Barely 4 months and Splash is producing sperm...(PICS)

[ecoreef]

So my boy Splash saw a lady today while I was cleaning some cages and started puttin' on the moves(head bobing, coloring up more, running around like crazy). Afterwards when I picked him up I to put him back he rubbed sperm all over my arm! The crazy thing is that he JUST truned 4 months old on the 6th of May. Have any of you guys had a 4 month old produce viable sperm? I'm kinda freakish about their nutrition with my gutloading schedule's and recipies and I know he's big for his age(53 grams on the 8th) but still 4 months and producing sperm? Is this normal and I have just never seen it before? Here's some pics.

Here's some pics I snapped of the actual semen. (Feel free to say what you want about me, I expect the jokes to be coming in).

Here's a couple full body shots of him.

Give me some input guys and gals!
-Alex

 

[drcrossfire]

could look at it under a microscope?

 

[ecoreef]

I was thinking about that. I might stop by tomorrow and grab our scope, run some fecals, and try to get another sample from him and smear it on a slide instead of my arm.

 

[Chris Jury]

This is on the lower end of when these animals should reach sexual maturity, assuming healthy growth conditions. Females of this and many other chameleon species reach sexual maturity and start reproducing at around 4-6 months of age with males perhaps slightly later, on average. In nature female F. pardalis rarely live longer than about two years whereas males that survive to adulthood tend to live a bit longer, but rarely more than 3 yrs.

Some smaller chameleon species begin reproducing at a mere 3-4 months of age whereas some large species can take well over a year (e.g., C. parsonii), but most species are reproducing at around 6 months after hatching/birth and survive for one to a few years beyond that in nature. In captivity many can clearly attain much longer lifespans, at least in part because of the absense of predators.

A really extreme and unusual life history, even for chameleons, is exhibited by F. labordi. The animals reach sexual maturity about 3 months after hatching, reproduce, and begin to die of old age just 4-5 months after hatching. The eggs incubate 8-9 months and the cycle begins anew, making this truly an annual life cycle. This means that about 2/3 of the lifespan for this species is spent as an incubating egg. F. verrucosus found in the same habitat, by contrast, aestivates during the dry season and has a more typical multi-annual life cycle: http://www.pnas.org/content/105/26/8980.full.pdf

cj

 

[ecoreef]

Yeah there was a really good BBC special a month back that included the life of F. labordi. Very interesing and sad at the same time.

This is on the lower end of when these animals should reach sexual maturity, assuming healthy growth conditions. Females of this and many other chameleon species reach sexual maturity and start reproducing at around 4-6 months of age with males perhaps slightly later, on average. In nature female F. pardalis rarely live longer than about two years whereas males that survive to adulthood tend to live a bit longer, but rarely more than 3 yrs.

Some smaller chameleon species begin reproducing at a mere 3-4 months of age whereas some large species can take well over a year (e.g., C. parsonii), but most species are reproducing at around 6 months after hatching/birth and survive for one to a few years beyond that in nature. In captivity many can clearly attain much longer lifespans, at least in part because of the absense of predators.

A really extreme and unusual life history, even for chameleons, is exhibited by F. labordi. The animals reach sexual maturity about 3 months after hatching, reproduce, and begin to die of old age just 4-5 months after hatching. The eggs incubate 8-9 months and the cycle begins anew, making this truly an annual life cycle. This means that about 2/3 of the lifespan for this species is spent as an incubating egg. F. verrucosus found in the same habitat, by contrast, aestivates during the dry season and has a more typical multi-annual life cycle: http://www.pnas.org/content/105/26/8980.full.pdf

cj

 

[Chameleonmaster]

They have some on mellers,panthers, and pigmy chameleons

 

[ecoreef]

They have some on mellers,panthers, and pigmy chameleons

They have some what?

 

[jsikes88]

They have some what?

You guys are in Woodstock? Im right over the border of WI, wondering if you would be interested in mating chams lol

 

[JonRich]

Lucky him!! took me 13 years to drop my first sperm plug! lol

 

[reptoman]

So he is already going into mating mode in the presense of a female? I guess you will have no problem getting him to like the ladies when you are ready to breed him. I know some breeders will put their males in with a receptive female when they are 6 months or so. He may try but likely wont get the job done. He looks great BTW. He developed faster than the rest of his siblings thats for sure and you can see that by the pics of him at 2.5 months.

 

[Moosma]

Forget the spermies...

I'd like to know what you are feeding him!
My Veiled fell two weeks ago & died....
We are going to try again in a few weeks, and want to give the new one the best chances possible.
From the looks of your chameleon, you are doing something very right.
Whatcha' doing?

 

[carol5208]

He is has one of the coolest markings I have ever seen. I think I have said that before but I will say it again! lol

 

[huskerhoek]

I'd love to know what he was thinking while you took those pics... lol... and if he runs to that arm of yours any faster in the future

 

[Miss Lily]

Wow! Such a stunning boy! What locale is he? Were you expecting people to make comments about the sperm pics? I wouldn't worry about that, lol! Only a couple of days ago Monty left a perfect little example of what I refer to as his 'man bogies' on a branch for me, and I took pics of it too! It's quite the perfect example, one from each hemipene and still joined too! Will post them up soon!

 

[reptoman]

Wow! Such a stunning boy! What locale is he? Were you expecting people to make comments about the sperm pics? I wouldn't worry about that, lol! Only a couple of days ago Monty left a perfect little example of what I refer to as his 'man bogies' on a branch for me, and I took pics of it too! It's quite the perfect example, one from each hemipene and still joined too! Will post them up soon!

He is ambilobe Tiff. He is a Spock and Olive baby.

 

[ecoreef]

So he is already going into mating mode in the presense of a female? I guess you will have no problem getting him to like the ladies when you are ready to breed him. I know some breeders will put their males in with a receptive female when they are 6 months or so. He may try but likely wont get the job done. He looks great BTW. He developed faster than the rest of his siblings thats for sure and you can see that by the pics of him at 2.5 months.

I took those pics when he was BARELY 4 months old(like 4 months and 5 days or something). As of right now he's 67 grams. Unfortunatly he may have mated with a nosy faly female of mine when he was only 3 months old when I had them outside one day. I'm gonna make a thread on that whole incident later. As of right now he's 67 grams.

I'd like to know what you are feeding him!
My Veiled fell two weeks ago & died....
We are going to try again in a few weeks, and want to give the new one the best chances possible.
From the looks of your chameleon, you are doing something very right.
Whatcha' doing?

I have a very crazy feeding routine that I follow. What I do is remove the feeders I gonna use for the next day out of my main colony bins into rummbermaids with NOTHING in them to starve the feeders for 24 hours, then the next mourning I get a big variety of FRESH foods(hibiscus pedals, hibiscus pollen, all different types of greens, all different types of fruits, spirulina, the list goes on and on) and give it to the starved bugs 1HOUR before I feed. When the chams bite them I can litereally see the fresh gut load explode out of their stomachs. I also do a few things differently than other people. I let my cham room creep up to 80-85 degrees in the middle of the day(just like it does durring the fall, summer and spring in Madagascar). I also prefer to feed with insects that are a lot larger than other people would reccomend. My growth rates are INSANE and all my chams are very healthy. In the end though you may have to tinker with things a little bit and do what works best for you.

Good luck,
-Alex

P.S. heres a picture of some insects gutloading with some of the stuff I use.