Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My female veiled Chameleon has started looking for a place to nest. She seems to be digging everywhere except the nesting area I have put in the cage for her. I was wondering how long will it take her to build her nest and lay her eggs? She has been digging around for almost a full day now. Is that normal? I also was wondering what is the best way to move the eggs from the nest to an incubator? Thanks

She could still be days or weeks away from laying her eggs. When she is sitting on the edge or her nesting box and looking like a bag of marbles, she'll be close. Don't be alarmed if she starts to dig a hole then comes back out. She may dig several test holes before she is really ready. The first time one of my Chams did this, she was underground for over 40 hours. All the books i'd read say they may take up to 24 hours to dig and lay, so fearing that her tunnel had collapsed on her or something else was wrong, I dug her out. Don't do this! She can accomplish this without you. Just make sure her digging substrate is ready, insuring that any tunnel she digs won 't cave in on her.

As for handling the eggs: Handle the eggs as little as possible. There is a small air pocket inside the egg for the embryo so when you pick it up, try not to turn it in any direction. Pick it up just the way it is laying in the soil, blow it off and place it in the vermiculite, perlite or whatever.
Good luck!

P.S. One of the Chameleon E-Zine magazines (I think it was March) has a very good article about taking care of thhe eggs. There is a link to get to the E-Zine web site of kingsnake.

How do I find the link to the E-Zine you are talking about? I am looking around but can't seem to locate it. Please let me know. Thanks!
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1.0 Ambanja 9 mos. - LESTER
0.1 Nosy Be 6 mos. - KUBO

Sorry, I found it by following a link thta popped-up on kingsnake.com but I quess it might have been a one time deal.
The web-site is below.

www.chameleonnews.com
Link