Is a vision barrier enough when putting male and female veiled next to each other?

[WobbleWobble93]

I plan to adopt a poor female soon but have limited space. The best way to utilize my space would be to put her cage right besides his with some sort of divider so they can't see each other. However, I recently learned that male chameleons can vibrate the part between their eyes if they see a female. My question is, will my male still be able to somehow know there's a female and make that vibration sound? I assume females would hear this and be stressed out. So I really just want to know if a visual barrier is enough or if they really do need to be in separate rooms? Any advice or insight from other people who have multiple chameleons (in separate enclosures!) is greatly appreciated.


PS: Not sure if this is important but I do not plan to breed my male with the female! Ever. I just want to help her and make her feel safe.

Thanks for reading! Have a nice day!

 

[JacksJill]

I can't answer the question as asked I don't know if her being aware of him will stress her. I do know that many people keep chameleons successfully in cages next to each other by adding a sturdy visual barrier. I say sturdy because sometimes the female will try to break through, @MissSkittles I recall you have an example.

 

[kinyonga]

@WobbleWobble93 ...I assume you're referring to veileds?

 

[WobbleWobble93]

@WobbleWobble93 ...I assume you're referring to veileds?

Yes, sorry. Both veileds. My male is roughly a year old and the female is close to 2 but I'm not 100% sure about that.

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."I recently learned that male chameleons can vibrate the part between their eyes if they see a female"...they can make the vibrations even when they can't see a female....They vibrate their whole bodies.

 

[kinyonga]

Kenny Barnett was he one who first studied this..
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1384&context=stu_hon_theses

Here's. some more info on it...
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/stu_hon_theses/718/

Years ago, it seemed like some female veiled chameleons would begin to become receptive when a male was in the same room but they couldn't see it...we think it was because they could sense the vibrations. I don't know if it was ever tested though.

Is might be of interest to you too.
https://zoologyweblog.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-case-of-electric-chameleon.html?m=1

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi. I have 2 lady veileds and 1 male and due to limited space, their enclosures are side by side. At one time the male was in between the girls. I had used coco fiber panels to visually separate and one of my girls (Stella) found her way around it to peek at my handsome guy. I‘m not breeding any of them, so they have a forbidden love affair. When I had the girls across the room from the guy, Stella seemed aware and during a receptive period she climbed to the top of her door where she could peek at him over the dividing curtain. I do think that her peeking at him has triggered her to produce eggs. My other girl has no interest in my fella and his presence, and even seeing him hasn’t effected her at all. Oddly, he has no interest in her either. I do now have more solid barriers between them that they can’t peek around. I‘m almost certain that they are all aware of each other’s presence, but it doesn’t seem to be bothering them at all.

 

[Tkrd69]

Naughty girl