My Girlfriend should lay soon...

[TSIshinobi]

Ok So i came into my reptile room and found my girly digging at the bottem of the cage.... not in the pot ..... so we bought a kitchen trash can and took the bottem out of her cage and put the cage ontop of the trashcan which was filled with dirt, but im guessing we might have stressed her a bit and now she wants nothing to do with the dirt, should we just wait and see what happen? i figure we give her a few days


I would post a pic of the set up but my camera is a POS

waiting to get a new one

 

[RhettusMaximus]

me too

I'm waiting for my female veiled to deposit some eggs too. I'm using a 50/50 pete moss/vermiculite mixture. What does everyone recommend to use?

 

[TSIshinobi]

Im using wet seeding soil like 95% seeding soil, rest is potting, and packed down as much as you can, so she will lay and not have the substrate fall down on her

 

[Ashley]

BTW we think she is at like day 32 or close to it. She has never laid before...

 

[stephen]

as far as soil is concerned, organic potting soil worked best for me. It has perlite in it so for first time egg retrievers, it can be challenging if you dont know what your looking for(straight from the horses mouth,ha ha). A light packing of fairly damp stuff allows the female to burrow her tunnel without collapsing. Best of luck.

 

[Duke]

TSIshinobi

How old is your Cham? I have a female veiled that is doing the same thing. I was a bit surprised though since she is 7 months old and no time with a male. That seemed a bit young (I thought) without mating to "encourage" things.

Duke

 

[lele]

I always used coco-fiber & play sand mix. Ring it out so it is not dripping wet, stick a finger in it to make sure it holds a tunnel but does not collapse. Luna readily dug in it for all her clutches. It seems every cham has her own way. Some dig test holes others (like Luna) will totally ignore any laying setups until she is ready and then just goes for it. I would just keep a set up in her cage when I had a feeling she was ready (never bred, so it was sort of guess work).

 

[Ashley]

She is about a year old and is showing all the signs that she is ready to lay...scratching around the bottom, not eating, her colors and the fact that she is big and fat. So you are suggesting we chage the substrate, or should we give it a few days first because we just changed the whole setup yesterday.

 

[kinyonga]

I don't use substrate in any arboreal chameleons' cages at all....too many of them can cause impaction or carry toxins.

I place a container filled about 2/3rds full of washed sandbox sand in the cage and moisten it. The container when empty is big enough for the chameleon to fit into with a couple of inches of space on all sides including above her. Some will actually lay their eggs in this size container and others I move to a 65 liter rubbermaid container that I have modified the lid of.

I cut a huge hole in the lid and screen over it so I can lay a light on top while she is inside. I fill the container half full of moistened washed sandbox sand, add a branch for her to climb on...a plant can be added too. I put the chameleon in it and put the lid back on and lay the light over the screened area.

TSIshinobi...since you changed things on her, I would expect that she is upset...hope she settles in and gets down to the laying. Don't let her see you watching her all the time....especially if/when she is digging.

Ashley said..."we think she is at like day 32 or close to it"...so I'm assuming you are referring to the same chameleon and that she was mated?

 

[Ashley]

Answering for TSIShinobi

Yes. We mated her about 32 days ago. I meant should I change the substrate in the laying container. Right now it is soil, should we do sand instead. She had a pot with 12 inches of soil in it in her cage but we thought the trash can would be more suitable. So we set that up for her yesterday and we were asking if that just upset her and she needs to get acclimated again or should i change the soil to sand?

Sorry for the confusion kinyonga and thanks for the advice

 

[Ashley]

She dug one hole already, I checked this morning. Bug she still hasn't laid eggs. When is the point that I should panic? We bred her on Nov. 26th and I am panicking...

 

[kinyonga]

Some females dig several test holes or dig the same hole for more than one day...just let her be and she will likely be fine.

I would worry if she stops digging and hasn't laid the eggs or if she digs a hole and fills it in AND tamps it down and hasn't laid the eggs or if she doesn't look well and sits around with her eyes closed.

Don't dig the eggs up until after she has filled the hole in completely and returned to the branches.

 

[TSIshinobi]

So.... im watching her closely through a small hole in the towel that covers the cage

heres her set up tell me what you think

 

[Chase]

So.... im watching her closely through a small hole in the towel that covers the cage

She hasnt laid yet? How long has she been digging holes?

 

[kinyonga]

She was only mated about 35 days ago according to the owners...so still within the normal parameters.

Sometimes they dig for several days before being satisfied with the hole. Once she turns around 9bum down) in the hole and stays that way the rest of the procedure should be fairly quick.

 

[Ashley]

she dug one hole yesterday, but wse leave her alone for the most part but who knows how many she has dug.

What are the tell tale signs that she has laid incase we see her after the fact and it doesn't look obvious by the soil?

 

[boothy]

dont bother her what so ever just leave her be and dont bug her if you do bug her enough she will abandon the hole site and she will hold those eggs for being in fear of bein eatin and then she will become egg bound from holding the eggs so place a towel across the cage so she cant see you move past or any traffic , but dont be worrying if shes diging test holes then she knows what to do ahah mother nature taught her good and if you think there will be problems then take her to a vet and a good one that knows about chameleons but good luck with her she sounds like she will lay no problems for you ttyl

 

[Ashley]

Thanks for the advice... I will try my absolute best. I am a doting mother what can I say...

 

[kinyonga]

You should be able to see a difference in her belly size once she has laid.

 

[Ashley]

Ok, I thought that, she is still a chubby chub. That's an easy enough way to tell. You are a mind saver kinyonga. You've kept me from losing my mind with worry. Thank you so much!