A veterinary surgery in East Barnet is celebrating a new arrival.

The East Barnet Veterinary Surgery in Cat Hill has been incubating a clutch of chameleon eggs for the past nine months and on Friday one finally hatched.

The vet, Ralph Bailey, owns two chameleons which mated in November 2011.

The female, Camilla, then laid 30 eggs which the vet placed in an incubator in the hope that some might survive.

As the months went by 29 of the eggs died leaving the vet and his staff to suspect that their experiment had failed.

However, when they checked the incubator this morning they found the tiny new arrival.

Named Tiny Tim the baby veiled chameleon is just one inch long.

Charlie Storer, 40, a practice nurse, said: “When Camilla laid the eggs we were all quite excited.

“We were looking forward to become parents imminently. We couldn’t believe it when we found out we would have to wait nine months.

“When the secretary checked the incubator on Friday and said there was a baby chameleon there we thought she was joking.

“We thought she was pulling out legs.

“We are all thrilled to bits; it is our first successful chameleon breeding.”

The new arrival is so small that it cannot eat the meal worms and crickets that its parents feast on.

As a result, when it was discovered one of the nurses had to rush out and buy some tiny grasshoppers especially for it.

Mr Storer also has finches, axolotls and piranhas at the surgery.