URGENT EGG LAYING
- Thread starter Z33
- Start date
Z33
Member
Update: It's too late for me to remove the eggs, it's already time for her lights off and I dont want to disturb her. Going to check in the AM. She has a vet visit to make sure she's okay post laying. She appears to have a lil skin peeling going on, on her ear. She's been a dark color all day. Is drinking water.
Z33
Member
Wouldn't it make sense though to get the eggs before the visit in the morning to count how many she laid and see what they look like?
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
Yes, get the eggs out and count them so you can tell the vet (and us). The vet may do an x ray to make sure she got all of the eggs out. Do keep us posted. 
Also, yes, the plants you mention are safe. The cat palm appears to be the same or super similar to parlor palm, which I’ve been using without issue.
Also, yes, the plants you mention are safe. The cat palm appears to be the same or super similar to parlor palm, which I’ve been using without issue.
Z33
Member
Thanks! I will!Yes, get the eggs out and count them so you can tell the vet (and us). The vet may do an x ray to make sure she got all of the eggs out. Do keep us posted.
We are at the vet now and I'm crossing my fingers she got everything out. Even found some white and yellow urate in the pot too.
Z33
Member
Hello,
Update..it's been 2 days almost 3 since my chameleon saw the vet. She's still got that dark, grayish color since being seen. Except at night when she is asleep. She hasnt even moved from her spot. The vet said she looked fine. We didnt run any bloodwork just xray and ultra sound to check for eggs. She's been misted and covered. Since then. The vet wanted her to go straight home after the appointment to de-stress but she hasnt still..
Update..it's been 2 days almost 3 since my chameleon saw the vet. She's still got that dark, grayish color since being seen. Except at night when she is asleep. She hasnt even moved from her spot. The vet said she looked fine. We didnt run any bloodwork just xray and ultra sound to check for eggs. She's been misted and covered. Since then. The vet wanted her to go straight home after the appointment to de-stress but she hasnt still..
Sonny13
Chameleon Enthusiast
If she came out free from eggs from x-ray, then the poor thing is still recovering from the whole stressful situation. Egg laying is one thing, but then also to a vet for x-rays is another. My veiled stays normally one till two dark / greyish after she laid, probably with the added stress your girl needs a bit longer. She does eat and drink? Maybe an extra snack to sheer her up.
Z33
Member
She does eat, we are not sure if she's been drinking but she has access to that fountain and we mist regularly.
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
My girl stays dark for a bit after laying too. Normally she doesn’t move around a whole lot, so I haven’t noticed anything different with that. Give her a few days and she should be back to her normal.
Sonny13
Chameleon Enthusiast
Drinking is difficult to see mostly, we can see in the urates. However, fountain? Those are not recommended to use with chameleons, and yes they sell them as chameleon accessoires, but they’re unhealthy because you’ll never know when feces get in and you’re chameleon drinking it. A dripper is a better alternative
Z33
Member
So. As you know I've taken my Chameleon to the vet after her first laying. I just wanted to make sure after her first time, she was healthy and all the eggs got out. My family members think I wasted money for the doctor to give me a "maybe" that all eggs are out. The vet only had said a "maybe" for the xray not the ultra sound. She couldnt see anything egg -like on the ultrasound and the xray only showed a tiny lump in the ova duct but could have been fecal matter or Roaches she had eaten in the GI. So she couldn't officially rule out. But she wasnt concerned. My family said my chameleon was fine after laying; and that she had been up on the branch like the picture from previously posted in the chat. They said that I let my anxiety get the best of me. They said she wasnt exhibiting signs of restlessness after laying that would have signified she had eggs left in her. They said I could've made her worse after taking her to the vet causing her unnecessary stress. Now I feel somewhat guilty. But the thing is. This vet is only available Mondays-Weds. There arent many vets that see Chameleons in my area. Last time I called around, it was a 2 week wait for some hospitals or their exotics vet wasnt there altogether. Thus, I wanted to avoid any complications going late into the week or weekend and be stuck not knowing. So..am I wrong?
Sonny13
Chameleon Enthusiast
I think you did good. Just give your girl time to destress and she’ll be back to normal in no time. Better to go one time to often then don’t go. Mostly we only see the last ones, that are trying to avoid a vet and asking us for a miracle to skip the bill. You did good 
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
IMHO, absolutely not wrong. Sometimes with chameleons, we need that peace of mind from having a vet visit. Chameleons aren’t like cats and dogs, where we often have an idea that something is wrong. With chameleons, often they can show no signs that anything is wrong until it’s too late to do much for them.
Regarding the stress of taking her out of her enclosure and physically to the vet, it is stressful, but not one that lasts long. It is the chronic or truly severe stress that we need to avoid. As for anxiety, welcome to keeping a female chameleon.
They are the most wonderful and beautiful and so full of personality…but anxiety about egg laying is common.What helps me so much is I know that as long as my husbandry is as perfect as I can get it, and I am taking steps to reduce egg production, the risks of problems occurring are minimal. Give me a bit of time and I’ll go back and review your husbandry.
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
My Chameleon: 2.5 yr old Veiled Chameleon, Gender: Was technically unknown however the Vet and I suspected Female due to her appearance, and I've treated her as female for those years. Even had a lay bin in there up until last October. There is a reason for that but for another story time. She has been in my care for over 2 years. We brought her home at when we believed her to have been 6 months old. I bought her at a pet store I used to work at, she was the favorite of the store, well beloved. I now work at a Vet clinic myself.
Handling: I do not handle my chameleon, I give her plenty of space, I do NOT tweezer feed her. I do however semi hand feed her with a small plastic bowl/plate. I prefer to have to handle her only via cage care and vet visit as minimal as possible so as not to caus stress. She does not prefer to be handled. Most chameleons and especially veiled just want to be left alone. However, you can and should work on building trust to make those times you do need to handle her a bit less stressful for you both. This is a great blog on that. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/building-trust-with-your-chameleon.2396/
Feeding and Supplements: I feed my Cham Dubia roaches 5/8-3/4 inches. The amount varies, anywhere between 6-8 roaches every other day or every other 2 days. To reduce the amount of eggs she produces you need to cut her back to 3-4 feeders, 3 days a week, plus occasional treats. I feed mine Mon, Wed & Fri and one of the weekend days I’ll give a treat bug. The feeders are gut loaded with carrot. You can definitely improve on this. Attaching some graphics on feeders and ‘gutloading’. However, I and many don’t specifically but load, but instead just keep our feeders fed. I dont give the feeders supplement because they would keep dieing. Example: my large crickets especially. Crickets can be a challenge at times to keep alive. They are dirty stinky things and need to be kept clean and well ventilated or the gases from their poo will kill them. I supplement my cham by dusting the feeders with Repashy Vitamin A, Reptivite, Calcium plus with vitamin D, or Calcium without Vitamin D. I give this once a week and every other week.
This really needs to be corrected. You want to dust every feeding with a phosphorus free calcium without D3 except when using a different supplement. Then, one feeding every other week you want to use either Repashy calcium plus LoD or Reptivite with D3. This is all you need and you do want to dust lightly and not make the bugs look like powdered donuts. Do NOT use the vitamin A or anything else. The Repashy vitamin A, ReptiVite and Calcium Plus all contain preformed vitamin A which is fat soluble. Vitamin D3 is also fat soluble. What that means is these are not quickly excreted by the body, but instead build up and can easily build up to toxic levels. They are essential, but need to be used with caution. I have a reptile calender of my feeding days and with which supplements I can take a picture of later. She'll eat once a day every other day. Sometimes every other 2 days.
Water: Prior to egg laying she had a dripper that for years was great but was giving us issues, with the flow, not getting onto the leaves as much, it'd either drain out too fast, or lil to not at all, she would actually go to the bottom to drink the water and we didnt want that. So we found that water leaf fountain picture I attached in previous chat from Amazon and we have seen her drink from it. I'm thinking of including the dripper along with the foubtain. Drippers are fine to use and can be as simple as a plastic party cup with a pinhole poked in it. You don’t want a dripper to run all day. Usually just 15-20 minutes is enough time. You do want to mist/spray for at least 2 minutes right before lights go on, off and if you aren’t using a dripper, maybe for a minute at mid day. Get rid of the fountain. No matter how well we clean it, it still can build and grow bacteria. If you want something automatic, maybe think about a misting system like a Mist King. It’s a bit pricey, but well worth it imo. We do mist 2-3 times a day with warm water mixed with repti-safe.
Fecal: She has never been tested for parasites. Since she was just seen by the vet, now is the perfect time to have a fecal done. Just give a call and tell the vet that you’d like it done and drop off a fresh poo. They should NOT require another visit for this. She's always gone a lot of urate and fecal. It's usually yellow and white and brown. The time we had noiced orange was when she wasn't getting enough from the dripper and the misting was only doing so much so we msited more often in that period of time and she went back to normal with the fountain added in.
History: Not really. Ive had her 2 years. She wasnt in pet store for long, we took her home within 1-3 weeks of her arrival or so. She was last seen by a vet 2 years ago and diagnosed as healthy. She's always been healthy, eating, drinking, defecating, urinating normally. We have upgraded her habitat several times. And communicated with a vet over the years and experienced ones.
To be continued with the rest of your info.
Handling: I do not handle my chameleon, I give her plenty of space, I do NOT tweezer feed her. I do however semi hand feed her with a small plastic bowl/plate. I prefer to have to handle her only via cage care and vet visit as minimal as possible so as not to caus stress. She does not prefer to be handled. Most chameleons and especially veiled just want to be left alone. However, you can and should work on building trust to make those times you do need to handle her a bit less stressful for you both. This is a great blog on that. https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/building-trust-with-your-chameleon.2396/
Feeding and Supplements: I feed my Cham Dubia roaches 5/8-3/4 inches. The amount varies, anywhere between 6-8 roaches every other day or every other 2 days. To reduce the amount of eggs she produces you need to cut her back to 3-4 feeders, 3 days a week, plus occasional treats. I feed mine Mon, Wed & Fri and one of the weekend days I’ll give a treat bug. The feeders are gut loaded with carrot. You can definitely improve on this. Attaching some graphics on feeders and ‘gutloading’. However, I and many don’t specifically but load, but instead just keep our feeders fed. I dont give the feeders supplement because they would keep dieing. Example: my large crickets especially. Crickets can be a challenge at times to keep alive. They are dirty stinky things and need to be kept clean and well ventilated or the gases from their poo will kill them. I supplement my cham by dusting the feeders with Repashy Vitamin A, Reptivite, Calcium plus with vitamin D, or Calcium without Vitamin D. I give this once a week and every other week.
This really needs to be corrected. You want to dust every feeding with a phosphorus free calcium without D3 except when using a different supplement. Then, one feeding every other week you want to use either Repashy calcium plus LoD or Reptivite with D3. This is all you need and you do want to dust lightly and not make the bugs look like powdered donuts. Do NOT use the vitamin A or anything else. The Repashy vitamin A, ReptiVite and Calcium Plus all contain preformed vitamin A which is fat soluble. Vitamin D3 is also fat soluble. What that means is these are not quickly excreted by the body, but instead build up and can easily build up to toxic levels. They are essential, but need to be used with caution. I have a reptile calender of my feeding days and with which supplements I can take a picture of later. She'll eat once a day every other day. Sometimes every other 2 days.Water: Prior to egg laying she had a dripper that for years was great but was giving us issues, with the flow, not getting onto the leaves as much, it'd either drain out too fast, or lil to not at all, she would actually go to the bottom to drink the water and we didnt want that. So we found that water leaf fountain picture I attached in previous chat from Amazon and we have seen her drink from it. I'm thinking of including the dripper along with the foubtain. Drippers are fine to use and can be as simple as a plastic party cup with a pinhole poked in it. You don’t want a dripper to run all day. Usually just 15-20 minutes is enough time. You do want to mist/spray for at least 2 minutes right before lights go on, off and if you aren’t using a dripper, maybe for a minute at mid day. Get rid of the fountain. No matter how well we clean it, it still can build and grow bacteria. If you want something automatic, maybe think about a misting system like a Mist King. It’s a bit pricey, but well worth it imo. We do mist 2-3 times a day with warm water mixed with repti-safe.
Fecal: She has never been tested for parasites. Since she was just seen by the vet, now is the perfect time to have a fecal done. Just give a call and tell the vet that you’d like it done and drop off a fresh poo. They should NOT require another visit for this. She's always gone a lot of urate and fecal. It's usually yellow and white and brown. The time we had noiced orange was when she wasn't getting enough from the dripper and the misting was only doing so much so we msited more often in that period of time and she went back to normal with the fountain added in.
History: Not really. Ive had her 2 years. She wasnt in pet store for long, we took her home within 1-3 weeks of her arrival or so. She was last seen by a vet 2 years ago and diagnosed as healthy. She's always been healthy, eating, drinking, defecating, urinating normally. We have upgraded her habitat several times. And communicated with a vet over the years and experienced ones.
To be continued with the rest of your info.
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
Cage info: It is the reptibreeze I think it is the 30inch 16inch 30inch, it was one of the biggest one. There is a bigger one that is 2x2x4’ and that is the one that you really need. That is the minimum size recommended for adults. Posting a pic of the two next to each other so you can see the difference. We went to Reptile Expo and bought a ton of stuff for her upgrade and confirmed our current set up is excellent according to 2 vets.
Lighting and temp:
We have one dome lamp in there with a red -either between 50-70 watt No red or colored lights…harmful to sensitive little googly eyes. You can use a regular old fashioned incandescent bulb, halogen or reptile basking bulb…just no colors. I cant remember but I have the bulb box it came in. Our room runs hot so we went with low wattage. We keep her between 70-80 degrees per vet. Good. I try to keep my girls at 80 but no higher. It goes along with the diet for reducing egg production. Different sides of the cage. With the larger enclosure, the gradients of temp and humidity will be up and down, which is ideal. We do have a temp gun. Ok. This only measures surface temps. I suggest getting a digital thermometer with a probe end to measure where she basks for the most accurate reading. She has a long uvb panel/bulb I cant remember which wattage right now but I make sure to check it is good with a uv sensor card and it's never failed me. This is really important to know. The current standard is a T5 fixture with either a ReptiSun 5.0 or Arcadia 6% uvb bulb. Then to have the ideal uvb level, you want a distance of around 8-9” between uvb light and basking area. Unfortunately, the uvb sensor cards will only show if there is any uvb output, but not measure how much. For that you’d need a solarmeter 6.5, which is pricey. It’s usually just best to replace the bulbs every 6 months for ReptiSun and every year for Arcadia. If you read the end on the uvb bulb, it will tell you if it’s a T5 or T8 and the strength of the uvb. Then we can figure out if needed now to make sure your little beauty is getting the best uvb for her. Thus far. I do keep up with replacing bulbs. It runs between 65-70 degrees at night. Coldes maybe mid 50's. Excellent! With these lower temps, you should add a cool mist humidifier at night and boost humidity as high as you can. This simulates the hydration chameleons get in the wild thru fog. If you can do this, you won’t need a dripper at all.
Humidity: 50's. I monitor with a humidity room monitor it's magnetic, next to cage. It's extremely accurate. Ok. You don’t want it any higher during the day as the ideal range for veiled is between 30-50%. Having excellent ventilation is also important, which you have with a screen enclosure.
Plants: Large umbrella plant. Fake vines and real, cleaned, branches. Only few leaves fake on the hanging decor. I prefer real. All safe and real plants are best, especially for our veiled girls. It only takes one bite of a fake leaf and she could get a serious bowel obstruction. Pothos is amazing for chams and appears to be quite tasty too. I always keep a back up of pothos for when my girl has stripped the leaves off hers. Very easy to make more of them from clippings.
Lighting and temp:
We have one dome lamp in there with a red -either between 50-70 watt No red or colored lights…harmful to sensitive little googly eyes. You can use a regular old fashioned incandescent bulb, halogen or reptile basking bulb…just no colors. I cant remember but I have the bulb box it came in. Our room runs hot so we went with low wattage. We keep her between 70-80 degrees per vet. Good. I try to keep my girls at 80 but no higher. It goes along with the diet for reducing egg production. Different sides of the cage. With the larger enclosure, the gradients of temp and humidity will be up and down, which is ideal. We do have a temp gun. Ok. This only measures surface temps. I suggest getting a digital thermometer with a probe end to measure where she basks for the most accurate reading. She has a long uvb panel/bulb I cant remember which wattage right now but I make sure to check it is good with a uv sensor card and it's never failed me. This is really important to know. The current standard is a T5 fixture with either a ReptiSun 5.0 or Arcadia 6% uvb bulb. Then to have the ideal uvb level, you want a distance of around 8-9” between uvb light and basking area. Unfortunately, the uvb sensor cards will only show if there is any uvb output, but not measure how much. For that you’d need a solarmeter 6.5, which is pricey. It’s usually just best to replace the bulbs every 6 months for ReptiSun and every year for Arcadia. If you read the end on the uvb bulb, it will tell you if it’s a T5 or T8 and the strength of the uvb. Then we can figure out if needed now to make sure your little beauty is getting the best uvb for her. Thus far. I do keep up with replacing bulbs. It runs between 65-70 degrees at night. Coldes maybe mid 50's. Excellent! With these lower temps, you should add a cool mist humidifier at night and boost humidity as high as you can. This simulates the hydration chameleons get in the wild thru fog. If you can do this, you won’t need a dripper at all.
Humidity: 50's. I monitor with a humidity room monitor it's magnetic, next to cage. It's extremely accurate. Ok. You don’t want it any higher during the day as the ideal range for veiled is between 30-50%. Having excellent ventilation is also important, which you have with a screen enclosure.
Plants: Large umbrella plant. Fake vines and real, cleaned, branches. Only few leaves fake on the hanging decor. I prefer real. All safe and real plants are best, especially for our veiled girls. It only takes one bite of a fake leaf and she could get a serious bowel obstruction. Pothos is amazing for chams and appears to be quite tasty too. I always keep a back up of pothos for when my girl has stripped the leaves off hers. Very easy to make more of them from clippings.
elizaann2
Chameleon Enthusiast
I’ve taken all my chams to the vet over anxiety concerns myself. For me it’s just part of my process. I would rather spend the money and know they are ok than sit and wonder and stress. It’s bad for me cuz I’m stressed and it’s bad for my chams cuz then I’m all up in their business too. You did nothing wrong. Don’t beat yourself up over it. It’s better to take your girl to the vet and get an ‘alls clear’ or ‘let’s keep an eye on it’ than to need a vet and not go at all.
