Infertile egg laying and the beginning of breeding with my female ambilobe

[driobo1622]

Hi everyone, really happy to be here with so many experienced people I just wanted to reach out and get others peoples opinions on my situation. Currently I have a male and female pair of panther chameleons that I keep out of site of each other. My female is about 9 months old now and I am a little worried. On 12/9/20 she laid an infertile clutch of 25 eggs, and then again on 2/15/211 she laid an infertile clutch of 34 eggs. I am very concerned about the stress on her small body with the clutch being so recent. After she laid this most recent clutch I put her on the scale and she was 50 grams- is it normal for her to be this much lighter after just laying because in-between those lays she seemed to weigh around 65 grams (I know the eggs took up weight during her previous weighins but in my opinion she seemed very small to be passing that many eggs so rapidly). I eventually want to breed but I am in no rush to do so because I do not want to do anything detrimental to my females health and shorten her lifespan. Her basking temperatures reach about 92 and her lows at the opposite end are about 79- I read that excessive heat and over feeding could lead to the rapid production of eggs. Although I felt I had her on a normal feeding schedule fluctuating between 8-10 feeders (usually super worms and crickets and a few hornworms occasionally) 4 times a week. I was wondering what I should do, is it just time to breed her in a month? or do I wait even longer for her to recover- but I worry she will end up producing another infertile clutch. Thank you for any advice and I am excited to be a part of the community to share my experiences and gain knowledge from you all.

 

[Beman]

Hi there. Your temps are far too high and your feeding too much to control and reduce the number of eggs. Most will not breed a female until they are at least a year old and they have the size of the clutches within a safe healthy range for their female. Your temps and feeding are contributing to the clutches being larger as she is maturing.

Typically females will lay every 120 days. Yours is laying quite a bit closer together due to the higher temps and increased feedings.

50 grams is pretty light for a female but not out of the ordinary since she is only 9 months old. She has not finished maturing yet.

 

[kinyonga]

In addition to,what @Beman has told you...
This may help you...
https://www.adcham.com/html/taxonomy/species/fpardalis.html
"Panther chameleon breeding and ecology has been described extensively by multiple authors including, R. Bourgat (1970), W. Schmidt (1994) and R. Tremper (1994). In Madagascar, active breeding occurs during the spring and summer (October through March). West coast color phase panthers (Nosy Be, Ambanja), in a more stable climate, can breed all year. East coast panthers, however, living in a more variable climate, may have a defined breeding season (e.g., Diego Suarez, Tamatave, Maroansetra) but in the controlled environments of captivity breeding can occur year round in acclimated WC and CB animals".

Females may lay up to 4-6 clutches per year but 2-3 is more typical (and preferable). Under optimal growing conditions, sexual maturity is reached at 5 months of age. It is ideal to allow females to reach mature size before attempting breeding."