Veiled Chameleon Wont Lay Eggs

[MikeY]

Hi my veiled is about 13 months old and has recently shown signs of ready lay some eggs. she was always on the floor of her cage digging away at the very thin layer of bark that i had there. so i then found out that its best to put playground sand at least 6 inches deep in her cage. so i filled her cage up to about 7 inches deep to be safe, everything in her cage is the same. now she has stopped trying to dig, she still continues to eat and act all normal, it has been about 3 weeks since she has started the digging attempt. i took her to the vet to get her checked up, vet says everything is fine and should be laying them really soon, its been a week and half since then and still has not laid or started digging, she has enough water, enough food, enough calcium supplement. what am i doing wrong? or is it still just too early for her, these eggs are not fertilised, i am really worried about her getting eggbound, if anyone can help me with this id greatly appreciate it, or if you need any more information i would let u know anything you need. please help asap.

MikeY

 

[emersonc]

my cham is about the same age as yours, but i have a panther, and she just layed her eggs yesterday. Do you have a place for her to lay eggs around a tree. I had a pot with siol for her to lay her eggs, but she instead chose at the base of a ficus tree. Maybe your cham wants a more secure place to lay her eggs. Chameleons are very sensitive when they are about to lay their eggs. If the only spots are on a wide open floor she may be too afraid to lay them.
Also are you around her all day? I stopped going into my room during the day so that i would not scare her off from a laying spot. Maybe try to giver her some more "private" time.

 

[MikeY]

I Dont think i have room for a potted plant in her cage. how big does the pot have to be? ive attached some pictures of her cage. i know it might be a bit small for her and i am getting her a bigger flexarium, but i cant do that now cos itll stress her with a new surrounding, or do you think i should go ahead and do that? or could i still get a potted plant in there? make room for it or something. also how long did it take for yours to lay the eggs, and i am not always home, usually i am at work, she gets enough alone time to not be stressed by ppl being around her. here are some pics of her cage, front, and the side and also a close up of her.

 

[emersonc]

With the set up that you i have, i dont think that it would be easy to have a potted plant in there. It looks like there are plenty of places for her to dig also. I dont know what to tell you. My cage setup is completly different then yours, i dont like the cages made of glass because chams cant climb on glass and there is no ventilation, also my cage is alot more crowded, i have three plants in mine for her to choose from.

I woke up the other morning (11am) to check on Shisha and she was already digging a hole at the roots of a ficus tree. I let her be all day and when i went to bed at about 1am she had stopped but was still sitting there. A little later that night, about 2 or 3 i was woken to her moving around. So for her to lay her eggs(24) is took over 12 hours, and some chams may take longer.

 

[MikeY]

i put in a put about 5 inches tall and big enough for her to climb in and put soil there, just in case she feels better with something like that, i gotta try different things, i called the vet and just waiting for him to call back so i can talk to him about it. the exact date she started acting like she needed somewhere to dig was august 26. and itll be one month this coming the 23rd. is that too long? like should she have done it by now? or just sometime soon?

 

[MikeY]

and i will be getting a flexarium as soon as i can afford one

 

[Fate X]

your gonna need a plastic trash can for her to lay her eggs in ,i was informed that a 32 gallon would work and if i remember right it gotta be filled to about 2 ft.

 

[MikeY]

how would that work? i fill up a trash can with soil or sand? and just leave her in there? cos theres no way thats gonna fit in her tank. im guessing she will need at least one vine, and what about the lights? could you explain in detail what i should do exactly?

 

[Fate X]

you put her in the container , you gotta take her out of her cage.

i used sand ,peat,soil for the mix .

fill the container to about 1 ft of the top that way she can't get out,then put her in .make sure you put a peice of screen over the top of the container so she don't get out , then put a light on for her, don't make it hot though. and then if you leave her alone overnight she'll dig all the way down and lay her eggs.


one of mine layed hers about 19" underground the other buried them shallow about a 1 ft.

i was in a similar situation because i thought she lay her eggs in her cage then someone who has lots of knowledge about this told me to get a plastic trashcan and it gotta be clean to.

you can put the can next to her cage cause it gets heavy ,moisten the mix a little so it don't collapse,like mix some water with it then squeeze the water out with your hands and put it in the trashcan until theres about 20" of mix

i used a fluker indcandesdent fixture with a reptisun compact 5.0 you could use any low watt light though as long as it don't get to hot ,connect it to your regular lighting system so it goes off at night and on in the morning she shes still on the same lighting scedule

 

[MikeY]

and wont a new environment stress her out too much?

 

[MikeY]

what light shall i use on top of the screen? the heat lamp or the UV lamp? cos i got a 75 watt heat lamp she uses in her cage. and i need something for her to climb still right? cos i heard chameleons stress when they dont have naything to climb. and is a mixture of sand and soil fine? cos thats pretty much all i have. and do i move her drip system while shes in there? or just spray regularly?

 

[MikeY]

sorry about all the questions, i just dont wanna screw anything up and i definately do not want her to die.

 

[Fate X]

not really ,both mine are still alive . just take her out 24 hours later,if shes been digging she needs to lay her eggs or she bind them

 

[Will Hayward]

Just want to note that I think you should revise your cage design.
----

I use Sand, Topsoil & Coco fiber mixed together. It should me misted with water, then mixed up, and misted again, and again, under the mix has a stong feel to it so that if she digs a long tunnel it will hold up and not collapse. If shes in there for extended amounts of time youll need to mist to keep the soild moist enough.

I do mist for drinking water in the morning, no dripper as you dont want to saturate the bottom of the tubs soil. I usually place a few silkworms inside in the event that she will eat- although manny will not.

I don't use a heat lamp, I use a florescent Coil, or a low wattage incandescent.

The whole in the lid that is not covered by the lamp I cover with a type of perferated fabric that allows airflow.

I usually put my computers webcam inside to spy on her. If she sees you she could abandon the whole shes digging and eventually become eggbound and die.

Provide vines, branches, and a plant as if it were her real cage.

 

[Fate X]

use a low wattage light like 25 watts, use topsiol cause it has no perlite.she don't need nothing for climbing while she digging to lay her eggs and don't put a dripper in either you will hydrate her after shes done,don't spray her until shes done, you can use sand and soil if thats all you have , i would get some peat if i was you ,mix it 50/50 when your done wet it and squeeze most the water out and put it in the trashcan until its about 19"-20" deep then push your hand in to see if it collapses if it don't then its ready , you can push a spot in to get her started.

put her in ,put a mesh screen over the top so she dont climb out and get lost/hurt and she will dig down then when shes got a good spot she will have a hole dug ,she'll turn around with her arms and head sticking out the top of the hole and lay her eggs , i seen mine laying them.

 

[Fate X]

theres Will he's the expert on this

 

[Will Hayward]

and wont a new environment stress her out too much?

Your cage as is, is not as suitible as it should be anyways, so I don't see any alternative. Yes there is stress for them being placed into the laying bins- but many of them go right to work and lay before returning to the top to eat their silkworms.

I'm working on some in cage alterantives, but the "laying chamber" is working well enough at the moment.

theres Will he's the expert on this

Not the expert, I just have some very co-operative females.

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."she was always on the floor of her cage digging away at the very thin layer of bark that i had there"...glad you got rid of the bark.

You said..."now she has stopped trying to dig"...when she was digging, did she dig a hole and turn around with her bum in it and stay like that at any point? Or did she just keep digging holes and abandoning them? Did she fill in any hole? Did she see you watching her when she was digging?

If a chameleon sees you watching her while she is digging a hole to lay her eggs in, she will almost always abandon it. If this happens often enough, she can get past the point of being able to lay the eggs and become eggbound.

If a chameleon doesn't find a suitable place to lay the eggs, she could become eggbound.

Some females, when they get past the point of being able to lay eggs, will dig a hole and act like the eggs were laid and fill the hole back in.

Did she look thinner since you put the sand in (after she stopped digging)? Did you dig up the sand to see if she actually laid the eggs? (You need to dig up every bit of it to be sure.

I'm hoping that yours just hasn't laid them yet or has laid them and you just aren't aware of it> If she didn't lay them then, because of your comment "it has been about 3 weeks since she has started the digging attempt"....I'm worried. It sounds like too long a time has passed since she started to dig and the fact that she has stopped digging makes me think that she is heading towards eggbinding. I would like to hear you say you dug around and found the eggs in the sand for her sake and yours.

You said..."i took her to the vet to get her checked up, vet says everything is fine and should be laying them really soon"...did the vet take xrays? Did s/he give her any calcium? Did he suggest using oxytocin?

 

[MikeY]

You said..."she was always on the floor of her cage digging away at the very thin layer of bark that i had there"...glad you got rid of the bark.

You said..."now she has stopped trying to dig"...when she was digging, did she dig a hole and turn around with her bum in it and stay like that at any point? Or did she just keep digging holes and abandoning them? Did she fill in any hole? Did she see you watching her when she was digging?

If a chameleon sees you watching her while she is digging a hole to lay her eggs in, she will almost always abandon it. If this happens often enough, she can get past the point of being able to lay the eggs and become eggbound.

If a chameleon doesn't find a suitable place to lay the eggs, she could become eggbound.

Some females, when they get past the point of being able to lay eggs, will dig a hole and act like the eggs were laid and fill the hole back in.

Did she look thinner since you put the sand in (after she stopped digging)? Did you dig up the sand to see if she actually laid the eggs? (You need to dig up every bit of it to be sure.

I'm hoping that yours just hasn't laid them yet or has laid them and you just aren't aware of it> If she didn't lay them then, because of your comment "it has been about 3 weeks since she has started the digging attempt"....I'm worried. It sounds like too long a time has passed since she started to dig and the fact that she has stopped digging makes me think that she is heading towards eggbinding. I would like to hear you say you dug around and found the eggs in the sand for her sake and yours.

You said..."i took her to the vet to get her checked up, vet says everything is fine and should be laying them really soon"...did the vet take xrays? Did s/he give her any calcium? Did he suggest using oxytocin?

well when she would try to dig in the bark yeh she would see me but she would always continue, but wouldnt get very far since she was always at the bottom, she did this for about 4 days before i was able to put sand in her cage and then didnt do anything any more. i havent left her alone for 24 hours, not long enough for her to possibly dig a hole, lay eggs and cover up again, or is that possible? i have yet to check as right now my house has a black out with no electricity but i shall dig in the sand to check but i doubt. she seems the same shape and size she always does, the vet felt her underbelly and says he feels she still has eggs there. he did not exray or anything, no more than a checkup. are you trying to say that theres no point in trying this trashcan idea thing? because tommoro i am going out to buy everything i need and put it all together as soon as i can. when you say mix everything together do you mean bit by bit mix soil and sand together, wet it and mix it up and then drain out retaining water and repeat until theres enough in the trash can? i just wanna get everything right, so theres no way for me to check in on her to see if shes ok once i put the lid on? and will a normal light bulb from a normal desk lamp be sufficient enough?

 

[Will Hayward]

We can't tell you if she has given up yet. If she has, it usually means egg binding and very possibly death. They will retain the eggs inside them and the eggs will rot, cause digesting problems, or impaction.



The sand in the photos you posted above doesn't look moist at all. It needs to be. She will dig a tunnel into the sand, not just a hole like a turtle. They will go underground so that you cannot even see them. The 5-6" or whatever that you had in that terrarium isn't enough at all.

Once you have the trash can and supplies, Just get the sand/soil/coco fiber thoroughly mixed and to contain the amount of moisture that will make it.

You can check on her, but she cant be able to see you. You will disturb her.

As said before, don't use anything with a high wattage. High wattage bulbs will heat the can and it will act like an oven.

You will probably visually know if she has laid. She should look a lot skinnier.