I am totally new in keeping pygmy cham, even chameleon. Anyone can tell me are they the same species of pygmy cham? The shop keeper claimed that they are the same species, but I haven't seen they mate or have similar action. Sometimes they fight, but usually separated in the tank.

Any help will be highly appreciated.

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Hi.. they are the same species. They are r. brevicaudatus, and the reason you haven't seen them mate is because the female looks pretty gravid already. She will spurn the male's advances until after she has dropped her eggs. By fighting, do you mean the female sways rapidly back and forth on her branch when the male advances? If so.. that is because the male wants to breed and the female doesn't. How do you have your tank set up? Have you seen roo's articles in Chameleon News? You might want to take a look...

http://www.chameleonnews.com/stumphabitat.html
http://www.chameleonnews.com/brevcare.html

Heika

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There is nothing "Nancy"ish about chameleons.. they are ubernifty.

Hi Heika,

I am very glad to have your reply. Thank you very much to solve my suspension. Yes the female is gravid and dropped four eggs already. I am incubating them at 25C in damp vermiculite, hopefully they will hatch after 60+ days. Now they are kept in a new terrarium. I share some pic with all of you later.

Thank you for introducing me roo's articles. In fact, i have gone though them several times already. These articles are excellent and informative.

Patrick

Heika,

Also, could you tell me how do you know they are same species? My friends also keep pygmy chams, we also have the same problem.

Thank you.

I can tell they are the same species because I keep quite a few of them. Leaf chameleons really are diverse in their features. Lots have stripes on their sides, some don't, some have knobby noses, some have even knobbier noses... etc. etc.

The best way to make sure you have an r. brev is to check for its beard. All of them have three tiny little flaps of skin under their chin, in a row heading toward their belly. They are very small, and is the reason that the chameleons have the common name bearded pygmy chameleons.

Heika

__________________
There is nothing "Nancy"ish about chameleons.. they are ubernifty.

Thanks Heika,

Do you mean that the pygmies are the same species if they has beard? Any similar species also has beard? ??

Thx

Patrick