Male/female introduction

[vetdebbie]

My little girl Yemen is growing up - a year old now. No signs as yet of receptive colours, but I am now happy enough with her size to consider breeding her when she does. The question I can't find an answer to is - do I put him in with her, or her in with him??

She is marginally easier to pick up (I don't really handle either of them), but tends to stress out badly when I do, and kamikaze run off my hand when she goes back into her house. He is more evil (bless his little cotton socks), but calmer at the same time. The couple of times they've been in eyesight of each other, they've both been too busy eyeballing me to care about each other!!
Cheers
Debbie

 

[gad58y]

hi debbie
ive done this both ways,so dont know which one is better,if she is receptive im sure theyll mate no problem.

graeme

 

[laurie]

I have always been told to take the male to the females cage. I no longer remember the reason but I know there was one. Good luck.

 

[BigBlue]

I've had many successful veiled matings by placing the female in the males cage. But I had to place the male in the females cage for my panthers. If she's ready it should work, as the male is always ready either way.

 

[Bay687]

i have heard about both ways, i would assume to put the female in the males cage because he's the dominate one but i can also seeing putting the male in females cage because of territory stress over the male.. its definitley a good question that needs to be answered!

 

[chameleonman57]

I would place the female into the males cage. IMAP

 

[Chameleon Company]

The question I can't find an answer to is - do I put him in with her, or her in with him??

Here is what I have always recommended, based on years of experience, and thousands of breedings. Sometimes it does not matter, but the best choice is to leave the female alone, and bring the male to the female's cage. Why ? If you work with chameleons long enough, you will notice that the male of the species is more quickly consumed by an opportunity to breed than a female. In example, if you bring a skittish male to a female's cage, he is often likely to lose his skittishness towards you once he sees the female, and start head bobbing, than a female is to lose her skittishness if being moved to the male's cage. Put another way, male chameleons demonstrate a much more one-track-mind than females. Female chameleons, if handled or moved to the male's cage, will often show a longer-lasting skittishness to being moved, to the new cage, etc., and now has to start feeling sexy when seeing a male chameleon on top of it all ! Conversely, the male can show his sexual desires while still on your hand, while outside the female's cage but seeing her ! Females almost never show a sexual relaxation (ie "one track mind") during movement from one cage to another, and will show stress at being handled, moved, and now confronting a horny male. Point being that you would like to keep the stress factors minimal on the gender that is making the decisions.

The second reason is that you need to minimize non-compatible unions and the injury that can result. Consistent with the above, it is the female that needs to be ready, as the male is always ready. By leaving the female alone, you are keeping the outside disturbance to her at a minimum. Seeing a male perched on your hand will certainly get her attention. You can gauge her reaction before you ever allow the male to actually enter the female's cage, thus avoiding a non-compatible union, or what we call here "date rape", which some aggressive males will attempt. Bringing the male to the female, and looking for her reaction before he actually is allowed to make contact, is safer that putting the female into the male's cage, where unwanted contact can occur quickly, and you find yourself having to separate animals in physical contact with one another, often by mutual bite.

With all that we know, from years of observation, there is just about no circumstance where bringing the female to the male's cage makes more sense. It introduces far more risk, and is more likely to interfere with a natural reaction on the part of the girl. Good luck.

 

[vetdebbie]

Thanks for the info guys. I felt that male into female was probably best but wanted some other opinions. Looking at her this morning she is finally starting to show some blues I think (raised her temps and food intake about 6 weeks ago!). It's a bit hard to say as she's an antisocial so and so, and fires up angry if she even THINKS you might be looking at her. Why do we love such ungrateful animals?? I might let them have a look at each other today and see how it goes.

 

[vetdebbie]

Well, so much for male yemens only having a one track mind!! She is prancing round her cage in her prettiest greens. He is sat ther with an expression that can best be described as - HUH? !!

 

[laurie]

Here is what I have always recommended, based on years of experience, and thousands of breedings. Sometimes it does not matter, but the best choice is to leave the female alone, and bring the male to the female's cage. Why ? If you work with chameleons long enough, you will notice that the male of the species is more quickly consumed by an opportunity to breed than a female. In example, if you bring a skittish male to a female's cage, he is often likely to lose his skittishness towards you once he sees the female, and start head bobbing, than a female is to lose her skittishness if being moved to the male's cage. Put another way, male chameleons demonstrate a much more one-track-mind than females. Female chameleons, if handled or moved to the male's cage, will often show a longer-lasting skittishness to being moved, to the new cage, etc., and now has to start feeling sexy when seeing a male chameleon on top of it all ! Conversely, the male can show his sexual desires while still on your hand, while outside the female's cage but seeing her ! Females almost never show a sexual relaxation (ie "one track mind") during movement from one cage to another, and will show stress at being handled, moved, and now confronting a horny male. Point being that you would like to keep the stress factors minimal on the gender that is making the decisions.

The second reason is that you need to minimize non-compatible unions and the injury that can result. Consistent with the above, it is the female that needs to be ready, as the male is always ready. By leaving the female alone, you are keeping the outside disturbance to her at a minimum. Seeing a male perched on your hand will certainly get her attention. You can gauge her reaction before you ever allow the male to actually enter the female's cage, thus avoiding a non-compatible union, or what we call here "date rape", which some aggressive males will attempt. Bringing the male to the female, and looking for her reaction before he actually is allowed to make contact, is safer that putting the female into the male's cage, where unwanted contact can occur quickly, and you find yourself having to separate animals in physical contact with one another, often by mutual bite.

With all that we know, from years of observation, there is just about no circumstance where bringing the female to the male's cage makes more sense. It introduces far more risk, and is more likely to interfere with a natural reaction on the part of the girl. Good luck.

Thanks Jim, I knew I had been taught to go male to the female but could not for the life of me remember the reason! It is possible, but I am sure not likely, that I am getting a bit old.

 

[vetdebbie]

update

well after an hour or so of the HUH? expression he started to get the idea. First we had a couple of hours of...
Nearly!

And a few more times but I accidently deleted the pics, I got bored and went out to enjoy the sunshine (In the UK ). Came back to find this -

Guess he got the idea in the end!