Why can't my chameleon get pregnant

[bradley]

My female veiled is supposed to be 11 months old but hasn't shown any receptive colours. She lives with a male veiled that is about the same age. They don't particularly like eachother so i was thinking about seperating them. The shop where i bought her from breeds his own chams and has about 3 pregnant ones that are supposed to be my chams sisters. What can i do?

 

[CMantis]

My female veiled is supposed to be 11 months old but hasn't shown any receptive colours. She lives with a male veiled that is about the same age. They don't particularly like eachother so i was thinking about seperating them. The shop where i bought her from breeds his own chams and has about 3 pregnant ones that are supposed to be my chams sisters. What can i do?

Bradley,

You should not be keeping them together if they are sexually mature. I would have to imagine that her reluctance is due to stress. Set them up in seperate enclosures and then slowly introduce them. Their colors should let you know the outcome. I wish you all the best.

CM

 

[ChrisnLisa]

Chameleons should not be housed together...period. She is probably showing non-receptive colors from the constant stress of living with a male. I would do a lot more research on proper husbandry before jumping into a breeding project. What are they currently being housed in? Size? Lighting? Water source? Do you have any pics of their enclosure?

 

[bradley]

They are currently being housed in about 2 foot wide by 3 foot high. They have a repti-sun ceramic thing 100w and have a 10 uvb. They get sprayed twice a day. i used to have a waterfall but with all the bad prees about them i took it out. They have loads of vines and plants but most of the time the are not with eachother.

 

[ChrisnLisa]

That is wayyyyyy to small for two adult veileds!! First thing, get another enclosure and separate them immediately. Honestly, I'm surprised they are both still alive and kicking. After they have been separated, we can work on your husbandry. Do you have any recent pics of the chams and their enclosure?

 

[bradley]

Thanks people im ging to get a new enclosure right away hope fully they might breed in about a year

 

[jojackson]

All other considerations aside, a proven method is to introduce the male into the females enclosures (any species almost) at the right time.
Males go looking for females.
In all but a few species keeping them together year round dosent work as well as introduction during the breeding season.

 

[eisentrauti]

They are currently being housed in about 2 foot wide by 3 foot high. They have a repti-sun ceramic thing 100w and have a 10 uvb. They get sprayed twice a day. i used to have a waterfall but with all the bad prees about them i took it out. They have loads of vines and plants but most of the time the are not with eachother.

Here nearly all isn't ok for them: The cage isn't big enough for just one of them !, the reptisun isn't the best lighting solution, you have fake plants etc.
Please buy a book and visit some websides about how to keep them !

 

[Bay687]

ya that cage is definitley too small... you need to seperate the two, because its a territoral thing

 

[sandrachameleon]

I recommend separating immediately into their own cages.

Being healthy enough to breed is as important as being old enough and weighing enough. You might want to review this website regarding proper veiled care:
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/

This blog entry has links to lots of info regarding enclosures:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/82-enclosures-housing.html

And in this blog entry you will find lots of information about breeding:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/63-links-regarding-breeding.html

 

[chequepoint]

Thanks people im ging to get a new enclosure right away hope fully they might breed in about a year

Why do you want to breed them so badly? to have maybe 60 chameleons worth $35 a piece that will consume $50 worth of food, electricity, and equipment costs each before you can sell them? Something to think about..

 

[sandrachameleon]

Why do you want to breed them so badly? to have maybe 60 chameleons worth $35 a piece that will consume $50 worth of food, electricity, and equipment costs each before you can sell them? Something to think about..

only $50? that seems conservative to me. I'm sure I spent at least that a month on my babies, and I breed many feeders myself. Then again, I probably provide more expensive food (due to my obsession with variety) than most breeders.

 

[jojackson]

I think he said $50 per hatchling.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Right you are, that's what was meant and I missed it. $50 per animal is much more realistic.

 

[eisentrauti]

Don't know how sb could spend 50$ on one hatchling. A lil planning would not be amiss before sb is breeding a complete clutch of calyptratus.

 

[jojothefirst]

I had my male and female in the same viv but the male wasnt getting as much food, seemed to try avoid her and ended up lieing at the bottem of the viv very weak.

He ended up being half the size of her at the same age!

I put a devider in the viv to seperate them and kept a close eye on him. Since then he got to around her size and she started showing signs that she was ready to mate.....they ended up doing the deed and I have now got 39 fertile eggs from her.

He is now bigger than her aswell!

Point is that the others are right in that both my chams seem alot happyer now that they have there own territory, to the point that she was happy to breed.

 

[jojothefirst]

Why do you want to breed them so badly? to have maybe 60 chameleons worth $35 a piece that will consume $50 worth of food, electricity, and equipment costs each before you can sell them? Something to think about..

only $50? that seems conservative to me. I'm sure I spent at least that a month on my babies, and I breed many feeders myself. Then again, I probably provide more expensive food (due to my obsession with variety) than most breeders.

Can I ask you guys how the come up with $50 spend on each baby cham please?

Its just that seems alot and im wondering if food for them is more exspence over there than it is in the uk?

 

[sandrachameleon]

Can I ask you guys how the come up with $50 spend on each baby cham please? Its just that seems alot and im wondering if food for them is more exspence over there than it is in the uk?

Check this link where Julirs speaks to the cost of raising 69 Veileds: https://www.chameleonforums.com/breeding-advice-16151/#post133931

Im basing the below estimates on raising a clutch of 20 panthers.

Fruit fly culturing is inexpensive, even after one buys the banana, potatoe, oats, bran, yeast, bee pollen etc. Let's say that's twenty bucks total, or a buck per chameleon. Unfortunately, you cant just feed them fruit flies, especially as they grow bigger.

Stick insects are practically free to me, as are wood sows, and mealworms. Superworms dont cost much to raise either. So I wont include these, though if you were buying or counting the cost of time....

Pin head and small crickets are about five to ten dollars per 100 to buy. And you'd go through that in like a week, so $20 to $40 per month. Costs less if you raise them yourself.
So we'll say its $20 per chameleon, per month, just for crickets. Raise them up to at least three months and you've spent $60 per chameleon. Or as much as $120 if you raise to 6 months before selling. Plus the few bucks for the fruit flies.

Small butterworms cost me about 35cents a piece. As soon as the chams are big enough I like to offer these two to four times a week. So let's say three times a week from the fourth week until the end of the third month would be $8 or $9 per chameleon, and raising them to six months would cost double that, so let's say at least $16 per little chameleon.

So far that's $1(flies)+$60(crickets)+9(butterworms)=$70 to raise them only three months, $135+/- to the six month mark.

Silkworms, if you buy eggs and hatch out babies to feed off fairly small, maybe that would cost about $15. If you buy the chow rather than pick mulberry leaves locally, another $10.

So now we're nearly $80 per chameleon raised to only about three months old. And that's just feeding them.
Let's not forget there is the cost of multiple cages, UVB lighting, possibly heat bulbs, electricity, drippers, possibly something to remove chemicals from the water, plants, supplements, possible vet visits. Not to mention your considerable time.

 

[bradley]

Thanks for all your replies. i have now seperated the female from the male and put her in one of them screen repteriums with a heat lamp uvb and lots of plants. She seems alot happier cause she can bask more and is eating alot more. I think she may be pregnant now cause she is big down the back end but she is not showing any gravid colouration.