Sexing A Meller

KShook

KShook

Avid Member
I have a Meller chameleon, I've looked up how to sex them, but it seems to be pretty difficult, unless you bring them to a vet. I'm assuming like all chameleons they will lay infertal eggs if it's a female. At what age would they lay their eggs?! We've had him/her for about 5 months and bought him/her as a juv. and weighs 165 grams. Let me know if you have any more info!
 
I went to discoverymelleri.com they say some males are easy to sex by the Hemipenal Bulges...there espescially notice-able during breeding season. But if it's out of breeding season they can envert there hemipenes, which makes it hard to sex them. They also provide some pictures of there underlines of them in breeding season. I'm almost positive that mine is a male. But it's still under a year old and it might just turn out to be a female. We'll have to wait an see!
 
Any info you get from Kristina is good.
I imagine it takes an awfully good eye to sex a melleri, even during breeding season.

-Brad
 
Okay I'll look out for her! Yeah we've looked good and hard! se we'll see if he/she lays any eggs! If not then we'll know! But the next trick will be trying to find a mate later on down the line!
 
ohh okay! Yeah she had some great info on there about them! Mellers are way kewl chams! I love ours! he keeps us entertained for hours! We dont handle him to much because they get stressed out really easy, but he's one of a kind!
 
From the Bartletts, "Chameleons: A Complete Pet Owner's Manual" (1995 edition) p. 82: "(Rob) MacInnes showed me what he claimed was an accurate method of sexing the species. On the underside of their occipital flaps some of the specimens bore one or more black spots. These, MacInnes said, were the males. Upon returning home, I checked the occipital flaps of my pair of melleri. The specimen that I knew to be the male had the dark spots; the female lacked them. Whether this method is truly failsafe, I can't say. However, it has held true on the specimens that I have inspected."

Any Mellers keepers have any input on this? - I haven't seen this method mentioned on the forums, so don't know whether it is discredited.
 
Yeah I've heard that as well! I do believe mine is a Male, and I did look under his flaps and he does a a single spot on each side!
 
Just looked under my (definate) male Meller's, he doesnt have spots on either side. However, he was pretty dark when i checked, so they might be blending in.
 
spots mean nothing other than the animal in question has spots. May be sexually dimorphic in some locales of melleri, but it is useless for sexing them in general. If it were only so easy. If you have a bunch, it can be simple to sex them if you know what behaviors males and females do (I can't tell reliably). All else fails, put them together, and see which ones lay eggs.
 
Yeah I cannot totally go off of that information when it comes to sexing him/her. But I'm pretty sure that it's a Male. We'll see in the next year if SHE lays eggs or not?!
 
Sexing a Meller's Chameleon

As in hyenas, monomorphism is a successful adaptation for melleri. Since melleri are not as social as these mammals, it is unclear what the benefit is for them. Perhaps, it offers females territorial stability; they look just as threatening and impressive as any male. Males and females occur in both standard and blue morphs.

Not all melleri are difficult to sex. Some males have obvious hemipenal bulges, from a young age, and the bulges may be enlarged in normal adult males during the breeding season. Melleri males can disclose their gender by everting their hemipenes during defecation and veterinary procedures (enema/cloacal wash). It is not recommended to try everting these by hand to determine your melleri’s gender, as this area is easily bruised. The use of identifying spots to sex melleri has limited success. Some keepers posit that the presence of black spots below the eyes and behind the occipital lobes (flaps) indicate a male. This does not work all of the time, perhaps due to the variety of color and morphological differences in melleri. There are some sure methods of sexing melleri:

ultrasound of ventral proximal tail base (just behind the vent or cloaca)
X-rays to check for skeletal gender differences
behavior at sight of another melleri
endoscopy
probing
profile of underline, from belly to tail
pulsing of hemipenal bulges while basking or being watered
hemipenal plugs with feces deposits or wiped on perch
DNA blood test is not yet available for melleri. Green Iguanas, Komodo Dragons, and possibly Heloderma are the only lizards that are currently sexed by DNA markers.

X-rays are possible without anesthesia on tame melleri that will hold still with their forehand restrained with a soft towel. Fresh WC melleri will need anesthesia to stabilize them for X-rays. The lateral view of the pelvis shows a more forward extended pubis in the male. Females may also show developing eggs.

The third option has the added benefit of telling the keeper if the animals are compatible, not just a sexual pair. Clinical tests can’t predict if a male and female will accept each other. See Cohabitation for details about gender-specific signals upon introduction. A subject that requires more study in melleri is the possibility of behavioral mimicry as well as the extent of monomorphism. It is suspected that some females can assume male courtship colors and displays to maintain their territories and reduce competition for prey.

Endoscopic sexing requires anesthesia. Endoscopy is only for adult melleri. See this excellent article on endoscopy of melleri: http://www.adcham.com/html/veterinary/vet-endoscopic-kramer.html

Manually popping the hemipenes has been suggested as a means of sexing melleri, and the keeper who publicly advocates this has been invited to share their method, and its safety and success rate, with other melleri keepers. The MD cannot endorse this method of sexing melleri unless or until more information is provided. Popping the hemipenes of other chameleon species can cause bruising, so we don't recommend trying this without specific instruction.

If you choose to probe your melleri to determine sex, have it done by an experienced veterinarian. It is possible to damage your chameleon permanently if you don't know what you're doing! Meller's chameleons should be near 2 years old or at least 14" long before probing.

Information provided comes directly from http://www.melleridicovery.comUnder Husbantry Under Breeding.
 
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