The End of a Chapter: Fat Letta Dies

It is with a heavy heart that I post today about the death of Fat Letta, our 4 + years female veiled chameleon.

She was an overachiever when it came to egg production, and, basically, she just wore herself out. It got to the point where no amount of calcium supplements was going to help her poor, depleted bones. She had trouble hanging onto branches and couldn't make her way around the cage anymore to chase crickets. I had to put crickets in a plastic bowl and hold it within reach of her tonuge.

I'm definitely the person the most broken up about her death. Probably because I ended up being her main caretaker. Even though she was originally Child #2's pet! Over time, I learned to read her pretty well. I could tell when she was ready to lay eggs and needed the 5-gallon Home Depot bucket filled with sand. I could tell when she'd be receptive to Mr. Conehead, her significant other. I was even able to predict her death.

I'll never forget how much self-confidence she gained after laying that first cluch of eggs. Twelve hours digging alone in the cold, damp sand taught her to stand up to Mr. Conehead. She never let him bite her again. She made sure he shared the heat/ultra violet lamp. And she stopped allowing him first crack at the crickets.

The only thing I regret is not keeping one of her female babies. Then, I would've gotten to know one of Fat Letta's daughters, and, somewhere down the road, perhaps one of her granddaughters. But, we sold all the babies to the reptile store in Oceanside. Here's the story. And there's really no way to track one down now. Sadly, there are no surviving eggs from Fat Letta's last clutch.

So, goodbye Fat Letta. I certainly never expected to get attached to a chameleon. But I did.

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures of her.

Fat Letta


An x-ray of Fat Letta full of eggs