Questions on possible gravid female Veild

but there is room for some clarification. One note said that you can expect "up to 30 eggs", while Jason more correctly pointed out that veiled's lay "lots of eggs". I wish Jason had put a number on it, but am laughing, for I'm sure he knows what you are likely in for as well. In the hopes that all goes well now, if she is gravid, or whenever in the future you do get eggs, 30 eggs for a veiled would be considered a very small clutch. 50-60 is probably more the norm. My personal best is 98, and I'm sure that others have topped that, although anything over 80 is uncommon. Pardalis are more in the 20-30 range. I'd have to concur with all of the other advice you have been given, although I think you do not need a special incubator. Anyplace where you can get a fairly constant temp of 75-78 should do well. The ability to manipulate temps, and better control the diapause, might speed things up for you, but is not vital to the eventual hatching of the eggs, only the length of time involved. Good luck with all.

Jim Flaherty
The Chameleon Company, LLC

Incubating is the easy part, feeding and houseing that many babies now your in for a challange, you might want to start trying your hand at breeding fruit flys, or crickets. vields hatch out pretty tiny

wow! 98 eggs is awesome! How many hatched? Well this is a young female that might JUST make it through the breeding age so you could expect a smaller clutch. I bet you could hatch the eggs at a temp 70 but you would have to wait a couple more weeks or a month or more. Incubating will be the easiest part for sure, all you have to do is put the eggs in and leave them there till they hatch. If I was breeding chams I would definatley start breeding fruit flies or crickets, fairly easy once you have done for a week. You would need a steady supply of pin head crickets.


CK

But it is also up in the "extreme" range. Most reptile breeders don't care for extreme production, as there is usually an inverse proportion to viability. I don't recall that any of the 98 hatched. Our record for Pardalis , which is 48, had a similar outcome ... zilch. I would agree to expect less than average in a clutch from a young female, and the early breeding age can also lead to lower fertility/viability rates as well. Generally speaking, lower incubation temperatures do lead to longer incubation periods. I would recommend that anyone expecting a quantity of hatchling chameleons bone up on cricket breeding techniques. Not hard, easy to manage and gutload, etc. Just takes some planning and lead time. You can hatch cricket eggs in 9-11 days (at 85-92 degrees F), and have them appropriately sized for juvenile chameleon consumption 10-15 days after that. Have fun.

Jim Flaherty
The Chameleon Company. LLC

I would rather get a moderatley sized amount of eggs and have most of them hatch then getting 98 eggs and having 5 hatch..... I have seen some small veiled chameleons and most likely would probably be able to take a small cricket or pin heads. Mealies are a good way to fatten baby chams up. I do this with my geckos, when they hatch the first meal they eat is a couple mealies just to get some weight on them.


CK

Originally Posted by Chamco

but there is room for some clarification. One note said that you can expect "up to 30 eggs", while Jason more correctly pointed out that veiled's lay "lots of eggs". I wish Jason had put a number on it, but am laughing, for I'm sure he knows what you are likely in for as well. In the hopes that all goes well now, if she is gravid, or whenever in the future you do get eggs, 30 eggs for a veiled would be considered a very small clutch. 50-60 is probably more the norm. My personal best is 98, and I'm sure that others have topped that, although anything over 80 is uncommon. Pardalis are more in the 20-30 range. I'd have to concur with all of the other advice you have been given, although I think you do not need a special incubator. Anyplace where you can get a fairly constant temp of 75-78 should do well. The ability to manipulate temps, and better control the diapause, might speed things up for you, but is not vital to the eventual hatching of the eggs, only the length of time involved. Good luck with all.

Jim Flaherty
The Chameleon Company, LLC

I usually won't put a number on things like this due to the fact that a lot of beginners see these big numbers and start seeing the "big dollars" instead of thinking about the points you made. Such as housing and feeding 75-100 baby chams. I never personally broke 98, I think my max was 79 for a calyptratus.

as far as the incubator gose go to a local farm suply store and ask for a ckicken incubator (hova-bator is its name make sure you DO NOT get the terbo fan) it normaly costs about $40

I orignally started this thread. Anyhow to make a long story short, the last time that they bred was Feb 15th. They have been in seperate cages since and I have supplied a very large laying tub with a mixture of sand and soil, so she can lay.

I know I first thought they were 6-8 months of age, but I look at the receipts for them and they are approx 8-9 months old, I know that they are too young and should not have been allowed to breed, but it is done now. I am trying to make sure she will not become egg bound and die. Sshe is a good eater she eats crickets and greens, I have provided fruits but I have not seen if she is eating them or not. Crickets are dusted and gut loaded.

My concerns are is that she is awfuly fat, as I have provided pictures of both if I can get them to post correctly. What are some signs of her becoming egg bound? Should I wait out the entire 30 days from the last time they bred, before I become to concerned? Also one other thing is as you can see her belly is really lumpy looking, could that be the eggs or is that just normal for gravid females?

any help would be great.

Shari,

I didn't see pictures, but the lumps are most likely eggs. The lumps will show even close to her spine even. Anyhow, it sounds like she is close. The one thing that all of our veiled "ready-to-lay" females did was stop eating one or 2 days before they laid the eggs. Up until that time, they need to get their calcium supplement on the insects, which you say you did.

If she paces and paces without digging, that may be a sign that she is having trouble. The best thing to have on hand for gravid females is liquid calcium (many forms out there - check with a vet). This can be given orally with an eyedropper and it will help with contractions.

If she is down in the bucket and paces without digging and laying - then you need to get her to a qualified vet.

If she does dig and start to lay - give her some privacy. Once she is done, she should come out and bury the hole. And above all - wait until she has stopped covering the eggs before removing her from the bucket. Some of our females just had to get every grain of sand just so!

Afterward, we always give the girls a warm shower, offer food and let them rest. If everything is okay - they will pop back to normal quite quickly - but if she is lethargic and weak - get her to the vet.

Good luck....
Morgana
Reptayls, Ltd.

after the eggs are visable, how long does it usually take for her to lay? It has been 33 days since the last time she bred, and the eggs look like she swallowed a bag of jelly beans.

As I said before I just dont want to wait too long and then find she is egg bound. She started to dig on Friday, but I think my son interrupted her and she didnt dig all day yesterday, so last night i put her back into her cage which also has a laying bin.

I found her twice in the bottom of her cage, so I thought I better put her back into the laying tub.

Thanks Shari