Male or Female Veiled Cham

[JamFam]

Pretty sure she’s a girl, but thought I’d ask the experts now that I have better pics....


We’ve had her for about three weeks now. In the beginning she was very active, climbing all over her enclosure. She doesn’t move around nearly as much anymore... is that typical? Now that she’s familiar with her surroundings? Of course when it’s eating time she moves fast!

 

[Graves923]

I'd be comfortable saying you have a female. With how young she is its normal for her to not explore as much after settling in. When she starts hitting sexual maturity (as young as 6 months old in some cases) you may notice her roaming the cage more frequently. I would start doing research and learn about female veiled care and start getting supplies for a laying bin.

In case you may not know, female veiled will produce and lay infertile eggs even when there is no male present. A lot of good info on laying bins is found here: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/egg-laying-and-the-laying-bin.345/

 

[Thehippie]

you have a little girl, you will need to research about lay bins though @Graves923 linked a great article

 

[JamFam]

I'd be comfortable saying you have a female. With how young she is its normal for her to not explore as much after settling in. When she starts hitting sexual maturity (as young as 6 months old in some cases) you may notice her roaming the cage more frequently. I would start doing research and learn about female veiled care and start getting supplies for a laying bin.

In case you may not know, female veiled will produce and lay infertile eggs even when there is no male present. A lot of good info on laying bins is found here: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/egg-laying-and-the-laying-bin.345/

Thanks for the reference, I will look into it!

 

[JamFam]

Thanks for the article, lots of good information. I I’m a little nervous about the egg laying—aside from weighing her regularly, is there any way to tell when we she is developing a clutch, needs to lay them, etc?

Also, she eats very well... and stops by her feeding area several times a day to see if there are insects in there.... so I feel a bit bad about lowering the feeding. I would say she eats about 6-8 insects at a time, twice a day. I’m guessing she’s 3-4 months, about 10” long.

 

[Graves923]

...aside from weighing her regularly, is there any way to tell when we she is developing a clutch, needs to lay them, etc?

Watch her coloring and if you notice her roaming the bottom of the cage more often. Usually gravid females will display a dark color with yellow and blue spots. This caresheet shows the visual change between females when they are gravid and not. https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/veiled/

 

[English Nick]

Pretty sure she’s a girl, but thought I’d ask the experts now that I have better pics....


We’ve had her for about three weeks now. In the beginning she was very active, climbing all over her enclosure. She doesn’t move around nearly as much anymore... is that typical? Now that she’s familiar with her surroundings? Of course when it’s eating time she moves fast!

The way to sex a veiled chameleon is to check the back legs for Spurs this is a bone growth that sticks out from the middle of the hind legs you can also tell by looking at the tail for a male there should be a slight bulge after the bum this is called the Hemipenal bulge and of course denotes a male no bulge or spurs definitely female the tail trick can also be used on young Panthers even when showing no color.