Is my female veiled fertilized?

[StickyPad]

Well, stickypad met her new boyfriend, yoshi, last week and I think they did 'it'. But I don't want her to lay in infertile batch and she is due to lay sometime soon. How will I know if she is fertilized?

 

[fluxlizard]

show her the male again and watch her reaction. If this is her first breeding, she will remain calm and accept him again, or she will reject him, turning dark with bright spots. That means she's most likely fertile.

Nesting usually occurs 3-4 weeks after breeding.

 

[StickyPad]

No she just walked round and then stared at him while he went EXTREMELY thin and puffy and stretched and wobbled towards her. He kinda shook his head a bit, then headbutted her a few times and got on her in a piggy back position. They did this a few times until she climbed onto the wall (artificial rock polystyrene thing) and sat there for a bit. When she got down he climbed on her again. Is this normal? x

 

[Olimpia]

If the deed is done it's a little too late, but we recommend that you read up on mating, mating behavior, and everything that goes into breeding before actually partaking in the activity. You could injure or stress out your chameleons if you don't know how to recognize your female is non-receptive but you put her in with your male anyway.

Here is a great video showing you what a receptive and non-receptive female looks like: https://www.chameleonforums.com/receptive-female-chameleons-educational-video-62869/

If she looks non-receptive now and she didn't before the mating then you're probably going to have fertilized eggs.

 

[StickyPad]

she looks just like she used to...shes been more active, walking round her tank constantly. but she isn't digging in her second tank. what should I do? leave her in there over night?

 

[fluxlizard]

she's still receptive, but he isn't doing his job. It doesn't mean it's too late. I disagree about that. When females behave like this, it means she's still trying to increase her odds of successful fertilization. Either the first time didn't work out or she's just still not far along enough for it to make a difference yet and so another breeding is still desirable for her.

As far as your shy male- happens sometimes.

Just keep introducing for a few minutes every day or two until she rejects him. Usually shy males will start to show interest if they are visually isolated form the female and only introduced for a few minutes every couple of days. The re-introductions with visual isolatin between times seem to get them thinking about things and interest comes around usually.

 

[Olimpia]

I didn't mean that it's too late to mate them, just that it's a little late to start preemptive research breeding before actually doing it. But better now than never, I guess!

 

[StickyPad]

Okay, I will mate them today. But when should she lay?