Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I saw that my female veiled was displaying all the signs of carrying eggs about a week ago. I did not breed her, but was planning to at the end of the month. So these eggs are unfertile. I am currently at a vet school so that took some free x-rays and confirmed she had eggs. Anyway, I put her in an egg laying chamber yesterday and from the time she started digging untill the time she covered up the eggs was about 7 hours. Additionally, I dug up the eggs today and they are very soft.

Is that time period normal for eggs laying? And are the eggs on the softer side b/c they are not fertile, or b/c she desposited them early, or b/c of Calcium supp? I will post pictures of her process soon.

Thanks,
Jeff

You said..."I saw that my female veiled was displaying all the signs of carrying eggs about a week ago"...I always have a container of washed sandbox sand in with the female so that I don't miss the signs of being ready to lay eggs. I don't want to risk eggbinding occurring due to me missing the signs.

You said..."from the time she started digging until the time she covered up the eggs was about 7 hours"...that's within the normal range.

You said..."I dug up the eggs today and they are very soft"...that is normal for infertile eggs....but even viable eggs are not hard like chicken eggs. Veiled chameleon eggs grow a great deal during incubation....which is something that I don't think a hard-shelled egg could do.

How many eggs did she lay? Make sure you re-hydrate her and feed her well for a couple of days so she can regain her strength.

Thank you for your quick response. When I noticed the behavior last week I put a laying chamber in her cage. She seemed to just walk around on it and never tried to dig. Therefore, I made an entire separate egg laying environment and within an hour of being in there she started to dig.

I have been hydrating and feeding her well.

She laid a total of 27 eggs. When I was digging them up, many were vertically placed in the sand. When they are fertile next time, do i need to be wary of how they were laid and try to match their orientation when i transfer them to incubate?

Very excited for the real thing, going to try next month, and I am glad this happened as it gave me unmatched expirience so i know what to do when she's carrying fertile ones.

Jeff

You said..."She laid a total of 27 eggs"...good number...not too many and not too few.

You said..."When I was digging them up, many were vertically placed in the sand. When they are fertile next time, do i need to be wary of how they were laid and try to match their orientation when i transfer them to incubate?"...not if you dig them up soon after she lays them. Let her finish burying them and return to the branches first though.

You said..."Very excited for the real thing, going to try next month, and I am glad this happened as it gave me unmatched expirience so i know what to do when she's carrying fertile ones"....a "trial run" is almost as worrisome as the real thing!

I incubate mine at about 78F and have had close to 100% hatch rate...and a very good survival rate too.

I show the female and male to each other by holding the female outside the male's cage. If he doesn't show aggressive behavior and she shows receptive behavior/coloration, then I place her into the male's cage and watch them for a while just to make sure that they don't turn on each other.

Good luck with it!