My chameleons are mating

[StephanieSays]

Is the female going to lay eggs ?
-- what do I do with the eggs ?

Should I separate them ? - They are not fighting

Anyone have a cage? -

 

[cambech]

type and age?

just curious....What type of chameleons are these and how old are they?

 

[joshua n janet]

is she really fat?

 

[cambech]

is she really fat?

I doubt gestation has taken place that quickly if the chams just mated today.

 

[joshua n janet]

oh yea my dumb as.. didnt read the title thanks for correcting me

 

[gary1621]

Are these two animals siblings?

 

[joshua n janet]

Are these two animals siblings?

witch ones?

 

[StephanieSays]

they are vailed chameleons.... i think they are about 8 months old. she is not very fat but getting a little bigger , they were mating yesterday morning and earlier today

 

[OldSkoolxReasons]

Do you house them together? She is pretty young. Were they from the same clutch? Do you have a picture of her on your hand so we can see the size she is?


Justin

 

[gary1621]

witch ones?

The two that are mating

 

[Olimpia]

You had two chameleons of different sexes together... and you're surprised they're mating and going to lay eggs?

Well, if you don't want this to continue happening, and if you don't want eggs, separate them now so they do not continue to lay clutches of eggs. You should invest in a cage for one of them anyway because two adult chameleons will not fit in a single cage (unless we're talking about a huge cage, but I'm guessing it's a 2 x 2 x 4?) Secondly, read all you can about females laying eggs - there are great books and loooooads of good threads on the forum about it. You're going to need to make sure her calcium intake is good and that she has a bucket or something to lay her eggs in. There should be plenty of information about it if you search the forum.

If you do not want to incubate the eggs, which I imagine you don't, just throw them out. Incubating the eggs would take close to 8-9 months to do and would require the cost of an incubator, along with the costs of feeding and housing 20-30 baby chameleons as you grow them up to 3 months and find them good homes.

Hope that helps a little, I'm a little bit in a rush.

 

[kinyonga]

If/since you've had them together you don't really know that this is the first time they have mated to begin with....so you don't know when the female will lay eggs. (Its generally 30 days from the day they mate.)

You should have separated them before now. I never let my females mate until they are at least a year old...and done growing their own bones. I don't want to put calcium/nutrient demands on the female to produce eggs when she's not done with her own growth.

What's done is done though and all you can do is go on from here. They need to be separated to decrease the stress levels now. Within the next 30 days the female should lay eggs...so asap I would make sure that I put an opaque container at least 12" deep and 8" x 12" in length and width filled about 3/4 full of moistened washed playsand so she will have a place to dig to show you when she is ready to lay her eggs. Some females will lay their eggs in this size container and others will need to be moved to a larger one. Once she starts to dig do not let her see you watching her or she will abandon the hole. This can lead to eggbinding if its done often enough.

She may dig several test holes or dig one for several days..but she should eventually turn around butt down in the hole and lay the eggs...likely in the evening. Once she lays the eggs, let her finish and let her go back up to the branches before you dig them up. When digging them up be careful not to turn them.

You will need a container with a lid to put the eggs in to incubate them and some coarse grained vermiculite to lay them on in the container. I always punch two very small holes in the lid of the container and fill the container about half full of slightly moist vermiculite. To test the vermiculite for moistness, take a fist full of it and squeeze it...there should be no more than a drop or two of water come out of it. Make small dents in the vermiculite in rows and carefully lay an egg in each. Put them somewhere where the temperature will be about 74F. It can go up a couple of degrees or down a couple of degrees over the day/night and from week to week. They should hatch in about 7 months.

 

[StephanieSays]

thank you all for the helpful information