its a date

[Dankmeleon]

I have quite a diesel male I got from mike at the tampa show, I'll post pics of both in just a second.

I also aquired a younger female of unknown age, here are some pics of them, let me know how you guys think these two pair and if the female looks almost ready. thank!

she also can turn her belly quite blue



and the male 6-7 months old but i don't know for sure

 

[Brad Ramsey]

How old are they?

-Brad

 

[Dankmeleon]

i believe the male is between 6-7 months old but he may be slightly older, the age of female is unknown...she has a glow to her, its why i got her, they are both housed outdoors which has led me to believe they mature a little more quickly...there metabolism seems to be a lot faster than when I kept them indoors and the have insatiable appetites

 

[Cherron]

I may be wrong but she looks like she is already showing gravid coloration.. that may be the "glow" you mentioned

 

[Dankmeleon]

I think she may need to do some digging, however i did pull her after sunset, and she was stressed when I snapped those...she normally isn't spotted up however, she has been puffing up lately, i haven't had a dish in her cage for a few weeks because I figured she was probably too young, previous to that I had a dish with coco coir, she def eats like she might be, but I don't know

any suggestions?

I do know she hasnt been with any males, but from what I hear they still produce eggs .... can anyone enlighten me a little more I seem to be off to a good start so far I don't want to f it up late in the game

 

[westcoastchameleons]

I think she may need to do some digging, however i did pull her after sunset, and she was stressed when I snapped those...she normally isn't spotted up however, she has been puffing up lately, i haven't had a dish in her cage for a few weeks because I figured she was probably too young, previous to that I had a dish with coco coir, she def eats like she might be, but I don't know

any suggestions?

I do know she hasnt been with any males, but from what I hear they still produce eggs .... can anyone enlighten me a little more I seem to be off to a good start so far I don't want to f it up late in the game

1. My suggestion would be to place an egg laying container in her enclouser. The worst that happens is she lays the eggs, and you have to nurse her back to health, or she isnt gravid after all.

2. Yes, vieleds do produce eggs (infetile) with no male. And, she will need a place to lay them.


I hope all goes well with your chameleons!

Thanks,
Jake

 

[Cherron]

I put a egg laying container in with my females when I move them to their "big girl" cages.. at about 3 and a half months.. and leave it in there for the rest of their lives. You never know when you will miss the signs that she is ready to lay and become egg bound. When she does start digging, then you can put her into a proper egg laying chamber.

Females sometimes definitely do produce eggs without ever having even seen a male. Be sure that you are supplementing her correctly, gutloading and providing plenty of water. Producing and laying eggs is pretty taxing on these girls.

 

[Dankmeleon]

I've heard to use soil in the digging dish, sand, and I figured on my own that coco coir (hydroponic medium flushed with low ppm solution to reduce salts) would be suitable esp since it has the best drainage, sand also has good drainage, does anyone see any problem with the coco or should I stick to something else

also from the pictures, if she is not gravid does she look almost ready to mate and can any estimate age? I'm going to find out exactly how old the male is by calculating the show date I purchased him at (subadult) from mike at fl chams, I just need to know how old (subadult) made him at the time

 

[Cherron]

You need something in the egg laying chamber that is sturdy enough to hold a tunnel when she digs without collapsing on her. I use a mixture of moist play sand and organic soil. I don't have much experience with coco coir except in my pygmie tanks but from that limited experience I don't think that it would make a very good tunneling substrate. Perhaps if you mix it with sand, but I really can't say as I have never tried it.

 

[Julirs]

I have the coconut fiber mixed with sand, and it does quite well as far as tunneling goes. Other benefits are that it holds moisture better than sand alone as far as the tunneling and it weighs far less than a container of sand alone.

Your female looks anywhere from 5-7 months to me. Hard to tell from pictures. How long is she?

 

[Dankmeleon]

I have the coconut fiber mixed with sand, and it does quite well as far as tunneling goes. Other benefits are that it holds moisture better than sand alone as far as the tunneling and it weighs far less than a container of sand alone.

great thanks!

 

[Skiddles]

Great pictures that veiled looks really healthy nice vibrant colors. I can't wait for mine to get that big.

 

[Dankmeleon]

Great pictures that veiled looks really healthy nice vibrant colors. I can't wait for mine to get that big.

yes if you powerfeed they grow so fast

 

[Reptayls]

We have raised/bred veiled chams for years and have seen that neon coloration on lots of healthy young females. Yours is quite lovely.

The typical receptive coloration of a veiled female includes hundreds of robin-egg blue dots. This is a visual flag to males. Once they are gravid, most of the blue dots disappear and gold blotches are added to the mix - and when they stress, they go quite black, with green and gold splotches .....

Like this:

We make it a practice not to breed veiled males before 9 months or veiled females before 11 months of age. Why? Since we have watched our veileds continue to grow until they are 2 - it goes without the need for too much more elaboration than to say they need the calcium for stronger bones. Females will rob their bones of calcium to produce eggs. We feel that the younger a female is bred, and the more she eats - the more eggs she produces - the shorter her life span. Her body gains weight that her bones cannot support and this creates a downward spiral.

We have experimented: keeping young females away from males and keeping young females within close visual range of a young male. Neither environment resulted in egg laying before they were bred. Once they reach 11-12 months, we have either sold them or they are introduced to a male when they show receptivity.

As for the nesting soil - we use 1/2 sand and 1/2 Super Soil. We give the girls about 12"-16" of moist, packed medium to dig in. We use a separate container for our females to lay in - but have had a few use their potted plants. They really like digging next to the trunk of a bush. The umbrella plants come in very handy for this.

~Morgana

 

[Dankmeleon]

morgana, great post!

is it your opinion then that the pictured female is less than 6 months of age?

I understand your pictured female is pretty far along being gravid, but is that not to say that mine may just be starting? how does she look besides her graceful beauty, does she look like the early stages of infertile egg growth?

I will put her a big dish soon thanks for your help I'll be on to check more later thanks!

 

[Dankmeleon]

I'm starting to get a better understanding, over the next few months, my male will fall into the ready category.

from your feed back I'm determining I have at the very least 5 months to wait until the female is ready, hopefully I can time the breeding before she becomes gravid with infertile eggs, again I'm inexperienced so I can only assume the worst thing that can happen may very well happen, which would be to delay her sceduled mating, but its not like this happens in an instant anyways, patience is a virtue, and If I was smart I'd be investing in several females and various types of select males to cut out some of this wait time once I get started as I plan to breed to promote the species

I live in florida and have an indoor green house with palm trees below misters, I have been wanting to let some chams go in it for awhile