Signs of eggs ready to hatch?

[Ymasullo]

My son has a pair of Panther chameleons and we've been trying to breed them for the past year. We must have had about 4-5 clutches so far. No luck yet. I'm sharing pics of a clutch that was laid in early April 2010. We just picked out three or four shriveled eggs just now and opened them with a scalpel. You can see that we found one egg with a baby developing.
So our big question is can someone tell us if there are clues to observe when the eggs are ready to hatch? We are noticing the female is presently digging for the past 4 or so days yet again...we'll just keep trying til we get it right. It's all so exciting!

 

[Syn]

I am curious to know why you feel the need to cut open the eggs so early on? It's only been 4 months.

 

[reptoman]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/eggs-hatching-pics-41275/

Check the thread at the link above. Good pics of eggs starting to hatch. When they are ready to hatch, the eggs will begin to sweat and shrink. You should see an x shaped split on the end where the baby will eventually crawl out. The earliest you should expect them to hatch would be around 6 months although 9 months is better for strong hatchlings. You may aslo want to be careful of opening the egg container too frequently. If the eggs dry out they may never hatch properly.

 

[PedroANDAshley]

I dont know about a panther
but for a veiled....4-5 clutches in a year is alot and now shes coming up on her sixth?
You shouldnt push her so hard or she'll die young.

 

[Ymasullo]

did we make a mistake?

We thought that if the eggs started to shrivel and resemble raisins that they were no good. The other three were very non viable and yucky. Also, the clutch is probably closer to 5 months old now. (thanks for the great replies) Wow, maybe we killed it?

 

[Ymasullo]

she lays eggs no matter what

She laid the 4-5 clutches in the year, true, but we didn't put her with the male that many times. We put them together only 3 times in the year. She just feels very "womanly" I guess.

 

[Thompson]

Shouldn't a female only be bred only once a year?

 

[PedroANDAshley]

According to screameleons its average to have them lay 3 clutches a year.
6 clutches would be double what the average is.
I would not introduce them again this year :/
And its best not to open or throw away a egg thats shrivled until it molds over, people have hatched babies out of shrivled eggs before.
You might end up killing your babies, which happened to you.

 

[Ymasullo]

she lays eggs no matter what

She laid the 4-5 clutches in the year, true, but we didn't put her with the male that many times. We put them together only 3 times in the year. She just feels very "womanly" I guess.

 

[kinyonga]

Signs that eggs are getting ready to hatch should shrink in size, sweat and usually develop windows (spots that look clearer). There should then be a slit in one end of the egg after that. The baby can lay there with its head out of the egg for up to 2 or 3 days but some of them come out of the egg almost immediately.

 

[Ymasullo]

thanks

You've all been a tremendous help. The photos that people upload and the links are all terrific. Keep up the good work. If we have any further developments or success I shall be sure to post pictures.