Veiled female acting strange..

lanaya

Member
Chameleon Info:
Handling -not as often in winter a couple times a week, don't want to make her too cold outside her cage
Feeding - crickets, she wont really eat anything else but spiders, and i have cricket pellets i feed the crickets. feed her every morning, she hasnt been eating as much recently so i give her maybe 12 crickets a day but she doesn't always eat them all
Supplements - every feeding i give her zoo med repti calcium without d3 and twice a month i give her the zoo med repti calcium and exoterra multivitamin
Watering -i have a little dripper i turn that on for a couple hours a day, on an off through out the day and i mist the cage maybe twice a day as well, she loves to sit under the dripper but i don't often see her drink.
Fecal Description -never been tested for parasites, poops alot of hard brown poops, not as big poops now that she eats less but still quite a bit and she also poops white runny poops but not as often.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - 1.5x1.5x3 ft
Lighting - bulb is exoterra solar glo 160w uva uvb heat bulb, right now her schedule is about 8a-8p im thinking about shortening it since its winter and the days are shorter.
Temperature - from about 27C at the very lowest to 32C at the very highest. usually from 28C-31C
Humidity - always between 50-60 about 54 most of the time
Plants - i have a ficus plant in the center of her cage and fake vines and ivy wrapping around the sides of the cage in a spiral
Placement - cage is in the corner of my living room, not a lot of traffic, not near any vents, about 2 ft away from floor and ceiling (apprx)
Location - Victoria, B.C. Canada


I'm a little concerned about my female Veiled cham, i believe she is full grown now she hasn't gotten any bigger in length and width and she has just recently not been eating as much as she was maybe a week to a week a half ago. Got her in august and she was maybe a month old, the pet store didn't really know how old she was but she was about 3 inches or so. Anyways first concern is she is eating irregularly and seems much more active, shes always moving, and doesn't seem to drink much (though she never has been know to drink a lot). Secondly, its kind of hard to explain but she is acting strange in the way of shes almost trying to find something in her cage that isn't there. I'm wondering if she is looking for a spot to lay eggs? I don't know much about females laying eggs, what kind of surface to incorporate in the cage or what to expect so any tips would be helpful.
 
Here are pics that i took of her today, her belly is kind of big but that's nothing new. I did forgot to mention however that she is trying to get out of her cage which has never happened before, but she doesn't want me to handle her (which is pretty standard as well).

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Thanks Nate, i appreciate the link, ill get on it right away.
I don't think i can make the pictures work but i don't think it's necessary if that is the problem.
 
Sure, anything to help out. Just another thing make sure if she does start to dig in the bin you set up to leave her alone so she can lay in privacy. If she does not lay and become lethargic and sleepy during the day get her to the vet sooner rather than later. Again the best of luck to you.

Nate
 
Ok her bucket for laying is all set up, in the most private area of her cage. Now of course she seems fine, calm and just chilling out but I'm sure she will start looking again once she has finished sunning herself. i will try to post those pics again if i can figure it out, i'll also post the links.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=67663&stc=1&d=1352754971

//https://www.chameleonforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=67663&stc=1&d=1352754971
 
your pictures are still not showing up you can either upload a photo from a website with the URL or you can attach a picture from your library on your computer (be patient it takes a few seconds to upload) Hope this helps:)
 
I suspect your little girl is gravid or 'with eggs' and is probably trying to source out a place to lay them. When this happens it is typical behaviour for your cham to stop or at least slow down on eating. She may become more aggressive and hiss. She will be a bit darker in color and if she is gravid she may show blue spots on her body. She will appear restless and may even make 'digging' motions at the bottom of her enclosure.

It is imperative that you provide a laying bin for her asap and then leave her alone as much as possible, although make sure you still provide water for her and always try to feed her - whether she takes it or not is up to her, but she WILL require water.

READ THE FOLLOWING....it may save her life:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/jannb/345-egg-laying-laying-bin.html
 
Hi guys, i really appreciate all the very helpful information thanks so much. Just an update i have set her up a bin in her cage to lay on Monday (which was the day i was concerned because of her behavior) and have given her privacy. I put a black sheet around the sides of the cage for privacy. I can't say much about her acting strange yesterday because i wasn't home since i was at work, but today she seems totally normal, i was home for the majority of the day and she had some exercise, but most of the day she was just sunning herself and acting like normal. She still isn't eating much though, however she is pooping more regularly. So I'm not too sure what to do, i will leave the bucket in her cage but is there any other explanation for her acting so strangely and then acting normal again?
 
lanaya, normally you would attach pictures using the POST REPLY button (not the handy quick reply box at the box at the bottom of the thread).

It appears you have already attached the pictures, maybe to another thread? To post them again here you need to go to your USER CP, find the MISCELLANEOUS area on the left side, click ATTACHMENTS, click on the image you want to use to open it in a new tab, copy that url. Insert the picture in your post using the image coding. You can do that with the little icon that looks like a picture of the moon over a mountain, or just type it. Like this [ img ] https://www.chameleonforums.com/att...s/37530d1308973721-cricket-setup-cricket1.jpg [ /img ] without the spaces.
 
I would still be concerned about her still being gravid and not laying. I cant stress enough to watch how she is doing in the next few days because if she shows signs of being listless or sleepy then she is probably egg bound. It may have been nothing but again don't wait, because they go down hill quite quickly after becoming egg bound. I don't mean to stress you out but just keep a good eye on her and keep us updated :)

Nate
 
Glad to hear that she is acting normal. Couple of questions though: Did you notice if she has been digging in her laying bin? I am wondering if she did in fact lay eggs between Monday and today. If this is the case you can dig around in the dirt and see if you can find the eggs to know for sure. If she has she will be dehydrated and require a long, warm mist and some calcium; perhaps some feeders dusted with calcium if she is hungry. Laying is hard on them and egg production depletes the calcium reserves so she will require a little 'boost'. If you find no evidence of laying, leave the bin in her cage and give her some more space.

Apparently our little Princesses take their own sweet time when it comes to these matters! :rolleyes:
 
Thanks Nate i will keep a close eye on her, and update the thread if anything changes. I appreciate the help.
 
You might also drape a neutral or green colored cloth over 2 sides of the enclosure (careful not to get it too close to lamps, don't want a fire hazard). That might give her the added privacy she needs to lay some eggs.
 
Update on Sheba

Hi everyone thanks again for the info on laying, its been a week now since she started acting funny and she has been acting strangely on and off but i am fairly certain that she still has eggs cause her belly has gotten very bloated looking over the past week and she has barely eaten anything at all. i don't think she has even touched her laying bin and she definitely has not layed in it cause the soil appears to be untouched and she looks pregnant or gravid or what not. I have covered her cage to give her privacy with a dark tablecloth but that hasn't really done anything she just has the same behavior. She frequently visits the bottom of the cage and looks for places to lay (shoves her face in the cage corners) she doesn't try to dig much though. So my plan of action is this: i bought a garbage bin and organic dirt with no fertilizers also a small ficus, i plan to put her in this to lay so it is more private, and so the ground is actually covered in dirt and so she really has nothing else to do but lay her little eggs. i don't think she understands where she needs to lay in her cage because the ground is plastic so i hope this fixes the problem. I've heard of this method before on chameleon forums and was wondering if anyone else has any experiences getting your female to lay this way and any tips or what not. also any recommendations on light bulbs to use because the one i have would be much too hot. I was planning on detaching my cage door and putting it over the garbage can to rest the lamp and her water dripper on. So yeah that's the plan hopefully it doesn't take her long to lay i don't want to keep her in there for long but its been a week now and i'm worried she will become eggbound so i think this is the next step. Any tips or recommendations are greatly appreciated. :)
 
Update on my update, the whole garbage bin thing didn't work out as well as i had hoped so what I've done is lined the bottom and about a foot of Sheba's cage with plastic and filled it with dirt (around her ficus in the middle to the walls of her cage) i think this will be the best option because she HATED it in the garbage can and the lighting situation was not going to work at all. So I'll update the thread later and let anyone who would like to know how that works.
 
........ i don't think she has even touched her laying bin and she definitely has not layed in it cause the soil appears to be untouched and she looks pregnant or gravid or what not.........

It does sound like she must still be gravid, but just for future reference chams do usually do a very good job of burying eggs at the bottom of bins and covering them over so you can hardly tell they've done anything. If you do leave the substrate inside with her it could be awkward to get the eggs out. As long as you can come up with a practical way then it's just as good as the garbage can. My girl seems to prefer the outside can method, but as you know all chams have different tastes.......good luck, I'm sure she'll lay them when they are ready :)

P.s. In case you haven't seen it yet here is a great all-round caresheet for Veileds - https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/chameleonsinmyhouse/395-veiled-chameleon-care-sheet.html
 
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