Forum newbie - eggs laid

[Tigergrr]

Hello everyone. I just joined the site.

We had a female Veiled for about 4 or 5yrs, (taken on from people who couldn't/didn't know how to care for her, who told us she was probably 2) but she died last year. She never once laid eggs in all the time we had her.

We missed her a lot so I found a local breeder and ended up with 3 babies in July last year. 2 were female, 1 male, and they have lived together since then.

Last week, the largest of the two females dug an enormous hole in the floor of the viv (I provided her extra sand) and today I have sorted out a new tank for the male and excavated the eggs. There were 32 of them, some little some large. All were full and firm with a good rubbery shell and on the face of it look white, but on candleing do look more yellow. When I bred the leos, they would show up as being fertile on candleing at about day 2-3, but they hatch in a lot less time than (apparently, so I've read!) veiled's do. How long would it normally be before it was obvious one way or the other?

I've removed the eggs as in the picture, covered them with a thin layer of sand and put them in an empty viv for now. We do have an incubator but I'm still in 2 minds about whether to just let nature take it's course as I hadn't actually planned on breeding, just hadn't got around to sorting out the other tank for the male!

HERE are some pics.

Just for info, we have 3 Veiled Chams, 4 Leos, 2 Giant Madagascan Day Geckos, White Spotted Gecko, Berber Skink, Barrel Skink, Bearded Dragon

Thanks for reading...

 

[Ace]

hello welcome to the forums

im glad you removed the male out

for chameleons it is best to have them in seperate enlcosures to begin with, it can give alot of stress to the females from the male that wants to continuously mate with them....how big was your enclosure to house all three of them???

female veileds can also lay infertile eggs as well, eve nif not mated by a male.

im sorry i dont have answers to your question on whehter they are fertile or not

 

[Tigergrr]

im glad you removed the male out

how big was your enclosure to house all three of them???

Yeah, they've been in a 2ft exo. They were so tiny when we got them, there was more than enough room. It was always the intention to house them seperately, I just never got around to sorting it until today

They've had 2 seperate basking spots and tbh they have all been pretty happy and chilled out together with no spats, even 'sleeping' next to each other when they've taken themselves to bed! But if anything, it's been the male who has been less happy over the last few weeks, so was important to me to get him out for that reason more than anything.

 

[Ace]

thats good and as long as you seperated them then no worries on that area...you might need to seperate the females too but maybe with big enough space they can be fine, not sure though


hopefully someone can chime in and tell you more about the egg laying nad incubation

goodluck

 

[kinyonga]

The eggs that I can see in the picture without your hand in it look fertile. The little ones may be infertile and the bigger ones fertile. You can also expect another clutch if some of them are fertile and some not. I've never candled a chameleon egg so I can't tell you if they glow pink right away or not like gecko eggs do.

 

[Tigergrr]

Thanks Kinyonga - I will just watch them for a while. There's always things to learn that you'll never really learn until you've experienced them first-hand. It's quite exciting!

The girls seem very happy and chilled out, eating and drinking well. The male is being more animated since moving to his new house, exploring all over, and his colouration seems stronger too, so hopefully he's happier now too

 

[kinyonga]

As was already mentioned, you might want to separate the girls too. I've seen some live together for a while and then one suddenly goes down hill and dies. Can't say it always happens, but to me its not worth the risk.

 

[jdog1027]

In my experience, you can't really tell if they are fertile or not until about 3-5 months. I've candled before and it's hit or miss. For the most part, you will see tiny thread like red veins branching out throughout the egg if you've got some fertiles after a couple of months (3-5 months depending on your temperatures). I've had a question pertaining to fertile/infertile eggs, and someone told me they have had infertile eggs go as long as 8 months before they finally molded or dessicated up. So hang on to them until yopur are absolutely positive they aren't any good.

 

[kinyonga]

Its the size and color I'm going by.
Did the people who told you the infertile eggs went that long cut them open to check on what was inside them?

 

[Tigergrr]

Thanks jdog

The eggs are safe where they are and I've got a temp probe set with them. I wont mind either way to be honest but it's always quite exciting thinking you might get babies. I know I got quite impatient waiting for the leos to hatch, and that was with knowing they were good!