Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My female veiled began digging around like crazy today. We moved her into a laying chamber and she is tunneling. I have bred Bearded Dragons for years, but this is my first chameleon lay. Any suggestions?? We have a hovinator incubator... I have read 75 -80 incubation temp. Are temperature variations detrimental?? What about humidity?? And what is the deal with the darkness?? I am very excited!!!! Of course I have a long wait ahead of me!!!! I will greatly appreciate any info!!

Congrats! Unfortunately, they don't always lay in their first digging, but it seems most of the time they do. They'll usually go down about 8 to 10 inches, or usually to the bottom of the container they're in. I assume from the beardeds you know about the vermiculite and containers etc. so I won't go there. The recovery process of a veiled will be more critical to her since they're much more fragile of an animal that a dragon is. I would start the eggs in the mid 70's for the first month and a half or two. Then kick the temps up to the higher 70's or 80 until they hatch. You don't nessesarily need an incubator as long as your room temps are in the mid 70's. Adjusting the temps will just make it a little quicker. That will get the diapause as short as possible so they won't waste time there. Humidity in the container should basically be 100%, but if you have the vermiculite done right (7 to 10 ratio water to vermiculite by weight) then the humidity is sort of a given. Plan on a 5-7 month wait. I would check the eggs every 2 weeks and WEIGH the container each time, that way you know if you're losing water to evaporation. Even a sealed container will get lighter in 2 weeks. I end up adding about 2g of water to a sealed container every 2 weeks. I don't know about the darkness thing, but I've heard people say that eggs incubated in the light can cause more of the babies to have deformities (stub tails, general bad health, lower hatch rate, etc.). I've never tested that though. Keep them in the dark just to be safe. Good luck!
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV

Thank you so much. I uncovered 14 eggs, which seems like a low amount, but she is only about 8 months old. Do they ever cover the eggs before they are finished laying? Because when I removed her from the lay chamber she was still slightly plump. Of course she allways has been. I placed her back into her enclosure, minus papa, misted her and fed her some crickets loaded with calcium and vitamins. She drank and ate immediately. Poor girl was so wore out she didn't even hiss at me when I got her out. I don't handle them at all since it usually just stresses them out. I am going for the room temp. imcubation since I will need my incubator for dragon eggs in the spring, and have actually split them into three seperate containers placing them in three different locations. I figure trial and error never hurt anyone. I have read conflicting articles about egg placement in the container. Some say an inch apart.... some say touching. What's your take on that? Thanks again. Now the waiting begins!!

14 does sound like a very small amount of eggs.... Especially for a veiled where the average is at least 35-40. Mine layed 43 and it was less than I expected. Someone in this forum recently had a veiled lay 91. She should have been left alone until she was completely done laying (without interruption) and had completely filled in the hole on top of the eggs. There's a good chance you stopped her from finishing. She may begin wandering the bottom of her cage again looking to lay the rest (hopefully). Or on the bad side there may be complications with her and she wasn't able to get out the rest. I'm not sure I've ever heard of a clutch of 14 from a veiled on her first laying. Then again with chameleons, anything's possible!

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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV

Can you tell from color alone that a vieled is gravid?

I would say if it's her first time mating, yes. They'll get that dark green/black body color with those cool yellow and blue spots. When my female veiled was gravid, she never showed the gravid colors unless she saw the male, which only happened about once. Panthers aren't really as easy since once they mate, they kinda get an orange tone to their bodies and basically stay that way whether or not they're gravid. Then if they're not receptive and get the dark bars, it looks similar to their normal gravid colors.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV

OK. She beat you to the answer. LoL. Just got home from church and the poor girl had just let 4 eggs aparently fall out. We found them in different spots in the cage, one was even up in the leaves of her tree. It was like an easter egg hunt. I placed her back in the laying chamber and she looks relieved. She is now digging away at tunnel number two. It was strange though. She had completely covered her tunnel this morning when I took her out and had climbed back into her tree so I just assumed she was finished. I had no idea there were only 14 eggs until I dug them out. With dragons there is only one dig site. I may have scared her when I came to look last night and she began to cover before she was finished to protect her eggs from the big eyed human. I am just going to leave her to do her thing and stop being so intrusive. Thanks again!!!

Ok that's what I thought.... If she did bury the hole I would have assumed she was finished also. Yeah, I would expect at least 30 eggs total, probably an average of 40ish. It depends alot on size, age, etc. and how much and how well she was fed. It's probably better to have a small clutch of eggs, since it's less hard on her to both develop the eggs and then lay them. I have also scared a few females from digging. Often if they see you, they'll just sit tight until the next day. I've got one panther in particular that is really picky. Seems like even a little noise in the room stops her from digging.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV

Ok... now she has stopped digging... didn't lay ... has crawled up in her tree and looks to be sulking. I drapped a sheet around the entire laying chamber so she can feel more private. I hope I haven't spooked her too much. I will just leave her there for a couple of days and see what happens. Dragons must have no dignity... because I take pictures and bug them to death when they are laying!!! And they just plug right along ignoring me.