Nicodemayo
Avid Member
Well these past few weeks have been a pretty stressful one for me. Ive had a couple gravid sambava females, with one female having no issues with laying, and laid 23 large eggs after a little more than 3 weeks. Another female gave me a little more trouble than I was hoping for. This female in particular, was produced by Sandy and Elliot of Chameleons Northwest. A very beautiful greenish blue female thats very friendly, her name is Pauline. Well basically, she ate like a pig as usual for about 3 weeks until she went off food. All was well until until a week after she stopped eating she wasn't laying, nor showing any signs of laying. I had weighed her right after she stopped eating to get a quick idea of what kind of egg weight she was carrying. I will weigh females before (after they stop eating) and after they lay their eggs. She weighed 71g. I continued keeping an eye on her for laying behavior, and I would leave for most of the day and come back hoping for a skinny little Pauline, but nothing. She was in her normal enclosure for a week after she stopped eating with multiple laying bins, and a potted plant, until I decided it was time to toss her in the trash bin. I have fake plants and a planted pothos in that bin, and females will almost almost dig right at the pothos roots. I noticed some pacing more than usual so I figured she favored the trash can more than her own cage. Please note, while I watched over her, I had been viewing her through a small pin hole in a barrier around her cage, and a small hole in the lid of the trashcan. This trashcan has lights mounted in the lid, and I also mounted a misting nozzle to it as well so there is no need to bother her. Well despite the pacing, she never laid, and ended up just hanging out on her basking spot in her tub. I took a quick measurement of her weight, and she had lost alot of weight, down to 62g, but I knew she hadn't laid because she was packed full. After 36 days, and showing no signs of laying. I decided to resort to Oxytocin. It was a difficult decision and after calling my vet to request the drug, my vet advised me to wait a couple more days before pulling the trigger, nothing came after 2 more days, and she started to get a little lethargic, so I felt it was the right decision to use it. I was nervous about it, because I had never used this drug (and hopefully never have to any time soon)to get a female to lay. Long story short, I headed to the vet for some liquid calcium to inject and the oxytocin. I feared some sort of blockage was the reason for her not digging, so I was hoping everything would work out. Well, it took her about 30 minutes to drop all of her eggs, and she laid 24 of them. All were white, with normal shape and size to them, nothing out of the ordinary. I am not sure what would have cause her to not lay, and I always keep contact to an absolute minimum if possible when a female is laying. I did a thorough palpation of her after, and she is completely empty. sigh of relief. Perhaps my laying bins weren't quite right, or she wasn't digging (no pun intended) my sand and coconut fiber media. Its a delicate process if a female doesn't favor your environment, because you dont know if she'll even favor the next setup (trash bin) you have in store for her. Damn women 
. But overall, everything ended well, and the eggs look good. I snapped some quick photos while she was laying. The last photo of her was taken this morning. She is eating great, is very alert, and is making a full recovery.
. But overall, everything ended well, and the eggs look good. I snapped some quick photos while she was laying. The last photo of her was taken this morning. She is eating great, is very alert, and is making a full recovery.
