Gravid or not? [Pictures included]

[Jakama]

I have a few questions concerning gravidity. I have a female veiled chameleon who is about six months old (info sheet later down) and I suspect that she may be carrying eggs. I have suspected this for a week or so. She has a slight bulge in the back of her abdomen, and she may have been gravid when I purchased her a month ago. She was kept in awful conditions, crowded together with about six other chameleons in a small glass enclosure. I am not sure, but one of these chameleons may have impregnated her. If not, then an infertile clutch is still a distinct possibility, since she is of breeding age. What puzzles me is that she does not have black and yellow coloration like I see in most pictures of gravid females. Does this only occur in females that are about to lay? My chameleon has had a slightly more pale complexion of late, and I guess it has been getting a bit more like the gravid coloration, but I really don't know.
Info sheet:
Female veiled chameleon, about five months old. Owned her for four weeks. I handle her about one time every week. I feed her medium to large crickets- about eight per day on a normal day. I feed the crickets fresh carrots and green beans, with the occasional mango slice. I dust them with Zoomed Repti Calcium without D3, and twice a month with Calcium with D3. Soon I will be purchasing multivitamins as another dusting supplement, which I will use twice a month. I mist her twice a day with hot water (comes out lukewarm), and I have a cup of water with a hole in it that I fill up about once a day. I do see her drinking water from this. Fecal matter is dark brown, sometimes with a white section. I have never tested her for parasites. She received a burn on her left side on the second day we got her, but the situation that caused this has been remedied- I moved the lamp.
Cage is about 24x24x36 inches, wire mesh. During the day, I use a 60W house lamp and a 15W UVB tube lamp (33% UVA, 10% UVB). At night it gets pretty cold, so I use a space heater to keep the temperature at about 60 degrees. I switch it to daytime lighting at around 8:00 AM, and switch it to nighttime lighting at around 8:00 PM. I am using two live ficus in my enclosure, as well as a climbing vine, a large piece of driftwood, a piece of bamboo with numerous shoots, and a fake bush. I have also placed a pot that is ten inches deep and eight inches in diameter in case she needs to lay eggs. I keep the temperature in the enclosure between 70 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit, and I try and keep the humidity at around 60%. The temperature of her basking spot is about 80 degrees. The table that the enclosure is resting on is about three feet off of the floor. I keep her enclosure in my room, and people do tend to walk around this room several times a day. This provides the advantage of being able to keep an eye on her throughout the day. Her enclosure is next to a window, so she gets plenty of natural light during the day in addition to her two normal lights. This window is always closed, but I keep the blinds open. The sun never shines directly through this window. I am located in Sonoma County in California. I live about an hour north of San Francisco.

Pictures:

This is not her regular coloration, she was stressed out by the photoshoot.

Basically my main questions are:
-Does she appear to be gravid?
-If she is, how should I change her husbandry?
-How long do veiled chameleons gestate for?

 

[Jakama]

Sorry to be a nuisance, but I am really curious about this. Is there a way to tell if her clutch is fertile?

 

[facelesdoll]

does she eat and drink plenty while of this coloration? when did she turn these colors in the affect of after buying her? at 6 months she shouldnt be producing eggs unless she infact were actually bred, to my experience anyways. i have by accident found that some 5 month old veiled males may be active with females, and in the event of breeding a female will produce eggs. but doubtedly just from seing or being near a male in the same cage or not. a female will produce eggs on her on in either case of seing or not seing a male but this tends more so to happen after 6 month age range, and more so toward the 9 month and older mark. atleast this is what i have experienced. hopefully someone else will chime in and help you out here, as many perspectives are always good to have. but she just looks asthough something is stressing her out, those are more so stress colors in my eyes. hope this helps a bit.

 

[Jakama]

She isn't usually of this coloration, it was only because I had to put my hand in her enclosure to take pictures. So you're saying that some females produce eggs when they just see a male?

 

[ChameleonsInMyHouse]

after reading she was in a terrible set up enclosed with many other chameleons, there is a huge possibility she could have mated with another chameleon in the enclosure. if she is approx. 5ish months, then she is sexually mature and is able to become gravid both with infertile and fertile clutches. however this is NOT healthy whatsoever, also, if she these are fertile eggs, it can be worse, as females can retain sperm and produced a total of up to 3 clutches! this is something you do not want until the chameleon is a year old or well over that.

you said.."What puzzles me is that she does not have black and yellow coloration like I see in most pictures of gravid females. Does this only occur in females that are about to lay? My chameleon has had a slightly more pale complexion of late, and I guess it has been getting a bit more like the gravid coloration, but I really don't know."
-
- females will not always show the gravid coloration, and if so, yes it is very close to when they will lay. she is still young that she may not even be old enough to even develop those particular colors.


In Regards to your Help Form:

you need to do some research on gutloading. i am not sure if green beans are high in oxalic acids, i have never used the, but those ingredients alone arent very nutritious enough (females share their vitamins and calcium in egg production, deficiency or overdoses are dangerous and can lead to major complexions or edema illnesses.

how often do you dust with plain calcium? as long as your calcium supplemements do not contain phosphorus than you should be good. i suggest Rep-Cal brand for all suppliments. especially multivitamins which they do not use prEformed Vit A.

you said her urate is "sometimes" white. your goal is to maintain a white urate. i would suggest buying a Little Dripper from Zoomed. you can find a small one for about 5-6$

you said.."15W UVB tube lamp (33% UVA, 10% UVB)" what exactly does this mean? our typical UVB bulb is a ReptiSUN 5.0UVB manufactured in the linear flourescent tube style.

you said..| i keep the temperature in the enclosure between 70 - 85 degrees. maintain this untill after she has laid the eggs (if she has any) after that, maintain them around 81-82 degrees for a female.

"I keep her enclosure in my room, and people do tend to walk around this room several times a day." if she is gravid, providing a laying bin her cage is a must. but high traffic worries me. you will have to make sure there is no visual to people walking in the room. females NEED privacy. failure to provide any visual barriers can and will lead to an eggbound chameleon.



I honestly cannot tell you if she is gravid or not, but just watch for more gravid behavior patterns. if it makes you feel better, have an x-ray done and a blood test to see her vitamin and calcium levels. that would be beneficiary anyways and easier to have her lay in the long run. this part is only my opinion though.,

 

[Jakama]

Thanks for all the info, that's great. I use this info sheet for nutrition, it was recommended to me by someone here: http://www.greenigsociety.org/foodchart.htm. I dust all my crickets with plain calcium.
Forgot to update that, her poo is always brown with a white tip.
How much does the 5.0 cost? We're sort of low on funds for the chameleon right now, we made some mistakes in the original purchase (this is our first chameleon), so if we don't have to buy it we'd rather not.

 

[ChameleonsInMyHouse]

Thanks for all the info, that's great. I use this info sheet for nutrition, it was recommended to me by someone here: http://www.greenigsociety.org/foodchart.htm. I dust all my crickets with plain calcium.
Forgot to update that, her poo is always brown with a white tip.
How much does the 5.0 cost? We're sort of low on funds for the chameleon right now, we made some mistakes in the original purchase (this is our first chameleon), so if we don't have to buy it we'd rather not.

you are very welcome, im glad to help. your crucial things to buy for your chameleon are lights and fixtures and supplements, everything else you can improvise. trust me, we all know how expensive it is. one great thing though, the more knowledgable you become in chameleons and reptiles, the cheaper it is for you, and the more you can improvise with dollar store material and things around the house.. its great, and the more you become knowledgable in chameleons and husbandry equiptment, the more money you can save and the more chams you can buy ! lol.

Heat domes 8-14$
24'' T8 flourescent light fixture 12-20$+ (buy at lowe's, home depot)
Heat Bulb 1-3$ (Incandescent house bulb, buy at any hardware store or dollar store)
24'' ReptiSUN 5.0 UVB 15$+ (prices vary where you buy, call your local petshops and ask around, or check out one of our site sponsors)

 

[Jakama]

Hehe, yeah, from what I've read most new owners get a pretty raw deal in terms of expenditures. We bought orchid bark substrate, two 100W heat lamps, and a bunch of mealworms. It's amazing that pet stores can actually get away with lying to customers! It's a great thing I discovered this forum- my mother had suggested purchasing another chameleon to put in the cage with our first one. We thought it was normal because of what we saw at the pet store!
Anyways, I only need one heat source and one fluorescent fixture, right? The price index is much appreciated.

 

[ChameleonsInMyHouse]

Hehe, yeah, from what I've read most new owners get a pretty raw deal in terms of expenditures. We bought orchid bark substrate, two 100W heat lamps, and a bunch of mealworms. It's amazing that pet stores can actually get away with lying to customers! It's a great thing I discovered this forum- my mother had suggested purchasing another chameleon to put in the cage with our first one. We thought it was normal because of what we saw at the pet store!
Anyways, I only need one heat source and one fluorescent fixture, right? The price index is much appreciated.

yup one source of each

 

[eisentrauti]

after reading she was in a terrible set up enclosed with many other chameleons, there is a huge possibility she could have mated with another chameleon in the enclosure

Hi Phil,

this thesis doesnt work for chameleons. If some males are together with some females in one cage, the males would never concentrate on impressing a female. They will fight and stress each other the hole time. It's completely impossible for them to concentrate just on the mating behaviour if they are surrounded by potential enemies/competitioners
Based on this and on the pics may she can have some infertile eggs but I cant imagine that she was fertilised. There can be a chance if she lived for a day or so just together with one male, but under the extremely stressfull situation of several chameleons at the same time it's impossible.

Benny

 

[ChameleonsInMyHouse]

and the patient game of incubating unknown eggs is on. thanks for that Benny, it does make sense, and i appreciate the correction.

 

[Jakama]

The thing is, we have no place to raise babies, so even if they were fertile I don't think we would try and keep them alive. Although...
Would you imagine any pet store would accept them if they were fertile? I'd hate to kill the eggs, but I don't see any other options.