How long should a male panther chameleon rest between each mating session?

[LanceLee]

i understand it's not good for a male panther chameleon sire to mate too frequently?

how much rest should he get (i.e. how many days or weeks before he should be introduced to the same female or another female?)

this is my male ambilobe sire ADDY

 

[jajeanpierre]

Is that the female? STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!!

That female has severe MBD--can't you see her broken front legs?

What are you doing breeding animals in such poor condition? Why would you allow a male to breed with sperm plugs hanging?

Aside from the poor health of the female, she is far too small.

I can't believe you can't see this.

 

[Vwcorradoturbodad]

That's terrible dosent even look like she has a bone in that arm

 

[LanceLee]

Thanks for telling me these, i'm actually quite clueless, and where i live (in china where keeping chameleon as pets is not really legal), no one seems to know

Ok, i'v stopped them. New questions

1) so those r sperm plugs? I didn't know. The male chameleon has actually released sperm plugs in the morning. And this mating session was in the same afternoon so i didn't expect those to be sperm plugs.

Am i supposed to help remove those sperm plugs? What should i do? Pls advise


2) the female does indeed has MBD.
It was sold to me by a chinese breeder who told me frankly that she has MBD when she was younger but he assured me that he has nursed her back to ok health and she's good for mating. I trusted him but apparently, both he and i don't know enough. Thanks for correcting my mistake

So next question, is this female not suitable breeding at all? For the rest of her life?

 

[KapitalJ]

Not even sure where to go with this....

Main issue - MBD is a calcium deficiency and eggs need loads of calcium this is a horrible idea. The eggs will probably not hatch, and your cham will most likely die.

Why did you mate them if you admittedly know little to nothing about chameleons?

 

[Decadancin]

Thanks for telling me these, i'm actually quite clueless, and where i live (in china where keeping chameleon as pets is not really legal), no one seems to know

Ok, i'v stopped them. New questions

1) so those r sperm plugs? I didn't know. The male chameleon has actually released sperm plugs in the morning. And this mating session was in the same afternoon so i didn't expect those to be sperm plugs.

Am i supposed to help remove those sperm plugs? What should i do? Pls advise


2) the female does indeed has MBD.
It was sold to me by a chinese breeder who told me frankly that she has MBD when she was younger but he assured me that he has nursed her back to ok health and she's good for mating. I trusted him but apparently, both he and i don't know enough. Thanks for correcting my mistake

So next question, is this female not suitable breeding at all? For the rest of her life?

I would not breed her. I'm no authority on this, but a chameleon with MBD has already had her bones compromised due to calcium deficiency, and producing eggs will potentially deplete her system even more. It is very tough on the girls. There may be other issues due to improper care, and those may not be seen as readily from the photos. Breeding her could be dangerous for her.

 

[Decadancin]

I would say you will want to learn a lot more about them before trying to raise them. You will want to pass great info on to any that adopt the new babies. From the questions you are asking (not trying to come across as mean here...) you sound like you are pretty new at this.

 

[Decadancin]

Also, not having the entire picture here, I'll just guess, but I would definitely question the breeder's intentions giving her to you to breed. Sounds like there is only profit in mind and not quality.

 

[LanceLee]

I will be very frank here, i only started keeping chameleons as pets since early May.

Barely less than three months.

While it is no excuse, i have been given a lot of wrong, misleading information by chinese breeders who r more interested to sell me female chameleons they didn't want to keep.

I'm eager to learn more and help correct the wrong information being propagated among the chinese hobbyists

 

[Decadancin]

I'm sure you will be much more successful than they are because of it!

 

[LanceLee]

I'm learning fast the hard and expensive way.

Pls help me so i can avoid more such silly mistakes


Firstly, i only have one adult male ambilobe now and four female adults, which this is also a mistake (i'v been misled by a couple of chinese breeders)

So my most needy question is, supposedly the other three females r healthy, how much rest should i give my male ambilobe if i were to mate him?

Is once every two weeks reasonable? Or just once a month?

My ambilobe male is a 18 month adult who has never been mated before he came to me five days ago

 

[jajeanpierre]

Thanks for telling me these, i'm actually quite clueless, and where i live (in china where keeping chameleon as pets is not really legal), no one seems to know

Ok, i'v stopped them. New questions

1) so those r sperm plugs? I didn't know. The male chameleon has actually released sperm plugs in the morning. And this mating session was in the same afternoon so i didn't expect those to be sperm plugs.

Am i supposed to help remove those sperm plugs? What should i do? Pls advise


2) the female does indeed has MBD.
It was sold to me by a chinese breeder who told me frankly that she has MBD when she was younger but he assured me that he has nursed her back to ok health and she's good for mating. I trusted him but apparently, both he and i don't know enough. Thanks for correcting my mistake

So next question, is this female not suitable breeding at all? For the rest of her life?

Those sperm plugs could be a Vitamin A deficiency. To be honest, I've never noticed a sperm plug with my males, and I have a lot of adult males. I supplement with human Vitamin A by putting one drop from an 8,000 IU gel cap on a feeder insect once a month).

Let's go back to the very beginning and start from scratch.

Did you buy both these animals from the breeder? How long have you had them? Can you give me a history of each? Your care, feeding, supplementing, lighting (UVB or natural sunlight). Basically, how much do you know about keeping chameleons?

MBD is caused by a few things, but is commonly caused by poor UVB and dietary calcium. Basically, the body takes calcium out of the bones to keep the blood calcium levels high enough. As more and more calcium is depleted from the bones, they can fracture or fold. Egg production and even just the physical exertion of laying the eggs uses a tremendous amount of calcium so any poor bone density becomes worse. I don't know if she would ever be a candidate to breed with a history of MBD. She really would need to be closely monitored by a vet unless a vet believes it is life threatening. Calcium doesn't just go into the shell, it also goes into the egg yolk.

Why do you want to breed them?

 

[#Chams4life]

What's with the black on the females mouth? is that just her coloring?

 

[Chameleon Mike]

I will be very frank here, i only started keeping chameleons as pets since early May.

Don't want to be harsh but you have only been doing this a few months, you don't know about sperm plugs, how often to breed them, how to identify MBD, and you have 4 females and 1 male which you probably bred them all already. I think you should learn a lot more about the animals you are trying to breed prior to starting a breeding operation.
Once you are able to give advise and see if you can keep one in good health for a year then you might be ready.

I'm sure you're not because if they are illegal there you are probably set to make a quick buck.

That's not fair to the chameleons which you care so much about.

 

[LanceLee]

Rest assured that i have stopped trying to breed them, against the encouragement of the chinese breeders who have sold me the various chameleons


I will focus on raising my 4~5 months old young hatchlings for now

But i will nonetheless still need answers so when the time comes, i will be ready

I'v tried searching the archives but found no answers

So here's my question again,

For a healthy, grown adult chameleon, what is the ideal mating frequency?

Once a week, once every two weeks? Once a month?

 

[jajeanpierre]

Rest assured that i have stopped trying to breed them, against the encouragement of the chinese breeders who have sold me the various chameleons


I will focus on raising my 4~5 months old young hatchlings for now

But i will nonetheless still need answers so when the time comes, i will be ready

I'v tried searching the archives but found no answers

So here's my question again,

For a healthy, grown adult chameleon, what is the ideal mating frequency?

Once a week, once every two weeks? Once a month?

I don't know. I've bred some males every day for several weeks. I've also had some sort of hemorrhage of the hemipenes once, too.

I think you need to slow down and learn. Your female is really very small. You do not want her to be laying eggs now. I don't know even if you should try to get eggs from her with her compromised bones. Only a reptile vet could tell you and I don't think you have easy access to one.

A basic standard is for them to be about one year old before trying to breed them, AND they need to be in perfect health.

Can you send pictures of all your animals with their weights? We'll help you but we can't teach you everything at once.

 

[LanceLee]

thanks, i will certainly stop mating them or breeding them till i know more, much later.

Will post pictures soon

 

[jajeanpierre]

thanks, i will certainly stop mating them or breeding them till i know more, much later.

Will post pictures soon

Keep them visually separated as well. I've noticed that even when they can't see each other they just know anyway. Try to get your male out of the room with the female.

 

[LanceLee]

I have deliberately lowered my room temperature to 24 deg celsius ( its scorching hot 32 deg celsius outside this summer) and controlled their diets to keep their metabolism lower for the females. (To delay them getting on heat)

But this thread is really about managing the sexual health of adult males. We have digressed?

Could we keep to the topic pls? I'll start another thread about my females and bad breeding practices in China

 

[Cali Reaper]

I have similar question, my boy mated twice with a female and he doesnt seem to look for her any more, does that mean they are done and should I remove her out of the cage they are sharing? The have been in the same cage for 2 days.