You said..."I have an excellent, well-established pair of Graceful Chameleons. I bred them almost a year ago and my female dropped eggs in August of 2008. She had to be given a shot to induce labor, but she dropped around 30 something healthy, but small looking eggs"...you have done well with them!

You said.."I still have the eggs incubating at around 72-73F like I read. But not much breeding info on these guys is available. These eggs have been incubating for ALMOST A YEAR! They have defintely gotten bigger, Ive lost some due to mold and rot. But all in all I have about 12 that still look good. Dont know what to do? I know these chameleons specifically are hard to hatch out. Any advice???"....it might be that a trigger is needed to get them to hatch...a raise in temperature or moisture level for instance. HOWEVER...SINCE I HAVE NEVER HATCHED GRACEFUL EGGS BEFORE...YOU WILL HAVE TO MAKE THE DECISION ON YOUR OWN AS TO WHAT YOU DO OR DON'T DO. I don't want you to fail because you listened to me. One issue is that by using a trigger you may cause the eggs to hatch too soon.

Just a bit of info about triggers...
"some chameleons) can be triggered to hatch by sudden wetting of the well advanced eggs (after 100 days incubation)"...
http://www.geckodan.com/Cyrtodactylus article.htm

"If you increase respiration too much, you exceed the shells capability to transfer gases quickly enough and the embryo smothers. Now maybe chameleon eggs are more sensitive to this but I have seen stories of eggs going full term and babies stillborn, but perfectly formed."...
http://www.bio.miami.edu/ktosney/file/BDeggs1.html

Hope they hatch for you!

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Hide Replies ]