Is she Pregnant? (Pic)
- Thread starter quikksilver8
- Start date
VerteX
Avid Member
Congrats indeed!
I'm a little concerned about the quantity of the eggs. My veiled laid 63 eggs and she only looked half the size of quicksilver's chameleon before she laid her eggs. She was not mated and it was her first clutch.
Could quicksilver's chameleon be carrying more eggs that she didn't lay? Quicksilver, can you post a picture of your chameleon after the egg laying?
Maybe Kinyonga could shed some light on this...
Thank you,
V
I'm a little concerned about the quantity of the eggs. My veiled laid 63 eggs and she only looked half the size of quicksilver's chameleon before she laid her eggs. She was not mated and it was her first clutch.
Could quicksilver's chameleon be carrying more eggs that she didn't lay? Quicksilver, can you post a picture of your chameleon after the egg laying?
Maybe Kinyonga could shed some light on this...
Thank you,
V
My veileds always lay about 2 dozen eggs and don't normally retain any. The size of the clutch can be controlled to some degree by the amount of food you feed your veiled and the temperature you keep her at. There's more to it than this...you have to control it at the right time during her cycle if you want to keep the clutches small but still have her produce eggs.
When a veiled female lays her eggs, I feed her well for a couple of days after to get her strength back up. I then decrease the amount of food I feed her and lower the temperature a couple of degrees to slow her metabolism. Once I know she has started growing the eggs, I increase the feeding and the temperature again to ensure that the eggs get the nutrition that they need...and the female too, of course. I can only assume (since I can't find a study on chameleons that proves it) that this allows only a small number of follicles to grow into eggs. (If anyone knows of any studies done on this I would love to know about it.)
BTW...this control of the size of the clutches and of stopping the clutches works for veileds....I haven't tested it completely on other species.
Vertex, you said your chameleon was not mated....so part of the difference in the size of your female before she laid could be explained by the fact that infertile eggs are smaller than fertile ones.
If a female chameleon is not bothered/watched (in other words, left in peace) during the digging and egglaying process she should lay all the eggs and not retain any. There is always the possibility of a physical problem that might prevent her from laying all the eggs though....so as always, everything is not written in stone when it comes to this. All I can say is to watch for signs of the female going down hill after she has laid the eggs...or, if you are concerned, have an x-ray taken of her to be sure.
When a veiled female lays her eggs, I feed her well for a couple of days after to get her strength back up. I then decrease the amount of food I feed her and lower the temperature a couple of degrees to slow her metabolism. Once I know she has started growing the eggs, I increase the feeding and the temperature again to ensure that the eggs get the nutrition that they need...and the female too, of course. I can only assume (since I can't find a study on chameleons that proves it) that this allows only a small number of follicles to grow into eggs. (If anyone knows of any studies done on this I would love to know about it.)
BTW...this control of the size of the clutches and of stopping the clutches works for veileds....I haven't tested it completely on other species.
Vertex, you said your chameleon was not mated....so part of the difference in the size of your female before she laid could be explained by the fact that infertile eggs are smaller than fertile ones.
If a female chameleon is not bothered/watched (in other words, left in peace) during the digging and egglaying process she should lay all the eggs and not retain any. There is always the possibility of a physical problem that might prevent her from laying all the eggs though....so as always, everything is not written in stone when it comes to this. All I can say is to watch for signs of the female going down hill after she has laid the eggs...or, if you are concerned, have an x-ray taken of her to be sure.
quikksilver8
New Member
My female is actually at my local reptile store. I know a guy that breeds them so I gave him my female because he knew all the right things to do Plus he could incubate them right away wheras I couldn't because I dont have one. I'm still an amateur and wanted to make sure it was done right. So because of this I can't post a pic till tomorrow. He said he'd feed her pretty aggressively for me to get her up to strength and so I get her tomorrow.
