Having some quastions about my chameleon calyptratus

[Philip1310]

Hi everybody, My name is philip from Belgium (so excuse me if I make some language mistakes ) and we bought 2 chameleons at the end of August, told to be a male a female.
They were both very vivid and ate very well. There are always crickets in the cage and daily I offer them a grasshopper or 2 daily (medium size) which they shoot out of my hand very quickly.

I've added a couple of pictures.

Now the last 3 days the female is acting strange. She won't eat out of hand, don't know if she eats at all.
She's always on the ground and we already cought the male grabbing here and climbing on to her. I assume for mating but having doubts about that because it happens on the ground and we can also see she's really a lot bigger in size.

So this confuses me. If she would get ready to lay some eggs, which would explain why she looks so big, then there would be no need to mate anymore, Or is that wrong?

It also seems that she doesn't have the strength to climb on the branches.

Would it be wise to seperate them for a while and make some kind of breeding pit for her?

Tnx for the help!

 

[Carlton]

You absolutely must separate them as soon as possible. Your female may already be gravid and searching for a place to lay her clutch of eggs. Having the male constantly around her is very stressful as she can't escape his attention. She may also be suffering from calcium or vitamin deficiencies (unable to climb or grip branches), but we won't know this without more information on your care. I've attached the link to our help questions that will provide the information we will need to help you further. Rather than repeat everything you need to know here, you can read all about how to provide a nesting site for your female in the articles on chameleon husbandry, located under the Resources tab at the top of the forum.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/

In future you need to house these chameleons separately, so make plans to build a completely separate cage for one of them.

 

[Philip1310]

Well, I've been busy to install an old terrarium we still had so she is seperate now. On the bottom we've put sand. Her color is still nice green.


Every two weeks we feed them crickets that are full of powder with calcium and vitamins (Zoomed reptivit with D3).
To drink they can choose between a waterfall and a big dripper. The male prefers the waterfall.

There are some living plants (ficus) in the glass cage (1mLx0.8Hx0.5W), for the lights we use one regular spot 75W and on the other side a 13W UVB light.
Everything is on from 8 till 21h

 

[Carlton]

Well, I've been busy to install an old terrarium we still had so she is seperate now. On the bottom we've put sand. Her color is still nice green.


Every two weeks we feed them crickets that are full of powder with calcium and vitamins (Zoomed reptivit with D3).
To drink they can choose between a waterfall and a big dripper. The male prefers the waterfall.

There are some living plants (ficus) in the glass cage (1mLx0.8Hx0.5W), for the lights we use one regular spot 75W and on the other side a 13W UVB light.
Everything is on from 8 till 21h

So let me understand you correctly. You give the chams crickets that are dusted with calcium and vitamins (including vitamin D3) once every two weeks? This is probably a big part of the problems you are seeing. The accepted supplementation schedule for this species of cham is:

Dust with plain calcium (NO added vitamin D3) at every feeding.
Dust with calcium (WITH added vitamin D3) once every 2 weeks.
Dust with a reptile multivitamin once every 2 weeks.

Do you put the insects in the cage every day or only when they are all eaten? Your insect feeders need to have fresh gutload available in their storage container before they are presented to your chams. They don't retain their gut contents or their dusts very long after they are put in the chams' cage, unless the insects have access to gutload in the cage as well. Once a feeder insect has been loose in a cham's cage for more than a day it has lost a lot of its nutritional value.

Also, how old is your UV light? The UVB production of most brands declines significantly after about 6 months of daily use, and some light brands don't produce the correct spectrum of UVB at all.

From looking at your most recent pictures I would say your female is gravid. Notice how lumpy and bulky her body is near her hind legs. Whether the eggs she is carrying are fertile or not won't be known until after they are laid.

 

[kinyonga]

I would advise you to set up an appropriate container for egglaying as soon as possible. If they don't have a proper place to lay the eggs they can become eggbound and will die. You can use an opaque container at least 12" deep by 12" by 8" full of moistened washed playsand. Its important to use a phosphorous-free calcium powder at most feedings to ensure she has enough for the shelling of the eggs and for the muscles to be able ot contract to push the eggs out and to keep her bones strong too.

 

[Philip1310]

Does that container really has to be so deep? It is playsand in het cage right now and i've moisened it. She is laying on the ground so isn't that going to be to cold now?
Went to the vet today and he did an ultrasound but didn't see any eggs he said. He thought the egg structures would be pretty clear but that wasn't the case.
Since she isn't eating i'm thinking of forcing her some water with a pipet with extra vitamines and calcium.
Or any other advice?