windeindoiel
New Member
I have a female carpet chameleon, she mated and laid eggs about 6 months ago and the clutch appears fertile (veins developed recently, yay!). Since that first clutch she hasn't become gravid again though. I do a period of winter cooling for all my lizards which consists of shortening the day length from 14 to 12 hours and dropping the temp by ~3 degrees F from February to April. I thought maybe this accounted or it but everything went back to normal almost 2 months ago and still nothing.
About 3 months ago I tried putting her with the male again but she hissed and moved away so I separated them. I failed to supervise the first mating because I had just moved them into a new tank that was supposed to have a removable divider but my hubby hadn't finished it yet, so I thought so long as there was a visual barrier they wouldn't even know they weren't alone (beginner tip - paper is no obstacle for a horny chameleon) but when I came back with the divider 2 hours later the male was in the females half and they were going at it. So basically I don't know how the female responded the first time but I'm under the impression she's not supposed to act aggressively.
Even when gravid before she didn't display gravid colors, and she's not gravid colors now. Sometimes I come into the room and she's much darker green than usual (which is really weird for her, just started that a couple weeks ago), but not black.
I thought maybe she was gravid because of the darker color and because lately she's been hanging out in the back of the cage which she's only done before when she was close to laying. She's also had a decreased appetite lately. But I don't think that's it now because I must have scared her and she compressed her body and ran for it, and I didn't see any lumpiness.
I feed silkworms and crickets gut loaded with a homemade (mix it up with variety of online recipes) gut load, I occasionally offer butter and Phoenix worms. Food is offered about 5 times a week. Crickets are dusted with calcium or calcium and D3 once or twice a week, multivitamin about every month and a half. Basking temp is ~83F and the rest of the cage is ~76F. UV bulbs were replaced a month and a half ago, I use Exo Terra's 5.0. The cage is misted once a day, bringing the humidity up to 90%, humidity sits around 50-60% the rest of the time. She has 2 umbrella plants and a ficus. There is a place to lay available at all times.
Anyone have any ideas what's going on? She looks alert and although she sometimes doesn't eat as much as the male she still eats at every feeding. Besides being darker colored than usual there's nothing to indicate to me that she's ill. Is there something I'm missing?
About 3 months ago I tried putting her with the male again but she hissed and moved away so I separated them. I failed to supervise the first mating because I had just moved them into a new tank that was supposed to have a removable divider but my hubby hadn't finished it yet, so I thought so long as there was a visual barrier they wouldn't even know they weren't alone (beginner tip - paper is no obstacle for a horny chameleon) but when I came back with the divider 2 hours later the male was in the females half and they were going at it. So basically I don't know how the female responded the first time but I'm under the impression she's not supposed to act aggressively.
Even when gravid before she didn't display gravid colors, and she's not gravid colors now. Sometimes I come into the room and she's much darker green than usual (which is really weird for her, just started that a couple weeks ago), but not black.
I thought maybe she was gravid because of the darker color and because lately she's been hanging out in the back of the cage which she's only done before when she was close to laying. She's also had a decreased appetite lately. But I don't think that's it now because I must have scared her and she compressed her body and ran for it, and I didn't see any lumpiness.
I feed silkworms and crickets gut loaded with a homemade (mix it up with variety of online recipes) gut load, I occasionally offer butter and Phoenix worms. Food is offered about 5 times a week. Crickets are dusted with calcium or calcium and D3 once or twice a week, multivitamin about every month and a half. Basking temp is ~83F and the rest of the cage is ~76F. UV bulbs were replaced a month and a half ago, I use Exo Terra's 5.0. The cage is misted once a day, bringing the humidity up to 90%, humidity sits around 50-60% the rest of the time. She has 2 umbrella plants and a ficus. There is a place to lay available at all times.
Anyone have any ideas what's going on? She looks alert and although she sometimes doesn't eat as much as the male she still eats at every feeding. Besides being darker colored than usual there's nothing to indicate to me that she's ill. Is there something I'm missing?
