How Female care differs from male care

[marxous]

Hey all again! I was just in an exchange with Will Hayward and he informed me that females can indeed live as long as males, however the care is entireally different. Thus, I invite everyone who has knowledge in this matter, and im sure many of you do, to post how one cares specifically for a female and how to promote the most longevity out of our loved ones!

thanks all!
-Marc

 

[marxous]

Anyone? Will, aybe you forgot, but i was hoping you would have some light to shed on the situation?

 

[joseofsa]

all the info needed is available on this site just search...

 

[kinyonga]

The following is mostly my opinion...

You said..."females can indeed live as long as males, however the care is entireally different"....in some cases the care is different. In general, female chameleons are said to live shorter lives than males and many do...but there are exceptions. A lot of it, IMHO is connected with reproduction (or lack of it, really).

With some chameleons environmental issues seem to contribute to their reproduction (or lack of it)...When I kept C. chamaeleons, almost all of the females and males both lived to be 6 old. With these chameleons, there was very little difference between the way I kept the males and the females.....but the females only reproduce once a year and usually only one clutch a year. The females when gravid, need more calcium than the males do and should be fed more too to ensure the health of the eggs. I never tried to prevent these chameleons from reproducing by controlling their diet but they were not hibernated as they would have been in the wild...so that IMHO contributed to "birth control". They didn't produce eggs after the first two years (which I feel was because I didn't hibernate them). The second year, I'm sure they had clutches from retained sperm.

With some species controlling the diet of the females seems to slow/stop egg production and the females seem to live longer lives. With the veileds, most of my females live to be over 6 years old and the males live even longer. I don't constantly breed my females....in fact I don't breed them much at all. I'm more interested in having them live long healthy lives and generally only breed them to continue their lines. I have a virgin female that is over three right now. She has never produced a single egg. I also have a couple of virgin females that are quite a bit older (5+) than her. They also have never produced a single egg. The mother of the 3 year old didn't produce eggs until I "allowed" her to and she was over three at the time. She lived to be almost 7. What I do with a veiled female is restrict her diet once she is mature and keep the basking temperature a couple of degrees lower than the male's. I don't starve the females by any means. They are not skinny. If I mate the female, when I'm certain she is working on eggs, I increase her diet, etc. to ensure that she produces healthy eggs. Once she has laid the eggs, I feed her well for a few days and then put her back on the diet, etc. so that she won't produce eggs again. You need to know what you are doing...the diet has to be controlled appropriately depending on the state/point of reproduction that the female is in in order to prevent large clutches and egg production and not harm the female.


I still have more to learn...

Hope this helps!

 

[marxous]

you mentioned that you didnt "let them hibernate" what exactly do you mean? what would you do to let them Hibernate, and what do tehy do when they are hibernating?

 

[kinyonga]

C. chamaeleons come from Spain and other areas near there. Because the temperatures drop considerably in the winter and there are less/no insects around the chameleons sort of hibernate. Most chameleons don't go through temperatures as cold as these ones do and so they don't need to hibernate. Some do benefit from cooler temperatures at times though.

If I had been "brave" enough to allow them to hibernate, it would have made things right for reproduction. There seems to be some need to go through this cooling off in order to reproduce. If this hibernation isn't done properly the chameleon will die. It involves stopping feeding them and allowing their gut to empty before they are cooled right down. They have to be cooled to an appropriate temperature....too cold and they will die...too warm and they will use their reserves up...thus the comment about being "brave".