'Tis about the right time of year for the seasonal breeders like the
Chameleo trioceros werneri to be mating. Congrats! I'm still waiting for mine to have a go at this year.
To expand upon a few thoughts already brought up on this thread,
werneri should not be housed together. They are not what are considered to be a communal living chameleon and you should consider separating them as soon as you can. Yes, it looks like they get along, but what you are seeing is not healthy chameleon behaviour(s). In reality, males and females do not co-habitat in the wild so they should be kept as so in captivity. I've found the females to be fairly sedentary during the day so a huge cage isn't needed but the males do like to roam about so larger is preferred.
You don't mention your humidity at all, but I kept my
werneri at 70-80% during the day with 100% overnights. High, high humidity is crucial to all species of chameleons but particularly the montanes.
Temperatures should not get above 80-85F daily and the
werneri can certainly tolerate temps into the low 60's at night.
Gestation on the werneri varies from 5-10 months but my girls have always given birth at about the 6 month mark. For the few days leading up to birthing, they are very active and usually go off food. The females give birth in the morning after they've warmed up and it takes only a few hours. DO NOT watch them during the birthing process. It's really cool to see, but most females are very shy about the process and you could end up doing more harm than good by standing there. Contrary to what has been said in this thread, females DO NOT eat their babies! It's ok the leave them in the cage with mom for a while. Obviously you should remove the babies for rearing separately when mom is finished the birthing process.
Now for the bad news. Live bearing babies of any species are notoriously hard to keep/rear in captivity. They seem to do really well for about 8 weeks then all of the sudden drop dead for no reason. This is why you don't see many CB ovoviviparous species sadly. Obviously some do make it, but the losses greatly outnumber them. To get back to the communal/non-communal comment I made earlier, I've had more success with my baby
werneri if I raised them individually from the get go. I work with several "communal" type live bearing chameleon species as well and those babies/litters can be raised together. Not the
werneri. Baby cages need not be fancy! A line of kritter keepers under a UV bulb is fine. Humidity, again, must be 80% or more consistently for internal organ growth. Misting must also be done very frequently over the course of a day. The babies are tiny and any appropriate sized feeder bugs are accepted by the babies. I use FF's and pinhead or 1/8" crickets.
I'm sure I've missed a pile of tips so if you have any other questions, please ask.
Good luck with mom!
Cheers,
t
And some pics: (because that is what I do!)
Seconds old baby
werneri
First shed:
Juvenile female
werneri
