Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a female veiled chameleon, she laid eggs at the end of October 2006. She has looked pretty fat lately and the last couple of days she has been digging around the bottom of the cage. I put in a large pot of soil, the same one she used last time to bury her eggs, and today she is in it completely digging. I thought I would have to wait at least 5-6 months, does this seem a little early for more eggs?

By the way, she doesn't mate.

Thanks

General directed reply:

This is the consequence of breeding and overfeeding. Once it is started it is very difficult to make them stop. To get her to stop of even slow down your going to have to cut her food intake to barely anything.

If you decide to breed a chameleon, make sure that you know it has the snowball effect. Once bred there is a strong chance that most species of female chameleons will retain the sperm and produce many clutches off of the same breeding. Depending on your feeding regime, its possible that they will produce more eggs almost immediately after the first was laid. This can wear a female out in just a matter of a couple years.

If you are keeping female chameleons, especially Veileds (and a little lesser so, panthers) even if your female has NOT mated, there is always a possibility they will produce infertile clutches without the stimulation of a male. It can have ties to their diet being too large (overfeeding). So if you are keeping these females as pets and want them to live long lived lives, you should re-evaluate feeding. The difficulty is that no one can tell you just how much you should be feeding them.

Thanks for all the info. I guess I need to drastically reduce the amount of food she receives. She has not been mated so these would be infertile eggs.. I was just wondering if there was any way to preserve one of them so I could keep it. Last time they all shriveled up pretty fast.

Thanks