.

 

[TwiceVeiled]

That's too much of a drop all at once IMHO. You would have slowed her digestion more than I would have wanted to see.

The time to cut the food back also is a couple of days after she lays the eggs.

Thanks so much for the advice! I will try a gradual temp drop. I could tell that the first time I tried the temp drop it wasn't healthy for her but didn't understand why. That makes total sense!

This cham has been a blessing during this pandemic. We are religious sisters (hence the username twice veiled operating a retirement home and this cham keeps the residents and staff smiling! We have two residents who have previous experience and enjoyment in animal care/handling and they look forward to Camilla's visits! Amazingly enough, Camilla has her bright peaceful colors when visiting the residents... I just observe her body language and make sure we don't tire her out

Since my responsibilities won't be conducive to frequent posting here, even though it's the wrong season for it, I want to share some pics and accompanying poem in case you might enjoy it (written by Camilla of course as you have been so kind as to take time to give me some good advice. Thank you so much!!