It happened! It finally happened! Saturday was a day full of emotions. I was already full of anxiety because of Gary and his.. Garyness. The loudness, the heavy treading, the endless conversations about Pokemon. Add this to a heavily gravid chameleon who had not eaten for several days and about to burst with eggs.
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| Gary and HIS green friend. |
Then, we spotted her. She was digging. In her wandering around for somewhere suitable to lay Ziggy had not even touched her sandpit. This was the one place in her tank that would be suitable to lay eggs but it was a shock. Suddenly, a further anxiety came over me. Would she be distressed by Gary? What if she spotted me monitoring her and abandoned her nest. Would my friend (also called Michael) understand my not showing up for his stag celebrations because my small green friend had decided to show off how fertile she could be.
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| Sneaking a peek at the little digger! |
Ziggy kept going and going. I was unsure how long the whole process would take if I was honest. I sat by her tank peering in occasionally for around 4 hours. I even ate my dinner on my lap, worrying about how the process would go. I whatsapped Dave to tell him the day had come! There wasn't much Dave could do in Krakow but it made me feel assured there was experience to hand. He reassured me that, when night came Ziggy would keep going, long into the night, not stopping to sleep or feeling the cold when her heat lamp had long turned off.
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| 8:25pm, 5 minutes before usual bedtime! |
When 8:30pm came around and the lights went off, I made my escape to the back room and played on Playstation until about midnight, wondering what kind of adventures I had missed in Ronnie Scott's jazz bar, wondering how Dave felt about my digital worrying. I went to bed with the intention of getting up at 7:30 to monitor the situation yet again.
10:00 came and, although I hadn't seen any evidence of eggs Ziggy was beginning to fill in the hole she had made. She looked a sad shade of grey and seeing her working so hard made me feel compassion towards her. Imagining her efforts in the pitch black, laying her eggs, I felt very proud and in my heart cheered her over the next hurdle.
But I was exhausted, I was stressed, Gary had to put it politely, been trying. Thomas the Tank engine blared out from the television, Gary showed his inability to watch anything sitting down, his 15 stone frame dancing in close proximity to the vivarium. Church was an oasis of calm in all of that. I was thankful for the opportunity to meet at God's house that morning,
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| Tired, tired girl. |
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| Hungry, dehydrated but back where she belongs! |
I got home... and she had filled in the hole. She looked sad, tired and thirsty, and incredibly skinny but she had made it. I was surprised at how long the final preparations took. Three hours were spent smoothing over the sand, making sure no predators would twig that there were edible treasures within. 24 hours after the initial digging, she was back, under her lamp. I gave her a massive drink and some pear soaked in calcium and let her rest.
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| First sighting! |
Of course, being me, I could not relax until I saw the eggs. I began to wonder if she laid, or had abandoned her next due to Gary's stomping, me peering behind the curtain one time too many, or an apparent unsuitability of nesting site. My fears were unfounded when the next day, me and mum did some digging. Carefully we scooped out the sand and dug to the bottom, waiting for our first glimpse at the clutch.
And what a clutch it was! Having read a few forums I was expecting around 30 eggs, maybe even 40 if Ziggy was feeling super fertile. But.. nothing could have prepared me for 68! No wonder she was a tired girl.
It was a real roller coaster of emotions, but to witness the
perseverance of my strange little friend, the reptilian instinct taking
over, was an absolute joy. I don't think I'll ever forget the first
clutch of eggs Ziggy laid in my care. I'm a proud step dad!
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| Sixty Eight! |
