Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is is true that an unmated female still needs to lay eggs? I have read conflicting information.

If yes, what kind of nesting environment do i need to provide?

Thanks

Yes she can lay eggs without being bred... How old is she, how much do you feed her and what makes you think she is going to lay eggs? A bucket with moist sand is what is usually used to lay eggs in..

Lele, do you have pics of Luna's laying bucket still??

-----
TFFF
(Tootie Freakin' Fruity Feenie)

Thanks for the reply.

She is about a year an a half in age. I feed her 5-10 crickets or superworms a day. Theres nothing really making me think that she wants to lay eggs (she seems a little fat but not overly so) its just that i remember reading something about this and remember different information conflicting.

Female veileds can lay eggs without being mated....so its important to have a suitable place in her cage where she can dig when she needs to lay them. Not providing her with a place to lay them can lead to egg binding and eventually death.

I put a container of moist washed sandbox sand in all my egg-layers cages. Its just a place for her to dig to show you that she's ready to lay eggs. The container is opaque and when empty she fits in it with room to spare on all sides. I fill it about 3/4 full.

Once she starts digging intently,I move her to a 65 litre rubbermaid container that I have modified for egglaying.

A veiled will usually dig for more than one day and may even dig several test holes before she settles on the one that she will use. Its important not to let a female see you when she's digging the hole or she may abandon it.

Now...back to the topic...some veiled females will lay infertile clutches and some won't. IMHO it has a lot to do with the amount of food that they are given and a bit to do with the temperature they are kept at. You need to know how to do it or you could do more harm than good.

When I first started keeping veileds my females would lay clutches of infertile eggs. In the last few years, keeping them the way I do now, none of mine do. Mine can still lay fertile eggs (when mated and adjustments are made in their feeding schedule/temps.)after several years of not laying eggs. My clutch sizes are not huge either.

I agree. I have one female veiled who is 1.5 years old and I've never had any eggs from her , and she has never been bred. I feed her 2 or 3 large silkies or 1 large goliath worm and one silkie every 3 days and a cricket or two OR a kingworm for a treat. I hand mist her twice a day and shower her like once every two weeks. I know it may sound harsh, but I feel responsible for the death of my other cham Chloe, who was egg-bound possibly due to my over-feeding, and I'm not going to let that happen again. Now when i see that Rana has the "blues" I feed her even less until they go away. The "blues" are when she gets that I'm ready to bred color with the robin egg blue stripes on her head and the orangeish dots on her belly. Or I guess you can call it PMSing. My vet said if they are not getting all the nutrition they need, it will force the body not to produce eggs. So I run a very delicate balance with Rana, but we are both o.k. with it

-----
TFFF
(Tootie Freakin' Fruity Feenie)

You are doing well with her by the sounds of it! Its not easy keeping them balanced.

You said..."I know it may sound harsh, but I feel responsible for the death of my other cham Chloe, who was egg-bound possibly due to my over-feeding, and I'm not going to let that happen again"...I know exactly how you feel about it. I've been there a few times over the years. I'm sorry that you lost Chloe.

You said..."My vet said if they are not getting all the nutrition they need, it will force the body not to produce eggs. So I run a very delicate balance with Rana, but we are both o.k. with it"...I don't think its that they are lacking nutrition so much as they are being kept "lean"...just on the edge....not starving, but not having enough extra to produce eggs. If you look at wild animals such as lions, they produce big litters in the years that there is abundant food supply and smaller ones in the years that there's not a good food supply.

Sorry I missed the "call" but was busy with moth eggs rather than cham! Yes, I do still have her setup pics in the gallery and linked below.

I agree with everything feenie and kinyonga said. Luna laid 4 clutches in 12 months and another was developing when she died (necropsy results). Although she did not die from being eggbound, I do believe that the stress that was put on her body of laying those big clutches so frequently certainly played a big role. A vessel or something burst and she bled internally, this is what killed her. Here feeding regimen was hard b/c she would stop eating for so long (weeks - literally) so I had to resort to getting calcium in her by other means.

I do think you might be feeding her a lot - 5-10 superworms a day? They are very fatty. I would cut back on her food to see if she "loses" the weight and also be prepared for eggs just in case.

here is the link to my setup pics. Luna always used her tub. Those pics show here with two but I think I was letting her decide which she liked best. She used both but the clear tub (on left) was her preferred. I use the coco-fiber/playsand combo.

lele
Luna's laying setup

-----
Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
1.1 Side-blotched lizards - Ana and Stan for now
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skippy
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh, Died 4/21/06
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha, donated to science 4/4/06
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet