Chameleon puberty?

[lizzleberry]

Hi,
my male veiled is roughly 8 months old now, i moved him to a different part of the room about a month ago to make room for potentially a new cham and since then he's been a little unhappy looking. but recently (last week or two) ive noticed that he's just not going for his crickets with the usual enthusiasm. he'll happily be hand fed his locusts and whatever wax worms and meal worms i treat him to but his daily diet of gut loaded dusted crickets doesnt seem to be tempting him like it used to.
the move wasnt drastic, he has literally swapped from one wall, to the wall opposite and i made sure he is still able to spy on me in the mornings because i think he likes doing that.
i feed him by separating crickets into tubs of about 8 - 15 putting a milk carton lid of cricket gel water and a carton lid of gut load (bug grub and bug gel) in each tub and then when i go to feed him i select a tub, remove the carton lids, dust and shake, put the carton lids back in and then open the lid and put it on the ground for pascal to go down to in his own time. this has worked since i started using the method when he was about 3 months old and had moved on from cup feeding.
i tried cup feeding him again but he's just not interested or is maybe a little insulted.
i went to the shop today to pick up some more food and the lady suggested i change his uvb because usually they run out after 6 - 9 months. she also said he might have hit "that stage"
¬¬
so i have brought home a new uvb lamp which he can have when i put some decent wall plugs in my walls (at the moment all the lights are hung up with self adhesive hooks which for some reason keep falling off. i have about 7 hooks holding up the heat lamp for fear of the damage it will do if it comes down and lands on the flex)
i did ask, and the lady said getting a female may cheer him up, but to be careful of her becomeing egg bound, but i wasnt sure of what this meant.
obviously i know that becoming egg bound means that a female does not lay her eggs because she cannot find anywhere suitable and pretty much dies of suffocation, but i did not know if this meant the lady thought i would breed the two and keep them together etc. obviously if i were to purchase another chameleon i would (and already have) another set up for her.
how easy is it to keep a female yemen?
does it sound like Pascal has just his "that stage" in life (as well as presumably knowing his bulb was out of uvb before i did) or is it likely that something is wrong?
i know the obvious answer is take him to the vet, which i will do should he start to loose weight or anything seem wrong with his health, but id like some opinions before i rush into spending a lot of money
thanks
liz

 

[camimom]

Females are not hard to keep. they jsut differ than males.

I keep both a male and female veiled (seperately of course).

chams do hit a puberty stage, so this could be happeneing.

Mine got super grumpy around that age.


i dont think you need a vet trip right now.

any change to their environment makes them unhappy sometimes.
also, he may be bored of crickets. my panther did that, he refused crickest for like 3months, lived on silks and other stuff, then i gave him some crickets, gobbled them down like i starved him.

 

[Swayne8998]

Yes! I don't think there's any reason to take him to the vet. Every cham goes through this! My guy is a year old. Anywhere from 6-12 months they go through this. He may be bored of crickets. I feed my guy a mixed up diet of crickets, superworms, dubia roaches, and the occassional waxworm. Be careful of mealworms as they have a hard shell that is more difficult to digest than that of a superworm.

As for female responsibility, it's tough-er (not unimaginibly hard, but more difficult). They live remarkably less considering how long they live (3-5 years, while 5-7 for males). When they are ready to lay eggs you'll need to isolate her in a tub full of dirt about 10 inches deep without food or water. The process is stressful and could very well kill her if not done properly. The female is an option, at the moment my man is still a bachelor Hope this helps!

 

[camimom]

Yes! I don't think there's any reason to take him to the vet. Every cham goes through this! My guy is a year old. Anywhere from 6-12 months they go through this. He may be bored of crickets. I feed my guy a mixed up diet of crickets, superworms, dubia roaches, and the occassional waxworm. Be careful of mealworms as they have a hard shell that is more difficult to digest than that of a superworm.

As for female responsibility, it's tough-er (not unimaginibly hard, but more difficult). They live remarkably less considering how long they live (3-5 years, while 5-7 for males). When they are ready to lay eggs you'll need to isolate her in a tub full of dirt about 10 inches deep without food or water. The process is stressful and could very well kill her if not done properly. The female is an option, at the moment my man is still a bachelor Hope this helps!

Females can live a long time, if done properly.

lower basking temps, and less food leads to lowered egg production, or can even halt it completely.

You dont need to isolate if your cage is big enough to put a lay bin in it.

I have a female veiled. she laid 38 perfect fertile eggs beginning of april. her cage is big enough for a bin, so i put a bucket, with 14 inches of damp top soil in it. she has a mistking, so she got misted regularly.

it took her 3 days to lay, and there were no complications, it went very smoothly.