Thursday, July 23, 2009

another update from veiled chameleon cage...

I thought you guys might want to know what's happening in the world of our veiled chameleons.

Here's the cutie patootie female veiled chameleon. She's the same busy mama who laid 23 eggs at the end of May. Now, she's busy growing and shedding her skin!




Here's one of the two deli dishes with veiled chameleon eggs. I pulled the dishes out of the incubator to take a couple of quick pictures for you guys.

In this dish, you can see how some of the eggs are shriveling up. To my untrained vet eye, eight eggs (look at all those e's in a row!) in this dish still look healthy at this point. (I stuck in a penny to give you some perspective.)

Even fewer healthy eggs in this deli dish. If you look at the egg in your upper left, you can see how it's being absorbed into the vermiculite (that soil stuff). There are several discolored eggs now. Eggs that aren't going to make it.

So, out of 23 eggs, about 14 are still hanging in there. I guess the attrition rate explains why she laid so many eggs.

Awwww....a little artsy shot of her taken just after I turned off the heating lamp. Well, actually I dropped my camera a couple of weeks ago, and if I don't squeeze it tightly when taking a shot, a little light sneaks in at the side. So, this is a light-sneaking-in shot.

Veiled chameleons. They don't like to be held much. They don't make much noise. They're slow moving and pretty much just hang out in the upper 1/4 of the cage.

Yet. I love having them as pets.



18 comments:

  1. I have been DYING for an update. And that picture with the light sneaking in? Dang girl! That is a GREAT picture! Looks like you got it from a magazine.

    But I hope SO MUCH that at least a few of those little things make it. I want to see them as babies and see how the grow!!! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

    Sounds like they are like fish. They are cool looking, and you can watch them, feed them, and clean their "cage" but other than that, you just look at them. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bina, I just wish I'd thought to measure the eggs. I guess I could start today, but I've missed almost 2 months of growth.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love these posts. What will you do with the babies when they hatch?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Becky, Child #2's goal at this point it to sell them to our local reptile pet store. However, we do have an extra cage....I'm hoping we keep one female and one male. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. thanks for the update, when do expect them to hatch?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Is the penny for good luck? :)

    I think it is so cool your are (soon to be) hatching baby veiled chameleons!

    ReplyDelete
  7. PJ: I hope the penny does bring good luck to those little eggs! Claire says hi!

    Kaye: We have about 117 days to go!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for the update.
    It is an excellent teaching tool for your kids. Nothing like a little natural science to teach them about the world.

    Have you seen my snapping turtle? He is a hoot!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I know I could probably look this up, but I figured you've already done the research. How long do before they hatch? I'm not a huge fan of reptiles, but seeing that green artistic photo made me actually think they're kind of cute.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for the update, Barrie. I'm glad you still have 14 viable eggs. I loved the dim light shot of your chameleon. Can't wait to see the baby pics...

    ReplyDelete
  11. ... your pets are fascinating ... but I also like how you comment on all those eees as you type. I hope to meet these lizards in a future book. Imagine... 14 chameleons. At least they seem easy to care for. But then, Barrie, you have a way to make the difficult seem easy. Great photos!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I am so glad that you are keeping us informed as to the progress of the eggs...

    ReplyDelete
  13. I don't know much about chameleons but maybe the wrinkled ones are the good ones.

    ReplyDelete
  14. What little stoic sweeties!
    Funny, I post a miniature dragon tomorrow; synchronicity for sure
    ;-)

    Aloha my lizard-loving gal pal!

    Comfort Spiral

    ReplyDelete
  15. Before I came over I was hoping you'd post more about your chameleons, and here we are basking in them. Love 'em. Barrie, you're going to be a grandma soon. (It's okay, I've been a grandma to lovebirds).

    ReplyDelete
  16. That's wild how the eggs are just decomposing into the soil, and much faster than the eggs in my compost pile! How much longer 'til they hatch?

    ReplyDelete
  17. I was just wondering about your green skinned brood. 14 still sounds like a lot of kiddies. Sorry to hear about the camera drop.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are always welcome!