Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[scorpion251067]

My female Cham is now almost 7 months old, I was informed that she can mate now, I have tried to put her with the male but without success, she flares up, goes really dark and spotty, hissing and tries to attack the male, so i remove her from his presence, then she calms down. She eats so much, unlike my male he eats little but enough, the female stomach looks bloated, round, and still she continues to eat, I read that even without fertilization she will lay eggs, how do you know if she has eggs inside her or not or is this something you just can't tell? I have bought her a box and some sand (bird sand) which i will place in her Viv, but if someone here knows about these Chams and eggs, could you please help me out here, I'm terrified she will get bound up and die, I want to know she is OK and won't be in any danger of egg binding.
Thank you

[reptileparadise]

she might have decided to make some eggs without being fertilized by the male.
If you have an box with humid sand, everything will probably be just fine. She might lay some bad eggs....but thats a part of breeding these guys.

My first clutch (not really mine, I dont lay eggs... ) also went bad in a couple of days. The second clutch is now in the incubator at 26,3C...only 5 months or so to go...
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[kinyonga]

Background information: I have been keeping chameleons for over 20 years now. Most of my veiled females live to be 6 years old and the males even older. I have raised/hatched quite a few species of chameleons as well as a number of other reptiles.

I never mate a veiled female until she is a year old at least. It gives them time to stop building their own bones and bodies before the drain of egglaying is put upon them.

I always provide a place for a chameleon to dig to lay eggs once she is sexually mature. Failure to provide a suitable place to lay the eggs is one of the most common causes of eggbinding. Husbandry/nutrition/over-feeding issues are also a common cause. There are occasions where follicle stasis, fused eggs, misformed eggs or reproductive system problems can result in eggbinding too.

I'm not sure what "bird sand" is, but I use washed playsand (the type you put in children's sand boxes). It should be moist enough to hold a tunnel once she starts digging.

Veiled chameleons and some other species can produce eggs without having been mated. Veileds may also not produce any clutches without mating. To some extent it depends on their diet and temperatures that they are kept at.

If she is carrying a large clutch she will be (apparently) fatter in the back half of the body. When a female is approaching egglaying time she may stop eating, drink more, roam the cage and the floor of the cage looking for a place to lay the eggs, etc.

Some other words of advice...when the female is digging do not let her see you watching her. She will likely abandon the hole. If she abandons it often enough, she can become eggbound.

Hope this helps!