Melleri gender?

Jimturner

Established Member
Today I brought Pete over to Plinkos cage to see if I could determine either ones gender. As soon as they saw each other they both flared up with dark colors and bright yellow stripes, head bobs, lobe flaps and tail lashing. To me these seemed like male behaviours as I would expect a non receptive female to rock back and forth like a veiled or panther would. I'm not sure if this is the case with Melleri though. Do you think that these are indications that they are both males?
 
I thought that wasn't a good indicator because the females will do that too? Maybe I'm pulling that out of my butt though...
 
Im not sure what to expect... just trying to figure out what sexes I have. Sexing these things seems quite difficult. I like to think Pete's a male and Plinko's a female but who knows? These seem like male behaviours from my experience with other species but I'm relatively new to Melleri
 
You got that right! You pretty much don't know until they: 1. Mate 2. Lay eggs or 3. Leave sperm everywhere! These guys like to mess with you! :)
 
Boys and girls will tale whip... I've seen Sam, Lenny and henry whip their tales before. Henry and Sam I am almost certain are boys, and Lenny is for sure a girl. The whipping has to do with showing up the other cham, like 'I am bigger, see how hard I can whip my tale!?!'. I have Sam and Henry doing it on video. I think they did this as a 'this is my area, and im big and bad and will defend myself if you enter'. For Henry it was a very stressful encounter. He really doesn't like other chams, you can see how yellow he is. This is why Henry has his own free range.

Here is a click from Henry and Sam. Henry is in my hands and Sam is in the free range.

 
Yea! I just wish mine would do something obvious...

Well, the best thing to do is feed them a controlled diet so they don't get fat... keep an eye on weight and photos of them. This way you can tell if one is slowly getting fat.. After about a year or so, if you don't get eggs from either, they are boys. Girls will get fat and need to lay at least once a year. I think my female did both clutches in august (this year and last)?
 
I have been told the following three new methods which may help:
1) Pick a group of melleri together, males will be black and white, females green (I think it worked for the four babies I bought last year-I am not sure about one "female" whom I lost quite early)
2) Some people use the shape of the "ears", I do not remember how it works. And I do not believe it much.
3) Watch the animals when doing their WC, males sometimes show their hemipenises. Well, one has to be a bit lucky to watch his melleri at the right time, but concerning my two males, I actually determined the sex of the one of them thisway. I just happened to see it, I did not sit and wait.

Anyway, at least for my melleri, I had some correct feeling who is who after several months of keeping them. Boys behaved like male-chameleons, similarly for the female. You know, their attitude to food, other chameleons,...
 
Back
Top Bottom