Gravid Veiled

[aeon76]

Hi,
My female veiled chameleon, Mallory is gravid and has stopped eating. She is drinking plenty of water, but has shown no intrest in her crickets for two days. Is this normal? Tomorrow it will be 30 days since she has matted. I have a tub of sand and peat moss set up for her to lay her eggs in. I'm worried that she will not have enough strength too because she isn't eating. Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks,

 

[Brad]

Hello aeon, welcome to the chameleon forums

I have never bred chameleons, so I don't have a lot of advice to offer. I would check out ChameleonNews.com. They offer a whole section on prenatal and neonatal care. They also have nice articles on nutrition that might help you with what to feed you cham while she is gravid.

There are others on the forums that do have experience with this, so if you have further questions go ahead and ask.

 

[aeon76]

Thanks Brad,

I found out she wasn't eating because she was ready to lay her eggs. Yesterdau she stared digging a hole at 9 am. She finished the entire process at 4:20pm. Mallory laid 23 eggs! As soon as she was done she ate and drank some water. She is doing well. I have put her eggs in an incubator with vermiculite.

 

[Brad]

That is a lot of digging. I bet she was tired. Keep us updated

 

[aeon76]

We went ot he vet yesterday and she is doing fine. She has no eggs left in her. I am now incubating her eggs and it looks like all but one are fertile so far.

 

[mchiara]

Hello, I am new to the forum.
My veiled chamaeleon bred 10 days ago. Since the presence of the male was upsetting the female, I moved her in a new cage with sand where she could lay eggs when ready. As soon as I moved her out of the male sight she has lost her "aggressive/pregnant" colororation (black/yellow/blue). She is also showing some stress (got olive green color). She has plants in her new cage, food, misting, thermostats...still, I don't know what is stressing her.
Can anyone help?
Thank you

 

[dodgen]

Hey you have nothing to worry about, my veiled has been bred twice. She is currently in the egg laying chamber as we speak and she is always a shade of green. The only time she will show that dark black color with the yellow and blue is when she sees or is near the male. Thats her way of telling him that she wants nothing to do with him. You're fine make sure you don't let any crickets run free in the sand it could do her tons of damage if she ingest any sand. What I do is hold the cricket for her. That way she's gets used to me plus you don't have to worry about her ingesting something she wasn't suppossed to. If she won't take the cricket this way you could put a small container in the chamber with her, but in order to make sure the crickets don't jump out rip off their back legs. Gross I know but remember it's for her. Hope this helps.

 

[aeon76]

My female chameleon didn't want anything to do with the male after matting. She would hiss at him and turn dark colors. Here is a link to pictures of her while she was gravid and before.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45388970@N00/

Also, even though I put a bucket of sand in her cage, she did lay the eggs until I placed her in a tub of sand that she couldn't crawl out of. I would put her in there only an hour a day.

 

[dodgen]

I know once matting has become successful the female will turn dark and hiss at at any sight of the male, if she's not gravid she will stay the same color and ignore the male. She might have laid the eggs tub because she perferred it or because she was ready at that time. After the 15th day from when they mated I placed the female in the egg laying chamber and the first time it take her about 25 days and half a dozen tunnels before she finally laid 28 eggs.

 

[mchiara]

I moved my female in the egg laying cage one week after mating since I thought the sight of the male (he was still going after her) could have stressed her too much.

She is now 10 days post mating. Based on your experience, after how many days from mating the veiled chamaleon lay eggs? I read in some books about 15, but from your messages seems to be more than that.

 

[jvillereptile]

i just want everyone to know when breeding chameleon make sure they are getting a lot of vitamins and calcium. i just lot my 2 year old chameleon after he laid her first clutch of eggs ( 44 eggs) 9 of which are good and she had problems eating. i dusted her crickets and superworm with herptivites and calcuim very day up until she stopped eating before eg laying and after she got done laying she wouldn't eat i had to hand feed her crickets everyday until she died on me the day after christmas. my other 2 females i am uping there vitamins and calcuim but the are still to young to breed.