- Joined
- Jul 27, 2002
- Messages
- 219
Well, my veiled chameleon eggs have been around for more than seven months. Still haven't hatched. Three days ago, though, one of the smallest eggs started to shrivel up.
Now, I've read that when they're about to hatch, they shrivel up and start to sweat, then they hatch within the next couple of days. I've also read that the eggs will shrivel up if the humidity drops too much.
Anyway, it went 3 days of being shriveled, with no "sweat". So I figured I had just let the humidty drop too much and the smallest egg died and dried up. Figuring it was dead, I cut it open.
I pulled a big sack of yolk out of the egg. Then I squeezed the yolk and a baby chameleon popped out, all curled up. I manually uncurled it to see how far it got in it's development, then I noticed that when I touched it, it started moving. At first I thought it was just moving back into the curled fetal position just because it was in that position for so long. But I noticed that it really was MOVING, not just moving into it's death-induced rigor mortis position.
I'm like 99% certain that thing was alive after I cut it out of the egg. Not knowing what to do, I placed it in a shallow dish of water just to keep it moist, as it would have been in the egg.
But man, I doubt it will make it. I think I killed the bastard.
At least I've got a few more eggs waiting to hatch. Next time, I won't be as quick to dismiss them as dead.
Now, I've read that when they're about to hatch, they shrivel up and start to sweat, then they hatch within the next couple of days. I've also read that the eggs will shrivel up if the humidity drops too much.
Anyway, it went 3 days of being shriveled, with no "sweat". So I figured I had just let the humidty drop too much and the smallest egg died and dried up. Figuring it was dead, I cut it open.
I pulled a big sack of yolk out of the egg. Then I squeezed the yolk and a baby chameleon popped out, all curled up. I manually uncurled it to see how far it got in it's development, then I noticed that when I touched it, it started moving. At first I thought it was just moving back into the curled fetal position just because it was in that position for so long. But I noticed that it really was MOVING, not just moving into it's death-induced rigor mortis position.
I'm like 99% certain that thing was alive after I cut it out of the egg. Not knowing what to do, I placed it in a shallow dish of water just to keep it moist, as it would have been in the egg.
But man, I doubt it will make it. I think I killed the bastard.
At least I've got a few more eggs waiting to hatch. Next time, I won't be as quick to dismiss them as dead.
