Sexing side-stripe chameleons

[Daisy]

Is there any way to sex neonate side-stripe chameleons?

 

[sharkey]

how are your 10 babies doing today? were you able to get the temps adjusted? how is the mommy doing. she looked beautiful in the picture - interesting pattern on her.

 

[Daisy]

All babies doing good

All 10 babies are eating and drinking.The temp is 73. Its cute watching them drink. I've never actually seen Daisy drink, but I know she must. How often should I feed them fruit flies?

 

[dodolah]

All 10 babies are eating and drinking.The temp is 73. Its cute watching them drink. I've never actually seen Daisy drink, but I know she must. How often should I feed them fruit flies?

everyday, in the morning preferably.

 

[kinyonga]

You should be able to sex them by looking at the base of the tail...just "south" of the vent.

 

[sharkey]

feed them at least once a day - make sure they all eat - this is a bit of a challenge if all 10 are together but you can do it. i never restricted food - if my babies ate all of the food i always gave them more! a few left over flies are ok (crix are a different story, they can chew on chams). some keepers do restrict food but i don't believe in it - especially in babies.

glad to hear they are all doing well; that is wonderful

 

[Trace]

Hi Daisy!

I'm glad to hear that the babies are eating and active. They are cute little things for sure!

Sexing the true bitaeniatus is a little difficult. Even as adults the differences are subtle at best and it takes some experience to see the distinctions. As Kinyonga said, the males do have a hemipenal bulge (man areas essentially) just after the vent but the bulge isn't pronounced as it is with some members of that complex (eg: ellioti, goetzei) and they can easily be misconstrued as females and vice versa. The females also have a longer tail in relation to their bodies than the males. Sadly there are no colour variations between the sexes, nor tarsal spurs or horns etc.

Here's some of my babies and the differences between.
Female:

Two males:

Again, keep me posted on the litter. They are beautiful chameleons.
Cheers,
t

 

[Daisy]

Thanks

Thanks I will try to sex them when they are a little older, they are so fragile, I don't want to upset them. They are eating so much I need to go get another fruit fly culture tomorrow. They are eating them faster then they are hatching.