Male or Female?

[sam914]

I've had my chameleon (blue bar panther) since last September, and he should be a year old in July. He was sold to me as a boy, but does not seem to be developing colors like males are supposed to.

Is my chameleon male or female?

 

[fluxlizard]

Looks like a female.

What happened to her back?

 

[sam914]

Looks like a female.

What happened to her back?

That is what I thought.

Her back is actually another thing I was going to ask the forum about.

This is a mark that I noticed after her last shed. That particular spot seemed to take longer than the rest of her skin to shed, and when it finally did, that mark has been there ever since.

She has fallen a couple of times in her cage that I saw, but got right back up and started climbing and did not appear to be in any distress afterwards.

Is this something that I should be concerned about?

There did not seem to be a change in her temperament or habits after the fall nor the shed.

 

[Zephalia]

You have a female there. Get her a laying bin immediately set up. It looks to me as if she could be ready to lay - very plump.

 

[sam914]

You have a female there. Get her a laying bin immediately set up. It looks to me as if she could be ready to lay - very plump.

Thank you for your input.. that is actually my urgency with questioning her gender recently.

I had never done my research on females, because I was told she was a male. But now I've been researching females and shes been displaying all of the behaviors of a cham close to laying.

I actually set up a laying bin today, but she seems pretty stressed out about it and does not want to go near it. I'm becoming pretty worried that she may become egg bound, do you have any suggestions on how to handle this?

 

[fluxlizard]

That looks like a possible burn on her back. Can't tell from photos for sure, but also looks like something may be going on along her spine.

Burns are usually caused by a badly designed thermal gradient within the enclosure- the background temp may be too cool for the heat light, encouraging the lizard to stay too long under the lamp trying heat it's core, meanwhile burning the surface. They use core temperature for thermoregulatory behavior, not surface, so it can be easy to burn the skin.

The solution is to either provide a more gradual temperature gradient in the enclosure (rather than a "hot spot" within a cool enclosure), and/or a cooler basking area (by raising the lamp off the cage or lowering the wattage of the bulb).

 

[sam914]

That looks like a possible burn on her back. Can't tell from photos for sure, but also looks like something may be going on along her spine.

Burns are usually caused by a badly designed thermal gradient within the enclosure- the background temp may be too cool for the heat light, encouraging the lizard to stay too long under the lamp trying heat it's core, meanwhile burning the surface. They use core temperature for thermoregulatory behavior, not surface, so it can be easy to burn the skin.

The solution is to either provide a more gradual temperature gradient in the enclosure (rather than a "hot spot" within a cool enclosure), and/or a cooler basking area (by raising the lamp off the cage or lowering the wattage of the bulb).

Thank you so much for that, I never would have guessed it was because of that! There were times throughout the winter where my home got a bit cold, so that actually makes a lot of sense.