New Guy Here

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djorgensen3

New Member
Hello. I have been lurking here for a couple months now and have enjoyed reading all about the little creatures. So much so that I went all in and built a 55 gallon vivarium for two that I brought home from LLLReptile in Mission Valley. We were there for our sons high school Marching Band who marched and played in the Big Bay Ballon Parade and in The Holiday Bowl. Anyway I would love some help identifying the genders of these two critters so here are a couple pics. I still have a couple additions to make to the enclosure.





Thanks in advance for any help you all can provide.
 
Hello and welcome to the forums and chameleon ownership. I personally do not know how to sex Pygmys(that is what they are I believe)but they might be called something else. Not that many members on this forum own them so you might not get too many responses. I would start a separate thread and state"Help sexing..... You can start a thread in Chameleon Identification. Hopefully you will get some responses. Good luck with them! Here is a great care sheet for you to read on how to keep them and other valuable information.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/pygmy/
 
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If you have an actual pair, it should be quite easy to see the difference by the tail length/shape alone, in Rieppeleon brevicaudatus (bearded pygmy, what your's are, in case you were not aware) anyway. Males tail is much longer, females is like a little stump, compared to the males. Males usually have a more pronounced dorsal crest too. But the tail is the easiest way to tell in my experience.
 
These guys seem to be rather frustrating to sex...note in the other thread someone has come to the exact opposite conclusions.

The first animal definitely has a longer tail, but the crest is not as pronounced. Second animal has a pronounced crest, but what looks like a short tail-but it may be the photo.
 
From what i have been told by the experts, the size & shape of the tail is the best indicator. More so than dorsal crest or colour/pattern. Smaller, stumpy tail is female.
If you look on the care sheet Carol posted, it shows you on there.
 
still unsure

I noticed differing opinions so I am still unsure about them. I have seen them climb down and hunt for crickets, drink and they have ventured back and forth in their habitat quite a bit. Interestingly though, I watched the more colorful more serrated ridge one search out the other one and climb on top of her/it and just stand there for a few minutes before moving on at least two occasions now. They have both even taken crickets from my fingers but only when we first got them placed in their habitat. I think they were just plain hungry. They do seem to be doing well...I guess. I have been keeping temps right around 70-73 during the day and night temp drops to 65ish with humidity varying from 50% to 90% with a cool mist humidifier and two mistings per day. I sure hope we...meaning you all....lol...help me get their genders sorted out because I would like to add a couple more females to the mix after I get more plants inside. Thanks again.
 
Keep a close eye out for any aggression. The brev's i have had, have been mean little buggers to one another. Especially male to male, but have also seen female over female dominance.
Yeah temps seem fine, i let mine go down to 50F at night with no problems.
 
That is my main concern right now. I am hoping they aren't both males. If that is the case, they spend most of their time at separate ends of the tank except for yesterday.
 
A breeder's perspective would be nice on these!

I would myself order several females and a single male. At least the for sure males no problem picking them out. That way you will hopefully end up with a decent sex ratio-since I think these tend to run male heavy anyway...at least this is what I observed at LLL reptiles.

I am fairly positive I have 1.2 myself...but I do have an animal with a short thin tail but a pronounced dorsal crest. I have seen the male chase and mount this animal but sometimes I wonder myself.
 
Thats kinda what I am thinking now too. I just watched one go from his end of the tank to the other end, grab a cricket and go straight to the top of a plant. The other one was on that same plant but climbed over to another plant to get away from the dominant guy. I need to find some females and/or get rid of one of mine although I don't really want to get rid of either.
 
You could set up a smaller enclosure for one of them, so the less dominate male has his own space.
 
If I need to do that, I will just divide the tank into two separate habitats in the one aquarium. But I keep reading references to them living in colonies so I am trying to research that right now.
 
That is a pretty large enclosure-so I think you will have luck dividing it. You could arrange the enclosure to make sort of a no mans land in the middle that would encourage each male to claim a side of the enclosure. A slab of corkbark or a stump as a divider for example.
 
Nick from Canvas Chams believes them to be a male/female pair. If I do divide the tank, I cannot put anything that they can climb all the way to the top of. I had put some type of tall bladed grass that went up the sides and they both immediately climbed to the top attempting to get out of their habitat. So I removed the grass and don't have anything tall near the sides for fear of them climbing out and getting eaten by our big dog because he loves to "play" with lizards in our backyard. I am just going to give them more time and see how it goes. They don't appear to be aggressive toward each other and the "female" moving away may be a sign that she is gravid according to Nick. So I will just keep checking on them to make sure all is well.
 
In my opinion the top picture appears to be a female, and the bottom picture appears to be an adolescent male.
 
djorgensen3 said:
Nick from Canvas Chams believes them to be a male/female pair. If I do divide the tank, I cannot put anything that they can climb all the way to the top of. I had put some type of tall bladed grass that went up the sides and they both immediately climbed to the top attempting to get out of their habitat. So I removed the grass and don't have anything tall near the sides for fear of them climbing out and getting eaten by our big dog because he loves to "play" with lizards in our backyard. I am just going to give them more time and see how it goes. They don't appear to be aggressive toward each other and the "female" moving away may be a sign that she is gravid according to Nick. So I will just keep checking on them to make sure all is well.
Click to expand...

Nick does raise these little guys, so i would guess he knows his stuff. I have found him to be very helpful, nice and best of all accurate.
 
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