Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

aidan

how many eggs do Yemen's lay at once

and how long do they take to incubate

kinyonga · Contributing Member Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 126

They can lay anywhere from about 15 to 75 depending partly on how much you feed the female.

The incubation at about 78F will take about 240 days.

aidan · Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 10:21 am Post subject:

what do you mean by how much they are fed (he more they eat the more they lay)

redbelly · Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 2:20 pm Post subject:

Yemens in captive care can produce so many eggs in captive care that it can kill them!!they produce so many eggs that the eggs compress the lungs of the animal causing a slow painful death,
In the wild a healthy female yemen is does not get to feed every day and the calcium content of they food is much lower than that of a captive chameleon that gets dusted food and plenty of it.
A yemen producing loads of eggs is not a good thing aidan,and it is not uncommon for one to lay 70+
But they dont do it like this in the wild!!
it is much safer to feed a gravid female 3 times a week with a very light dusting of calcium Smile

Luke

kinyonga · Contributing Member Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 126

Actually...once the female has been gravid for a few days, she should be fed well. After she lays the eggs, she should be fed well for a couple of days to allow her to get back her strength and then she should be put on a "diet" (not starved, but not overfed) so that she will produce a clutch of about 20 to 25 eggs.

redbelly · Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 6:44 pm Post subject:

aidan · Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 10:05 pm Post subject:

I'm not breeding them i don't own one i just wondered because i heard they layed alot

but good info to know about anyway

kinyonga · Contributing Member Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 126

You are right about overdoing the supplements...but it seems that once the number of eggs is set and she is gravid, feeding her WELL (a bit more than normal) ensures that both the female and the babies will be healthy. I never said to overdo it.

You said..."The problem normally occurs when the keeper overcompensates with food and supplements just because the animal is gravid"...if you are talking about "the problem" being producing large clutches, usually the number of eggs that she will produce in the next clutch is set shortly after she lays a clutch..so that is the critical time. Feeding her the same amount consistently may keep the clutch size in a good range if that amount of food is the right amount to allow her to produce a small clutch....but keeping her at that amount of food once she is gravid may not be enough to ensure that both her and her babies/eggs will do well IMHO.

In the wild, many lizards/animals exhibit limited reproduction in a low resource year (year when food, etc. is limited)...and this is what I based my method on.

I have found that when I limit the size of the clutches and don't overdo the feeding for my veiled females, that they can easily live to be over 6 years old.

That being said...you should do whatever works for you and your lizard! There is no one set method that works to have a healthy lizard!