She's dropping eggs! Not burying them!

[Ilike4hornedchams]

She's dropping eggs! Not burying them!
What does this mean?
Its a Nosy be girl that I think bred with my male but never saw it consummated to confirm, so maybe they are infertile but he mated with my other female just fine, and she is starting to dig in the potted plants I give her so she's going to lay soon. So back to the point though, is this normal at all? I gathered up the eggs and so far over 2 days she's dropped about 12. Very few and not even buried. I'm guessing they are infertile, what do you all think?

 

[bobcochran]

I take it this is her first clutch? Just because the eggs are "bombed" doesn't mean they're infertile. I would treat them as fertile until proven otherwise. Try to gather them as soon as possible, they dehydrate quickly!
Although this is not common, it does happen.

 

[kinyonga]

Often this egg dropping is a bad sign of future eggbinding.I hope your husbandry has been spot on.
Good luck with her for this time!

 

[leedragon]

Often this egg dropping is a bad sign of future eggbinding.I hope your husbandry has been spot on.
Good luck with her for this time!

what would be 101 for avoiding eggbindning?

 

[jajeanpierre]

what would be 101 for avoiding eggbindning?

Exercise, good nutritional, health and small infrequent clutches. Physical fitness is rarely mentioned as an issue but the difference in strength and fitness of a newly imported wild caught and a captive hatched one is significant.

This is anecdotal evidence only but I find infertile clutches to be a little more difficult to lay.

I've had two females drop eggs--a gracilior and a quad--and the clutches were infertile.

As @bobcochran mentioned, consider them fertile unless proven otherwise.

 

[leedragon]

Exercise, good nutritional, health and small infrequent clutches. Physical fitness is rarely mentioned as an issue but the difference in strength and fitness of a newly imported wild caught and a captive hatched one is significant.

This is anecdotal evidence only but I find infertile clutches to be a little more difficult to lay.

I've had two females drop eggs--a gracilior and a quad--and the clutches were infertile.

As @bobcochran mentioned, consider them fertile unless proven otherwise.

how do you exercise a chameleon? is it recomended to mate the females with now and then to achive this small infrequent clutches?

 

[Ilike4hornedchams]

Ya I am about 80% sure she never mated with the male because I keep a pretty good watch out for these things when I allot pairings, so i think this is her first laying but they will be all infertile, my other Nosy be girl on the other hand is fertile, and still has her eggs growing so we will see. None the less, I will experiment and hold on to these eggs for a year and see what happens. Thanks for the advice yall.
I think she is pretty healthy, feel free to critique; I have an auto misting system for each, live plants that they can also dig in, UVB lights, but they also get at least 8 hours outside a week when it's warm enough for them. Also I feed them a pretty good assortment of bugs, superworms, crickets, dubia roaches, horn worms, calci worms, silkworms and the occasional wild mosquito hawk. Because I think they;re in pretty good health I am guessing they're infertile or she worked to hard digging multiple holes she didn't like and gave up lol. Just a random guess.

 

[jannb]

I would keep a close eye on your female. Make sure she is eating and drinking. Dropping eggs means the female could have health issues. I will see if I can find my old threads for when my female dropped her eggs.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/thr...-baby-needs-your-thoughts-and-prayers.114232/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/sadies-autopsy-results.114542/

 

[kinyonga]

Frequent matings wont decrease the clutch size IMHO.

 

[Action Jackson]

Exercise, good nutritional, health and small infrequent clutches. Physical fitness is rarely mentioned as an issue but the difference in strength and fitness of a newly imported wild caught and a captive hatched one is significant.

This is anecdotal evidence only but I find infertile clutches to be a little more difficult to lay.

I've had two females drop eggs--a gracilior and a quad--and the clutches were infertile.

As @bobcochran mentioned, consider them fertile unless proven otherwise.

I like the way you think Janet. I find myself agreeing with a lot of what you post.

 

[jajeanpierre]

how do you exercise a chameleon? is it recomended to mate the females with now and then to achive this small infrequent clutches?

There are a couple of ways to "exercise" your chameleons. First, don't cup feed. Make them hunt and move around looking for food. Keep them hungry so they will start looking for food.

I can't believe how many people think it is a good idea to just stuff a sedentary, overweight animal with food handed to them on a platter. Wild animals have to work. Captive animals are much happier if they have to work for their food. Zoos call it "enrichment." Studies have shown that captive animals, and humans for that matter, prefer to work for their pay (food) than receive it for free. It's called "contrafreeloading."

Give them bigger cages and cages that have more horizontal space than the current "typical" cage which at best only has 24" x 24" footprint. All the typical guidelines for caging recommends larger cages for males than females. I think the females need the biggest cages. My own females get my biggest caging.

Bigger cages coupled with having to work harder for their dinner means your chameleons will be fitter.

Thanks @Action Jackson. It means a lot especially right now when I'm pulling my hair out with the malthe females.

 

[sacmaverick]

Frequent matings wont decrease the clutch size IMHO.

Agreed

 

[Ilike4hornedchams]

Update!
So the girl has been acting very healthy again, eating, drinking more active than before she dropped the eggs even.
I let my chams play around in a 8'lx6'wx7't enclosure so they get more "excersize" than most for at least 2 days of the week. I am convinced she knew they were infertile some how because 2 of the 13 eggs have already yellowed and 5 have started molding. So maybe she's just psychic. Also the cups they have in their enclosures are for superworms and caliworms because those guys hide so well they will die of old age before my chams see them again typically, so ya my chams get to hunt crickets, hornworms and dubia fairly regularly. I think she's made a great recovery from what should have a name, but I don;t know it but a probably very common dropping of infertile eggs. Yay! Time will tell but I am now about 80+% sure shes A ok and happy to have lost the unneeded weight lol. Thanks for all your comments!

 

[sacmaverick]

Great To hear!

 

[kinyonga]

If she dropped the whole clutch she could be OK...but if she retained any she might act OK for a while and then have problems.
Make sure she continues to have access to an egglaying bin and if she becomes lethargic, sits low in the cage, sleeps during the day, etc get her to a vet ASAP.