Help me!
- Thread starter Nic Pic
- Start date
Miss Lily
Chameleon Enthusiast
Looks like it could be sperm plugs. Your cham is an adult male - is that him in your avatar? The pic is not that clear, but that's what it looks like. They do pass those every so often. Tommy has never passed any that large though - they must have been building up for a while. I bet he feels more comfortable now.
Dave Weldon
Avid Member
Howdy Nic,
These plugs seem to occur more often in older chameleons. Usually younger Panthers and Veileds easily pass thinner, smaller, moist, soft, white ones with no effort at all. For some reason chameleons that are over ~4-5+ years-old are more likely to end-up with plugs that are dense, dry, brownish masses that become intertwined and stuck to their hemipenes. As the secretions build-up there comes a time when even the chameleon, by itself, seems unable to pass the plug and keeper intervention (or a vet) becomes inevitable
. You were lucky that he passed that pair without help; but as you can see, they were stuck to the point that some minor amount of tissue damage occurred causing that small amount of blood loss. He'll likely be fine with no troubles.I don't have any definitive info as to what causes them to occur and what can be done to minimize their occurrence
. One might be tempted to blame it on nutritional deficiencies or sub-optimal hydration so just be sure that those issues are covered. Dr. Mader's book mentions them and even has a couple of photos of them, pre and post removal, but doesn't suggest any causes for their occurrence either.My ~7 year-old Veiled gets them every so often. 75% of the time, when they have become visible, I have carefully removed them myself with no problems.
Example from my old Veiled:
