Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It has been about 35 days since I mated my female and male veileds, and I have been seeing huge egg lumps on her sides for about 2 weeks. For about a week, she has been hanging out on the bottom of her cage, and has a gray color frequently. She doesn't really want to go to the upper part of her cage... she just stays on the bottom. I went to pick her up today because I saw her digging in the bark, and she didn't even try to run at all which is very strange of her, she just let me pick her up and puffed up her throat. I put her in the egg-laying chamber, which is about 1.5 feet in diameter and a few feet deep, and filled with dirt, but she just sits there and doesn't dig. I have put her in there a few times before, for about 15 mins each time, but she doesn't do anything. Any idea if she might be sick (because of the gray coloration, being on the bottom of her cage, and not trying to run from me), and is my egg-laying chamber good? Also, how long should I leave her in the chamber if she isn't digging?
Thanks.

put the egg-laying bucket in the cage and leave it there until she lays her eggs, even if it's overnight.

If she's digging then for sure she wants to lay, put the egg-laying material (not sure what it is) in there and let her do her buisness..
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0.2 Cats (Moora and Twitch)
0.1 Dogs (Maria)
soon to be 1.0 Panther Chameleon (Yoda)

The size of your egglaying chamber is more than adequate.

I always keep a small container (but large enough for the
female to fit into) in any egglaying female's cage so that
she always has a place to start digging when she is ready.
If you don't, IMHO, she could get past that time when she has the
need/desire to dig and become eggbound. I move the female to
a large egglaying container of sand when the female is intent
on laying her eggs. I don't take her back out of this container
for several days...or until she has laid the eggs. I don't watch
her when she is digging because, IMHO, if a female sees me
watching while she is digging, she might decide that the place
she is digging isn't a safe place to lay her eggs 'cause that
big predator (me) is watching and waiting to get her eggs and
she might abandon that hole and look for another place to lay
them. I think if this happens often enough, again, the female
can get past having the need/desire to lay and become eggbound.
I don't bother her when she's digging but will mist the cage and
start the dripper for her.

I have no way of knowing at what point your chameleon is in all
of this...she may not be ready yet to lay the eggs....then again,
she may be in trouble....and if she is, she needs to see a vet
ASAP. They can crash quite quickly.

I certainly hope that she just isn't ready to lay yet...but
I'm not so sure.

Good luck with her! Keep me posted please.

When my females have trouble I often did half of the tunnel for them. I have a 14 inch deep bucket filled with a mixture of potting soil, sand and pete moss. I wet the mixture and pack it down very tightly so it is capable of holding and tunnel. Then I dig a hole around 6- 8inches deep and about 4 inches in diameter. Every time I have done this the moment I place the female in there she starts digging immediatly and within hours they lay. It seems to be very effective.