Posted by:
kinyonga
at Mon Jul 4 16:52:43 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by kinyonga ]
You asked for a picture of a chameleon's anatomy...here's a site
with the anatomy of a chameleon pictured/labelled in it....
http://www.chameleonnews.com/year2002/may2002/necropsy/necropsy.html
Chameleonnews also has some other good articles about chameleon
care, etc.
This site has some useful information too....scan down until you
come to the part on chameleons....
http://www.seavs.com/case_studies/lizards/index.asp
I have had many veiled chameleons over the years that don't
produce as many clutches as they are supposed to....and right
now I have 3 that are over 4 years old that have never produced
a single clutch. I think to some extent the number of
clutches that they have has some relationship to the temperature
that they are kept at and the feeding regime. There is a lot to
balancing this though..so you need to know what you are doing
before you try this. It also seems to help control the size
of the clutches. My clutches are usually in the range of 20 to
25 eggs when I do breed them.
I have one veiled female (she's over 6 years old now) who always
has a lump either side just above the back legs when she is
"very" gravid....but this is the only one that I've ever seen
this happen to.
------
You said..."1. she is holdig eggs still seems to long though"...
the best way tell if she has eggs inside her is an x-ray IMHO.
I have had unmated females carry the eggs longer than 30 days
without problems (I'm not talking about part of a clutch)...but
there are always other possibilities as to why a female hasn't
laid her eggs...they may become too large to lay, or she might
have developed some internal problem with the reproductive tract,
or the eggs could be misformed or fused together, or poor
husbandry could have led to imbalances in the system, or the
laying place might be unacceptable to her, etc.
I can't give you any information on why a chameleon will only
lay part of a clutchthough....because I'm not sure about the
reasons.
You said..."2.she maybe seveirly obese"...if you post a picture
of the whole (side-view of) chameleon it might help. If its
stictly obesity, then I don't think bulges
that look like eggs would be seen in the area just above the
back legs...unless she was gravid and obese.
You said..."3.beeing fed to much as an adult"....that might
partly account for the last clutch being 40ish in number.
You said..."4. over suplementation"...don't know what to say
about this. Can you explain more exactly what you mean, please?
Calcium is needed for muscle contractions...so if anything was
making the calcium levels too low, it might have an
effect on egglaying....but I don't know if this would have
anything to do with retaining eggs. Other imbalances that make
the chameleon less than healthy could play a part.
You said..."5. my latest is posible kidny problem from over
suplementation"...please clarify what you mean by this.
You said you use sand fire dragon ranch cham dust or jurasic pet
calcium...I'm not familiar with these. You said..."the insects
are gutloaded with flugars cricket food and carrots,brocoly
tops,lemon slices"...(I assume you mean Flukers?) I think that
your gutload could be improved/added to. There is a gutload that
is reported to be excellent at this site...
http://ADCHAM.com/html/husbandry/gutload.html
Also...I never use broccoli, cabbage or spinach as part of my
gutload....they are likely okay to use very sparingly.
If you suspect that there is a problem with retained eggs, it
might be wise to take her to a vet's to have her checked over?
Egg problems can lead to death if not looked after ASAP.
I hope that you can get this sorted out....and that all will go
well with your chameleon!
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RE: could somebody please respond to my post below PLEASE NEED HELP - kinyonga, Mon Jul 4 16:52:43 2005