Too fat or developing eggs for the first time?! I don't know! :/ :(!

[KingNefarious]

I have a female veiled chameleon named Ivy. She is about 5 months old, almost 6. She seems to be getting chubbier lately and don't know whether I should be concerned. I was not sure if this was normal, because our male veiled does not eat as much. She is always hungry. But we only give her 6 crickets a day, with an occasional 3 worms in addition, perhaps every other day.

I have been watching for signs for eggs, but she hasn't been digging or scratching at the bottom of the cage at all. She does climb on the sides sometimes, but that’s all.

Can anyway tell me what to do directly after I see her begin to dig around her cage? I have a 30 gal. bin ready with sand and everything (it is 32x19x17in)

My particular question is: do I just put her in the egg laying bin as soon as possible when I see the first signs of egg lying, and then just leave her there? Also, can I attach a basking light on the side of bin to keep her warm? Or would this dry out the sand? I just wasn't sure if this had to be specific....thank you!

The pictures aren't the greatest, they are from my phone. Sorry!

I dunno if you guys want to see the cage, just in case:

 

[Elizadolots]

Put a laying bin in. I think there should be one constantly after 5 months. If you don't think you have room for a 12 inch deep bin, put something more shallow in so she has a place to go dig. You can transfer her to your larger bin once she starts scratching around.

Beyond that, she does look "lumpy". Her colors are not screaming gravid, but many have posted that with infertile clutches their females did not, so , that's not really an indicator.

 

[DavidBuchan]

She does look big for 5 months, would not be at all surprised if she were gravid. Mine didn't show gravid colours with her infertile clutch, but she did show receptive blue spots beforehand........did you notice any light blue patches previously? Keep her eating the same or even a bit less for now, that's ok- females are always hungry, it's easier to overfeed them. Here's the obligatory link to jannbs blog about laying - https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/jannb/345-egg-laying-laying-bin.html

If she has access to one basking light, that will be fine. When my girl layed she went off her food for nearly a week, scratched around for a couple of days (but not in the laying bin....) So I did as suggested by jannb and took her out of the cage, to a laying bin. She had no basking area or uv for a day, but there was a light shining so she could see. I left her in just for the one day, and she layed fine.It's still always best to have a permanent laying bin in the cage just in case........

 

[Olimpia]

I free ranged my girl at the time when she was 7ish months old and became gravid. She didn't show any signs of scratching except she got really restless - like really restless, she would get off her trees and cross the apartment all day long, as if she were looking for something. She was also a bit chubby so I decided to put her in her tall laying bin in the closet with the light on (so she could have as much privacy and quiet as possible but still see). She wanted out for a little bit but then she set to work and a good 24 hours later she was done.

After that you want to give them a nice long misting with warmish water, offer food dusted with calcium if she wants it, and let her bask. After that, up your calcium a lot when you feed her for a week or so to help her recover. Dust a lot now too, to help provide calcium if she still needs it for the eggs she's producing.

 

[ataraxia]

give her as much plain phos free calcium as you can. make sure your lighting is also good. if your bulb is older than 6mnth change it.

id try her in it now. i have a lay cage set up with no foliage in the upper part of the cage. just vines and rope that lead from the tote to the upper part of the cage. only foliage is in the tote. when i introduce them to the cage i place them in the sand. usually they will crawl right out and up the vines in the cage. If she is ready she will know what to do. just make sure to let her have time to do what she needs to do with no interaction (traffic). only lights i have are at the top of the cage.

i personally use the large laundry totes. approx 50lb's moist sand. heres some pics.

 

[sdheli420]

heres my set up..seems to work good..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtEdndZrlSM

 

[KingNefarious]

See, that's what I don't understand. Maybe it's the house we're in or the environment. We place our chameleons near windows so it's possible they have this instinct to want to go out these windows but we can't leave them in the open. Our first one, a male, is the ultimate escape artist. We have to keep him contained. The female is growing older and for SDHELI420 you have a stick leading to the bucket but if we did something like that she would climb around the rim and drop down to the ground. For a fact. Because our sand was too high, she already climbed out three times. I had to lower it in order to keep it from happening. Maybe it's too cold. Our house isn't very insulated and i put a low heat on it but she still didn't try to dig.

 

[emilybier]

Are you trying to make her stay in the bucket? She's supposed to come and go as she pleases right?

 

[Olimpia]

Not necessarily. I had a laying bin available for months but mine was clearly wanting to lay and wouldn't use it. So I got a kitchen trashcan, filled it with the laying medium and left her in it with no way out. She fussed for about 20 minutes and then spent the next 24 hours laying ~36 eggs! So they can be stubborn sometimes.

 

[KingNefarious]

Well, yeah, we basically left her in there by herself with no way out. If we even attempted a way to let her out she would try to pretty much escape and roam the house. We're trying to avoid that. Plus our place ain't big so we can't have the huge tub chilling in front of the cage because it blocks our front door. haha.

 

[ataraxia]

you have a large 5month old. from the size on your hand she looks to be around 10 months. i know this doesnt happen in every case but so far for me it has. you will know when she is ready to lay. her appetite will slow down or will go to complete refusal. she may roam the bottom of the cage. she might start showing signs of swelling in the kneck (gular edema). its very obvious to tell when she is ready or within a few days of laying.

 

[Elizadolots]

I doubt she's that big. I suspect the hands in the picture are small hands like my daughter's. I keep thinking I should take a picture of my family's hands together to illustrate how dramatically different they can be.

 

[KingNefarious]

Thanks for all the advice guys! We found a bucket to put in her cage, with moist sand, just so we won't be as worried for now. And we are keeping an eye on her also, since she isn't showing the signs that some have mentioned. I suppose she maybe just is a bit chunky for her age, she's very active though.

 

[joeandsoph]

It's funny you should say that, as this is normal behaviour right? Well everyone says to me you'll know...her appetite will slow down etc. So not the case with Tilly. When he's ready to lay eggs, her appetite doesn't slow down at all, her mood doesn't change. In fact nothing really changes at all, she sometimes scratches the bottom of the tank. So it's really difficult to know, I tend to let her have access to a laying bin most of the time. She does get very fat though, and I'll sometimes notice from behind you can see little lumps which look egg like, but then she will stretch (or get mad!) and go super skinny. Strange creatures hehe.

you have a large 5month old. from the size on your hand she looks to be around 10 months. i know this doesnt happen in every case but so far for me it has. you will know when she is ready to lay. her appetite will slow down or will go to complete refusal. she may roam the bottom of the cage. she might start showing signs of swelling in the kneck (gular edema). its very obvious to tell when she is ready or within a few days of laying.

 

[ataraxia]

any possible way you can take a pic with her next to a ruler?

guessing snout to vent 5-6 inches.