Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My female veiled cham has layed a total of 143 eggs. The first two clutches are fine, they will hatch the beginning of February. Her last clutch however, was a clutch of 67 eggs that she layed about 2 weeks ago. They all came out different than her first two. The eggs were alot smaller and different in color. Not so white as the first ones a little brown tint. They were also alot softer. Now, two weeks has passed, and the eggs look like they are dead. Most of them are very dark brown in color, a few are blood red. All of them are caved in, and some of them have mold growing on them. I don't understand why these ones would go wrong, when all of my other ones are just fine. I haven't done anything differently at all with these ones. Could it be, that my cham was just too small to carry all of those eggs, and they could've gotten smashed inside of her? (Her first two clutches were way smaller.)

They may not have been fertilized. The good eggs you had before may have been from 1 mating and she stored sperm for the 2nd clutch. These just may be infertile. Those are very large clutches. To keep her from developing more large stressful clutches and shortening her life you need to restrict her diet and give her a rest from breeding.

Thank you, do you think I should go ahead and throw that clutch of eggs away? I don't want them to mess up any of my other ones, but I also don't want to throw them away if some might still be fertile. By "restricting her diet" do you mean just feeding her less while she's gravid, or always? I usually let her eat as much as she wants, but I don't want to lessen her life or stress her out either. Thanks for the help, I need it- I'm pretty new at this. :0)

I think it would be safe to say, go ahead and throw out the bad eggs. Infertile eggs turn brown and go bad about 2 weeks after being laid, give or take. You said you didn't want them to mess up your other ones? Don't you have them separate from the previous clutches? Cutting back her diet will help keep the clutches smaller (which you may or may not like, but it'll save the females health and probably her life). She shouldn't be eating as much as she wants ever really, but especially right before mating. Cutting back is certainly not going to lessen her life and if anything, it will increase it. Also, if you are, don't keep breeding her. 3 clutches is already alot in a row and they'll keep going if you keep breeding. Breed them once, let them lay and lay until they stop and give them at least a few months off before breeding again.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com