Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two veiled females that laid eggs for me. One laid in january, and one in feburary. the eggs have hatched and the babies are not well.

First batch from January female hatched 3 weeks ago. All babies poped out with eyes wide open and an appetite for the first day. After the second day they all closed their eyes and never opened them again. I tried in vain to help them, but needless to say, I have watched them all waste away to nothing and all have died. I removed the body today. Those were from a clutch of 13. All 13 are now under my front porch

Second batch from February hatched out a week ago. Same thing is happening again. All poped out fine! eyes wide open! I even got to witness them hatching, it was incredible to watch them wriggle from the eggs. They ate pin head crickets within 2 hours of hatching. The next day, their eyes began to close. And now all of their eyes are closed. This is a clutch of 38 babies all with their eyes closed. Its been a week and 3 days and they have not eaten. They have not opened their eyes. I am in utter dispare because I have to watch these 38 slowly die off and I can't figure out what is wrong.....What happened?

HEre is my set ups.

I keep 6 babies per 10 gallon tank, with lots of teeny plants for them to hide in.

Basking spot is 85 F and cool end is 70F

No substrate, just a paper towel.

They get misted in short bursts mulitple times a day, and i pay close attention that they do not get a drop of water over their nose.

It is breaking my heart to watch them all die. I do not know what I did wrong? I have been ready for these babies for 7 months..... why wont their eyes open!

any help would be appreciated. thank you.

I'm really sorry for your loss. I can't imagine how it must feel to have to watch your babies die It might be too late to help your babies but I'll give it a stab. The only thing that stuck out to me in the set-up was the 10 gallon tank part. Ever since I have dealt with chameleons I have had it drilled into my head never to use glass enclosures due to several reason. First, you get a reflection which can cause stress on ADULT animals, so that shouldn't affect you babies. Second, the lack of control of heat and lack of a temp gradient. I am surprised by the temps that you listed for a glass enclosure...I might recheck them a different points throughout the day. Last, humidity and venitlation. This is the biggest one and the only thing I can guess that may be causing the poor health in your chams. Due to all glass sides and only an open top there is hardly any air exchange and with a high humidity, it will breed respiratory infections! So to sum it all up I would try get some kind of screened cage such as a reptarium...or if you think the holes will be too big do what I do and make a cage yourself from untreated wood, velcro, and really tiny mesh...all can be found at your local hardware store. Good luck...and keep us posted.

0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula-Clarise
1.1.0 Panther Chameleons-Diablacito & Mamacita
0.0.63 Panther Chameleon eggs in the incubator!
2.0.0 Cats- Gatsby & Watson
2.0.0 Sugar Gliders-Wilson & Winston
Too many fish to count.

Cheers,
Nick

I don't think it is the 10 gallon tanks because I've rasied numerous clutches in 10 gallon tanks. Only I put ten to a tank. I know I know i can hear it now. "YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" Well I'm telling you that you can and it does work, I've probably raised about close to 500-700 babies like this. I'm not sure if you listed your temps but that could be your problem? There is somthing not right in your set-up. I know stating the obvious doesn't help so I'm going to stop.

I'm sorry to hear about the problems you are having with your veiled hatchlings. I know what its like to got through this. Its never happened to me with veileds but when I start to work with a new species, sometimes I have problems with hatchlings.

http://www.biology.lsa.umich.edu/research/labs/ktosney/file/BDeggs1.html
"there has been some discussion on this list not too long ago about high incubation temps causing weak hatchlings".

I suspect that shorter hatch times/higher incubation temps. might result in health issues like lung health, organ health etc. similar to what one might expect to find in premature (human) babies. "Nature" hasn't got enough time to complete the baby properly if we rush it? I don't know what affect the temperature has on the rate at which the yolk is used up or on air exchange either...maybe someone else will have an answer?

I do know that high incubation temperatures can play a part in deformities in some lizards too.

I have kept/raised veiled chameleons for years by starting them off in small groups in glass tanks with no problem. I have about a 95% survival rate at three months of age.

What temperature did you incubate the eggs at?
Were the eggs incubated in the dark?

The plants you put in their cages....were they well washed (both sides of the leaves)?

Sorry I don't have a better answer for you. It certainly is frustrating.

It has broken my heart to watch all these baby chameleons die. My last egg, egg number 39 hatched two days ago, and the same thing happened again. his eyes closed and he hasnt eaten a thing. he will die, just like the others. I placed him by himself in a 10 gallon. I have 7 chameleons left of the 38 hatchlings, i pulled out 10 bodies this morning. it is KILLING me to go through this. I feel like i will be punished in an afterlife.

I raised these chameleons' parents in seperate 10 gallon tanks from the age of 2 weeks old. Now each lives in a cusomized 100 gallon reptarium with lots of live plants for munching and fake for decoration. the parents are thriving and doing SO well. So i know that raising baby chams for the first 10 weeks in glass should have been no problem.

to incubate them i used a styrofoam box and digital thermometer. i kept them as DARK as possible. In a closest, covered with a dark brown cloth. I used no additional heat sources to "cook" the eggs quickly. I let "nature" work its magic. since they were laid in january and febuary i thought it would be a perfect, natural temp. increase. at first (jan-march) the temps were in the lower 70's, april-june the temps were in the high 70's, and july-mid september the temps were low 80's before hatching. Also, not to mention a 7-10 degree temp. drop at night. I thought this was a perfect natural simulation of a hatch period.

I used vermiculate as a substrate.

Also, I just rememberd. Around mid May I belive the second batch of eggs got very dehydrated. the eggs wrinkled and dried out a lot. I thought they were all duds. A pet store employee urged me to just mist them really well to bring the humidity back up. I did that and the eggs ballooned back out. maybe this dehydration in embryo stage still had side affects as hatchlings?

anyways, i am very, VERY sad for these poor babies. it breaks my heart.