Jackson chameleon

Question
QUESTION: My female Jackson gave brith,  I think she had 12 babies, not to sure. Some of them u could see the little Jackson's in it's sack.  Also this round oval orange thing , I don't know what that was, well all babies didn't make it . I felt so sad ,it's been 2weeks and that round oval orange thing still commimg out ,what is that? I don't know what to do.

ANSWER: Hi Claudine,

The orange oval things are "slugs" which is the term given to unfertized eggs. Not all the eggs she produced internally may have been fertilized and the unfertilized eggs will also be expelled along with the live young. This is common with live bearing snakes as well.

When you said that the orange thing is "still coming out" I understood that to mean that she is still expelling eggs and not that one is protruding from her body.

This is a photo of a slug produced by a Jackson's cham

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/175/dscn8400sd4.jpg/

I'm sorry that none of the offspring survived. I do not have direct experience with live bearing chameleons but have read that the offspring can seem more fragile then those of egg laying species. It is important to keep the humidity up during the laying process. This can help insure that the babies are able to get out of the egg sac. Some may need a little assistance with a cotton swab.

Your female has used alot of her body reserves to produce the young/eggs. Make sure she has a good varied diet supplemented with calcium to get her back to full strength.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for the picture , the color was more orange and a lot firmer I wish I cld send u a picture...she does look kind of weak, she do drink a lot of water  I don't have any kind of calcium I think I have to order online. I only have crickets for their food and I feed the crickets dog food and potato and apples.

Answer
Hi Claudine,

It sounds like the slugs have shrunken and dried a bit, that really intensifies the orange colour.

Your female could very well be calcium deficient at this point if she has not been supplemented regularly. Even though live bearers do not create shelled eggs, the babies skeletal formation still uses alot of calcium from the female.

Calcium plays a major role skeletal strength as well as nerve impulse and muscle contraction which may be why she was taking rather long to expel the young and slugs. That might also have contributed to the young not emerging from the sacs and surviving. Their skeletons may not have been strong enough.

I know that reptile keeping is restricted in your state and the supplies perhaps not as available. You should be able to find "cuttle bone" which is sold for pet birds. This is also a calcium source that you can scrap into a powder and coat her crickets with just before feeding. Put a few pinches in a bag and shake the crickets with it.
Getting her out in the sun where she is exposed to UVB will help synthesize vitamin D3 which will help her to absorb the calium