Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering at what age I should put something in there for her to bury eggs just in case?

What substrate should I use for that?

What do I do with the eggs once she lays them?

Can chams regurgitate if they are overfed?

What is a good feeding schedule for them (yes veiled!!)

What size should a 3 month old male be?

What size enclosure do you use for a full size cham?

Thank you!!!

You asked..."I was wondering at what age I should put something in there for her to bury eggs just in case?"...I usually have something in all my egglaying chameleon cages at about 3 or 4 months....but that's when they get moved to the larger (separate) cages....so I just set it up then.

You asked..."What substrate should I use for that?"...for quite a few years now I have used a type of washed sandbox sand that I have found does not cause impactions...it passes right through them. The veiled females have been known to ingest this sand (on purpose). I have had many autopsies done on females when they have died and none have ever had an impaction. The sand is produced by King and comes in a white bag with red, yellow and blue sandbox toys on the front of it. The sand is slightly "yellowish" in color and quite fine. The (opaque) containers I use in the cage for a veiled female are about 8" deep X 8" long by 5" wide...2/3 full. Some females will actually lay their eggs in this size container...but most of them I move to a 65 liter rubbermaid container that I have modified for egglaying. (I cut most of the lid away, screen the hole, and add a piece of wood to clamp a light on. I put at least one bag of sand in the bottom and some branches for the chameleon to climb on. The lid is placed back on the cage once the chameleon is placed inside it and the light keeps her warm and able to see while she is in the container. I can water and feed her there...but don't leave any leftover insects in there because they will/can nibble on the eggs or the chameleon while she is laying them.)

You asked..."What do I do with the eggs once she lays them?"...I let the female finish burying them...and once she is back up in her branch, I carefully dig them up. I try not to turn them when moving them to the incubation container. The incubation container consists of a shoebox sized tupperware type container. I punch one or two very small holes in the lid. I fill the container about half full on slightly moist vermiculite. The space is left so that the chameleon babies have room to move around in the container when they hatch until they can be removed. When you take a fist full of the vermiculite you should not be able to squeeze more than a drop or two of water out of it. The eggs are layed in slight depressions in rows spaced about 1" apart in all directions. This causes the eggs to hatch more individually rather than all at once. The lid is placed back on the container and the container is placed in the incubator and for veiled eggs, it is set at about 78F degrees. It takes about 250 days as a rule to hatch at that temperature. Water and feed the female well for the next few days. Don't let the female see you watching her when she is digging the holes. If done often enough it can lead to eggbinding.

You asked..."Can chams regurgitate if they are overfed?"...I have never had a chameleon regurgitate from being overfed. Any that I have had regurgitate (except one) did it because they were sick or had a tongue problem. (I'm not saying that it couldn't happen though.) The exeption was a parson's chameleon that was being hand fed because it broke its tail and had a knee problem and couldn't hold on to the branch well enough to eat on its own. I was hand feeding it and advised to feed it pinkies to make the process quicker. The pinkies were regurgitated whole/undigested....so I went back to feeding it "tons" of insects. Parson's are big and need more than the average number of insects per feeding!

You asked..."What is a good feeding schedule for them (yes veiled!!)"...for babies, I feed them as many insects as they will eat in a few minutes once or twice a day. For subadults (about 5 months to about a year) I feed the males once every second day well. The females, once they reach 5 or 6 months of age I keep on a more restricted diet (less insects per feeding) and at a slightly lower temperature (just a couple of celcius degrees) than the males to try to keep egg production down. Adults I feed every second or third day...but of course, their growth is done, so I cut back quite a bit on the number of insects per feeding. I want to have healthy chameleons that are not "starving" but not fat either. Once they are about 6 months of age, they also get fruits, veggies and greens a couple of times a week. (I have lots of "salads" to make for different omnivores and vegetarian reptiles that live here.) The extra greens/fruits/veggies that they don't eat provide food for the insects that haven't been eaten yet.

You asked..."What size should a 3 month old male be?"...hard to tell you an answer for this one. Some people grow them faster than others.

You asked..."What size enclosure do you use for a full size cham?"...for a veiled, the minimum I use is 2'high X 2' X 18". I have heard of people using smaller ones and bigger ones successfully. My cages are all raised up off the floor so that the top comes at about 6' high.

Hope I didn't forget anything!