On the Specific Care of Females

Whether you would like a female chameleon as part of a breeding project, as a pet, or both, how you take care of them will vary a little from how you would care for a male. This is because females vary from males in their size, lifespan, and ability to lay eggs that alter how we need to meet their needs. I outlined a few of these differences in my previous blog ( Comparing Males and Females) but will go over their more specific care (especially as it relates to egg-laying) here. 

Many new keepers are often shocked to discover that females will lay eggs regardless of being mated. Surprise! Like chickens, female chameleons of egg-laying, or oviparous, species will start producing clutches of infertile eggs regularly throughout their lives, whether or not there is a male in the picture. Usually this is accompanied by panic, worry, and fear because there is just so much hysteria online around something known as egg-binding, a condition in which a female is unable to lay the eggs by herself. As you can imagine this is a serious medical condition that requires veterinary intervention.

The good news is that the online hype is mostly that, just hype. Of course sometimes things out of our control happen and the female experiences issues, as with human birth, it’s not always a smooth thing. But by and large chameleon females know what they are doing better than we do, and as long as they are healthy and have a suitable place to lay there should be nothing to panic about regarding egg-laying. 

37 infertile eggs from a young female Veiled chameleon. The yellowish
color is typical of infertile eggs. 

FEMALES AND EGG LAYING

As I’ve said previously, a female will lay infertile clutches even without the presence of a male, so dealing with eggs will be part of a female's husbandry even if she is a single pet. As part of their cycle they will first become receptive, which is when they have egg follicles ready to be fertilized and would be ready and willing to mate with a male. Then whether or not she has mated, the follicles will become eggs and she will have to lay them about 3-5 weeks later. After a rest period of several weeks the cycle begins again, so a female can lay quite a few clutches in a single year!

Additionally, if the female is bred to a male, females have the ability to store sperm for a subsequent clutch. So out of a single mating she may produce 2-3 clutches of fertile eggs in quick sequence! So females chameleons can be quite prolific. 

A young female veiled showing mature coloration. At 6 months she is
already old enough to breed. 

When getting ready to lay eggs a female will gain a lot of weight, even if food intake hasn't changed and they will start to look very rounded, and they usually begin to get restless. Here is when having a gram scale is very useful! Weighing a female regularly will let you spot this big uptick in weight, and will be much more accurate than “eye-balling” the difference.

They may or may not abandon food for a few days prior to laying, in this regard all females may react differently to needing to lay. But they will become more restless, roaming the bottom of the cage particularly as they look for a place to lay. If a laying bin is provided (it is recommended that one be provided at all times, in case gravid signs aren't very obvious), she may start to scratch at the medium and dig test tunnels. Once she is satisfied, she will set on one tunnel and work for hours or days until she is ready to deposit the eggs, then fill in the tunnel, trample the dig site to make it inconspicuous, and go back to her basking site looking thinner, dirtier, and tired.

A HEALTHY FEMALE

The biggest risk factor in having problems laying eggs is, quite obviously, an unhealthy female. Preventing issues starts long before your little girlie has eggs – it starts the day you bring her home. It starts with your husbandry. A female that has access to strong, high-quality UVB bulbs and solid nutrition (including supplementation with calcium and other vitamins and minerals) will not only grow strong and healthy, but she will be more physically able to produce and lay eggs in a safe, normal way.

I have written here about supplements and the importance of calcium, but essentially, calcium is vital not just for strong bones and egg shells, but for muscle movement as well. A female that has not been receiving calcium supplements or which has not had a UVB bulb to her absorb that calcium (ie. Females with metabolic bone disease) will have a really hard time physically laying eggs because she lacks the ability to contract the uterus appropriately. That is why it’s so important that a female has a good UVB bulb and that she gets supplements regularly along with a good, varied insect diet that is properly gut-loaded as well. 

So at the risk of sounding redundant - good husbandry leads to healthy females which lay eggs without issues. And subsequently, if you're breeding, will give you hatchlings that are healthy and robust. I cannot understate the importance of this. Strive to master all these aspects of husbandry and egg-laying should not be a scary prospect!

HOUSING & LAYING BINS

Female panther chameleon gravid coloration.
This signals she is carrying eggs and is not looking to
breed with any males. 

Because females are smaller than males, the minimum required cage size for a female is about 12 inches shorter than it would be for a male, bringing the cage size to about 36"H x 24"D x 24"W or 36"H x 18"D x 18"W. However, I have noticed that my females are just as, if not more, active than my males so I give them a cage just as large so that they have the adequate space to roam and explore. Additionally, providing a larger cage will allow you to have more room for a Laying bin. A laying bin can be any opaque container that can be filled at least 12" deep with moistened fine play sand or organic soil (available cheaply at home improvement stores) or a mix of these two media, where the female can lay her eggs. It should be no less than 8-9" wide, to give them enough room to dig a tunnel, and the soil or sand should be moist enough to hold a tunnel but not be soaking wet. A female will often dig a tunnel all the way to the bottom of the container, so they will use all 12" of soil/sand. 

Some females will not feel comfortable laying in a container that only contains soil. By planting a small plant in the soil a female will feel it is a more comfortable play to lay and lay her eggs around and under the roots of the plant. I've used just a small pothos with success. In rare cases the female will be reluctant to use the laying bin, for reasons that are not obvious. If you are sure that your medium is suitable and that it is not too dry or too moist, your female may just be a picky one. In this case, if she begins to show signs of needing to lay but will not use her laying bin, she may need to be trapped in a different container. For picky females that I worry have been "ready" to lay for too long, I will use a kitchen trashcan with 12" of 70:30 soil to sand mix with a few small branches, and just leave her in there. I do not worry about providing a heat light if it is above 70F in the room. Since females lay closer to evening, I will put the female in the trashcan during mid afternoon and walk away, giving her plenty of privacy. I may rig a webcam to spy on her so that she doesn't see me watching. She may scratch against the sides for a few minutes to a couple hours, but if she is ready to lay she will eventually start digging and work on laying the eggs. This is a resort I try not to use often, but it's my last step before considering going to a vet for assistance and it usually does the trick. 

A laying bin can be a container like this, but opaque (dark). This is an example of the medium I use,
a 70:30 organic top soil and washed play sand mixture. 

If she does not begin to dig a tunnel she may not be ready yet. Try again the following day or two and see if she will dig. Do not check on her continuously or move her back and forth continuously, the stress of being watched or being moved too often will make females too uncomfortable to lay - which can lead to issues. So respect her space and do not bother her too often. A sheet covering the cage during this time can help make females more comfortable and ease the process.

Following these steps should make owning a female a relatively stress-free experience. Females can make the best pet chameleons, but the prospect of egg-laying usually scares new keepers away from owning a female at all. By following the usual good husbandry practices and providing an appropriate, private place to lay, owning a female should be no more difficult than owning a male.

Updated on October 12, 2016 to refresh the content, add new tips, and clarify certain aspects of the article.