i have two veiled chams my male cham i got in sept he is healthy and recently got female cham they are in seperate vivs and when i try to introduce they just want to attack each other i seperated them and 1 week later i tried again and the same thing as my female was in a tank with others she may have bred but she dont look gravid but i put moist vermiculte in her viv just incase she keeps eating it is this normal
they both eat very well and loved being misted the only problem im having is the breeding can anyone help

How are the couple?

My chams were the same too. The female, Sally, kept trying to attack my male. He would just climb on top of her and mate, then I would immediately seperate them. Make sure to watch your chams when housed together; some fights can be fatal. If the female is gravid, she will enlarge, puff out her gular, turn mostly black, rock back and forth, and hiss (also try to attack) when you attempt to touch her. Don't touch a famale gravid or house it with another cham, for they can become easily stressed. If you don't breed them, the female will become pregnant anyway, but she will die egg-bound (eggs get stuck). Good luck with breeding your chams!

Lots of people keep females without them becoming egg bound and dying. An unfertilized clutch needs to be layed just like a fertile clutch, so an appropriate laying spot needs to be provided. Jenna just gave really nice instructions on a laying container yesterday. Infertile or fertile, the cham has to have an appropriate place to lay her eggs or she has a much higher chance of becoming egg bound. She will try to retain the eggs until she has someplace to lay them. It has a lot less to do with fertility and alot to do with providing her with someplace to lay her eggs.

Heika

thanx 4 advice im still worried they both haye each other she tries to go the other way but he chases her aggressively do you think he just wants to breed i dont want them to come to any harm

I have a pair of Nosy's doing the same thing right now as I type this. The male is very aggressive and the female has responded aggressively as well in reaction to his behavior (but she is ready to breed). But, I'm keeping an eye on them as I type this to be sure it doesn't get too rough.

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Jenna
www.prismchameleons.com

i have a female veiled and she is almost 5 months old. can anyone give me some advice as to the best thing to use for when she lays her eggs, obviously i dont want her to become eggbound. also at what age approx will she lay eggs if providied with the correct environment.

They are able to produce eggs, even without mating, from the age of about 5-6 months (some keepers have reported earlier ages). So it is important that you monitor your chameleon for any changes in colouring, weight or eating habits. If she does produce a clutch, she will need somewhere appropriate to lay the eggs, otherwise she may become eggbound and die.
Dave Weldon has posted pics of his egg laying bin - do a search for it on the forums.

If possible however, you want to try and prevent them from developing any eggs at all (at least until you're ready to actually mate them and have them breed - and you wouldn't want to do that until the female cham is fully developed at about a year old).

It is thought that overfeeding can trigger them to develop eggs whether they have been mated or not (leading to the production of infertile clutches). It is possible that warmer temperatures might trigger this too.

Kinyonga often mentions that she has been able to successfully prevent her Veiled and Panther females from producing any infertile clutches by controlling their food intake and basking temps.
As to what exactly constitutes enough food, and what constitutes too much, that differs for each cham (based on different levels of activity, ambient temperatures, calorie count of feeders used, etc). It may take some experience before you work out how much to feed.

My first female is 13 months old now, and hasn't produced any eggs. She has a voracious appetite, but I try to feed her sparingly, though regularly (she eats more frequently than my male did at her age).

umbongochams said..."i have a female veiled and she is almost 5 months old. can anyone give me some advice as to the best thing to use for when she lays her eggs, obviously i dont want her to become eggbound"....for all egglaying female chameleons I keep a small container of washed playsand in the cage so that they have a place to dig to show you that they are getting ready to lay the eggs. By small I mean that the container should be at least big enough (when empty) for the female to fit into with several inches to spare on all sides of her including above and below her. The container should be filled about 2/3 full of washed playsand that has been moistened enough to hold a tunnel.

Once they start digging in this small container, then you can move them to a large egglaying site and leave them there undisturbed as much as possible for several days if need be. They can be watered while in the large container/egglaying bin. You can feed them here as well as long as the uneaten insects are removed so that they won't chew on the chameleon or her eggs.

Do not let the female see you watching her when she is digging. It will make her abandon the hole. If she does this often enough it can lead to eggbinding.

You also asked..."also at what age approx will she lay eggs if providied with the correct environment"...they can lay eggs anytime from about 5 or 6 months of age on...depending on the feeding schedule, temperatures, etc. Overfeeding them can/will cause them to lay bigger clutches and these ones can have reproductive/egg laying problems too.

thanks very much guys!!! all your help is brilliant thatnks alot!!!!