Breeding Panthers

[Dan]

Hello all,
So I am fairly new to chameleons, and have done a lot of research, and feel I have a good knowledge base of chameleons and chameleon care. Don't get me wrong though, I know I still have PLENTY to learn.

I am an owner of a pair of male and female panther chameleons. They are both roughly 3-4 months of age. I keep hearing repeated mention of the difficulties that come along with raising a female. I would guess there are much more difficulties that would come along with trying to breed them. I know that I have a while until they will be ready to breed, but I was wondering, if you might be able to clue me in on what I should expect to be in store for me come the next few years with these chams? What are the basics of breeding, and what are the problems that come along with raising females?

Thanks everyone!

 

[Vibrant Chameleons]

The best advise I could give you is to research the internet and read books about breeding chameleons and the furcifer pardalis in particular. That will give you the basic info and guide.

 

[kinyonga]

I wouldn't recommend mating them until the female is at least 1 year old....I don't believe in making the female produce fertile eggs until she is full grown herself. She may lay infertile eggs before this happens which shouldn't be a problem if the husbandry (don't overfeed them, provide good temperatures, UVB, proper supplementation, nutritious food) is good unless she has a physical problem (eggs fused, misformed eggs, problems with the reproductive system).

You said..."I keep hearing repeated mention of the difficulties that come along with raising a female"...the fact that females produce eggs makes them more difficult in that you have to provide a place for them to lay eggs once they are sexually mature and you have to pay attention to things that affect their condition in respect to their egglaying (such as their diet and supplementation).

You said..."I would guess there are much more difficulties that would come along with trying to breed them"...breeding them requires that they both be in good health and that you only put them together when the female is receptive.

To mate them, I hold the female outside the male's cage so that they can both see each other and watch for their reactions.

If the male flattens his body laterally, hisses, gapes then he is not recognizing the female as a female that is ready to mate with.

If the female darkens her colors, hisses, gapes, rocks back and forth then she is not receptive. (This is also the way she would behave if she were gravid.)

If the female remains calm and moves slowly away from the male then she is receptive.

If the male shows interest in her and doesn't hiss, gape, etc. he is recognizing her as a receptive female.

If they both act appropriately, the female can be placed into the male's cage. I still watch them for a bit to make sure they continue to get along.

When the female repels the male or turns dark brown with orange markings then she should be removed from the cage.

Abour 30 to 40 days after, she should lay her eggs.

Here's a site with information about panther chameleons that talks about breeding and egglaying...
http://www.adcham.com/html/taxonomy/species/fpardalis.html

 

[Fate X]

nothing gets done without the animals being healthy period.you really cannot get nothing done and the experience is so much less of what it should be when the animal is unhealthy.when your animals are healthy they are gonna be active ,they are gonna be strong and they will be entertaining.they jump and the females got a sleek sneeky way of manuvering through the foliage and when you handle them they dont be you little docile animal no more.
i like em more wild n crazy cause its more what they are supposed to be then just slow boring sick creatures that you can play with.i do handle mine aND when i do its sorta a bit a event because they all pretty ok much wanna bite and dont give a crap about how happy they make you.

so like i said they gotta be healthy especially to breed or the animals will fail thus you then gotta accept failure with the chameleon and try again untill you succeed.