Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,

I have an approximate 8 months old veiled chameleon. Lately she had not been eating much or anything at all.. she has also been basking a lot lately, more than usual. I put a box of sand in her cage, in case she needs to lay eggs, but as soon as I did this, she went down and starting eating the sand. Is this ok? I know she did this before when I had sand, and I saw the sand in her feces, so she passed it ok... but I'm just wondering if this is normal. I have never had problems with her, all the environmental factors are what they should be, and until recently she was eating like a pig. I do not breed her, so these would be infertile eggs.. please can someone help me!

thanks

Female veileds have been known to eat sand. IMHO they are looking for something that may be missing from their diet when they so this. Do you gutload the insects before feeding them to her? If so, with what? Does she get direct sunlight (not through glass or plastic) or do you have her under full spectrum light (without glass or plastic between her and the light)including UVB? Do you dust the insects with anything?

You said..."Lately she had not been eating much or anything at all.. she has also been basking a lot lately, more than usual"...how long is "lately"? Has she been down on the floor of her cage or roaming around the cage more than normal? Is she thirstier than normal? Is her background color dark? Does she have bright torquoise spots and mustard/yellow spots? Not eating much and basking can be signs of carrying eggs....but she should look chubby in the back end above the back legs. The other things I mention in this paragraph are signs that she might be gravid too.

If she does dig in the sand, don't let her see you watching her.

Thank you for responding.

I give the crickets a Chameleon Dust from T-Rex, and a high calcium gutload from Flukers. Also I have a UVB lightbulb. She does get direct sunlight as well. But I didn't start with the gutload until recently, before that the crickets would just get fruits.

It's probably been about 7 days since she starting eating only a little, and basking a lot. She is always wandering around the bottom of the cage, I would say more than normal lately. I haven't noticed her being thirsty more than usualy, and her background color is dark at times. Usually the color is bright green with dark green spots all over. She has patches of orange and white, but I don't really see any mustard yellow, and definitly not torquoise. She does look chubby as well.. I also noticed some dirt from the plants on the bottom of the cage, that she must have dug up from the pots..

You said..."Usually the color is bright green with dark green spots all over. She has patches of orange and white, but I don't really see any mustard yellow, and definitly not torquoise"...the colors can vary somewhat from chameleon to chameleon....what you are describing is what I was looking for...including the dark color at times. It sounds like she is carrying eggs and getting near the time to lay them.

Before actually getting down to the egglaying, a chameleon can dig several holes or can dig the same hole for several days.

Hope all goes well for her!

She is getting a lot fatter now too. Still now eating much, or anything... but no eggs yet. How long may it take before she lays them?

I have noticed her eating a little bit of the plants though.

thanks for all the help

You asked..."How long may it take before she lays them?"...its hard to determine this. When a female is mated there is a more definite number of days until she will lay the eggs....but when its an unmated female that you are talking about there is no way to be sure. Once she starts to dig (and you mentioned that she might have been digging in the plant soil already) it should be within a few days that she lays the eggs. Has she been digging since you saw the soil from the pot on the floor of the cage?