ahh help

[Blink182]

ok i just got a new female chameleon and i was told that it was a vieled. well apparently its pregnant and maybe fertilized. but i tried introducing it to my vieled and she went black and started circling and actually tongue flicked my male :S. so i put them in seperate tanks for tonight and i was talking to a couple people online and they said it could be a panther chameleon becuase it has a small viel. but i looked at some pics and it's viel is bigger then any panther ones but smaller then a vieled. and now my male vieled went all black al over and i dont know why.

help please?

[NewLineReptile]

You should not keep them together at all put them in their own tank's as for us telling you what kind it is post a pic and someone will help you out with what it is good luck

[Trace]

Hey Blink!

You're asking a lot of questions here, so I'll try my best....

First off, post a pic and I'll be able to tell you what kind of chameleon you have. Female Veiled Chameleons have a considerably smaller casque than the males, so it sounds like you've got a female. Panther Chameleons don't have a casque at all, but different head ornamentations.

By the "black" display she is doing, she could be gravid. My females take on a black background with yellow spots when they are. She could also just be stressed with the new environment and the presence of the male. If you have not personally seen any mating with her, there is a distinct possibility that she may not be. BUT, be ready for that anyways. Get a proper nest box ready for her so you will not have any problems with dystocia. How old is she?

As for the "black" display on your male... normal. He's stressed by the newcomer to his cage and also he knows there is a female present in the house. Introductions between males and females, if you intend on breeding, need to be done somewhat slowly. As you've found out, males and female chameleons DO NOT get along. They need to be kept separately at all times and only brought together for breeding once or twice a year. You may start having problems with your male now that he knows there is a female around. He may go off his food, he may become highly aggitated now.

Lastly.... please get your chameleons out of the tanks!!!!! They need tall, screened enclosures for proper health.

Cheers!

Trace

[Blink182]

there just in tanks at the moment im building screened cages at the moment
im gettin pictures tommorow so i'll post them when i take them


thnx for the help

[Trace]

Hey again!

there just in tanks at the moment im building screened cages at the moment

YAY! Good!

Maybe these pics will help you in some way....

This is a pic of my egg-laying chamber. It's a rubbermaid 77L garbage pail filled with 12 inches of dirt. The plant is in there because the females sometimes like to lay their eggs in the roots of plants. The stick is something for her to sit on when is finished repacking the eggs in the soil.



Here is one of my gravid females... she's not displaying the true black colours if there was a male present, but I'm posting it so you can see that her casque is quite small.



And here is a male casque for reference... notice it's much taller.



Hope this helps...

Trace

[Blink182]

thnx trace that is the size of the casque on my female so it is vieled. thnx. i have another question though. is there any way to check if shes been fertilized. cuz the guy said she might have been fertilized already and ready to lay anyday now. but i dont know how much he knows about chams. also where can i get some good soil?

thnx in advance

[Trace]

Morning!

I haven't finished my coffee, so hopefully my answers are coherant enough for you.

i have another question though. is there any way to check if shes been fertilized

Not really. The gestation time on Veiled's is anywhere between 20 and 30 days. Towards the end of that period, she becomes VERY heavy and you can actually see eggs shaped lumps in her lower body. I'm sorry, I don't think I have any pics of that for you at the moment, but I'll poke around my hard-drive today. You can also palpate the chameleon and feel the eggs in her abdomen. I wouldn't suggest this though, if you don't have any experience doing such. You may damage any internal organs or the eggs themselves.

Now here's another problem to add to the equation.... female chameleon's will produce eggs whether they have been bred or not. This is why suggest that people don't buy female chams. They can be very fussy about an egg laying site and retain those eggs if they can't find a good area to deposit them. As I'm sure you know, this can lead to difficult health issues and perhaps even death in the females if they retain those eggs.

Now it does sound like your female is gravid, and if the previous owner claims she is ready to lay any day now, get that pail ready immediately! Just before she is going to lay the eggs, she will spend a lot of time near or at the bottom of her enclosure. She may even start digging around in your tank. When you see this, put her in the bucket of soil and ignore her. I know approximately when my females are ready to lay as I know mating dates etc. 2 days before my female deposited her eggs I put her in the pail and she immediately wanted out. I took her out and put her back in her cage. The day before, I put her in there and she wandered around a bit, testing the soil and then wanted out. The last day I put her in and she seemed very comfortable in there and started the digging within a half an hour!

As I previously said... when she is in that bucket and digging... IGNORE HER. Don't look in the pail, don't try and help her excavate a hole, don't help her repack the hole. Nothing! Put the pail in a spare, unused room and leave her there. She will do it herself, and any human intervention may cause her to stop the process and retain those eggs. When she is done and satisfied that the eggs are hidden, she will climb up on the stick and want out. This may take about 24 hours or so for her to complete the task. When she done laying, she will be thirsty!!!! Take her out of the pail and give her a big drink. I put my females in the shower for 10 minutes or so after laying to rehydrate them and clean them off. Give her as many crickets as she wants for a few days afterwards, and make sure they are heavily dusted with calcium to replace the stores she lost during egg developement. Once she is back in her cage, you can dig out the eggs and incubate them in some moist vermiculite. Incubation times range anywhere between 150 to 200 days depending on your temperatures for Veiled Chameleons.

also where can i get some good soil?

I just used regular potting soil that I bought at the local Home Depot. I packed it down a bit to make it to make it firm and sprayed it with a bit of water so it would hold it's shape when she dug her hole. It does not need to be mud! Just slightly, slightly damp.

I really hope this helps you. I know I have left out some information for you, but I could write a textbook on breeding/laying etc here. I have given you the main points to look for and deal with. I could go on at length about feeding her from now on, among other things.

Good luck with her. Let me know how she does.

Trace

[Blink182]

thanks again trace that info helped a lot