Female Jackson refusing to mate

[dereckperkins]

I have been trying for over 2 months now to breed her, I put her into the males enclosure every 4-5 days sometimes a bit longer depending on how much she eats. She will turn dark colors, sway, and sometimes run from the male if he approaches her. The male is wanting to mate, he will do a mating dance, sometimes he will just walk up to her. She is NEVER interested. Is there anything I can do to help her want to mate? She is around 1 year 2 months old, and has not mated before. The only other time she was with a male unattended was at the end of may, she was with him for about a week. They never really got near each other from what I seen though. I know she can't be pregnant because she is to skinny to be 4 months pregnant, and she is not showing any signs of being pregnant.
Any suggestions would be great thanks.

 

[kinyonga]

You could try putting him into her cage. Sounds like she is already gravid...or at least not receptive.

 

[dereckperkins]

I have read online not to put the male into the females cage. I also have read that they are receptive for 11 days a month, I have been trying for 2 months.

 

[Lovereps]

Have you also considered the possibility that she knows that she should not breed, due to health issues that may be hidden or have gone unnoticed?
It isn't unheard of for chams to develop cancers, for example or she may be lacking something in her diet that she knows is needed to produce healthy young.

Before you try to breed her, you would do well to ensure that her nutrition is absolutely fantastic---consisting of a variety of feeders which are themselves fed very nutritious diets.


What you read and what actually works can be 2 different things.

For my chams, this is the way that works; I let the male and female see each other while she is securely in her cage and he is outside of it, a few feet away. Chams have excellent vision and they will see each other even from a distance.
If she doesn't give the "get lost" signals, only then do I open her cage and let him display and do his "look at me, I'm a great mate" dance, as he then makes his way into her enclosure.


Let me caution you, however, that breeding Jackson's xanths is more likely to cost you than to make any money for you and, although she may only have 10 babies--30 is not unheard of.
Jackson's females also have the amazing ability to retain sperm from a single breeding session and you may very well find yourself with another set of young to raise in another 6 months.
Many people have the heartbreaking experience of huge percentages of the babies die, even 5 months after they were born, despite appearing to have been healthy.

Consider what you're going to raise them in--a fishtank definitely won't do and if you do end up with 20 or 30 at once, you can't keep them all together.
They constantly step in eye other's eyes, grab each other's tails and generally walk all over each other.
Those gentle adult Jackson's are very different from the very hungry babies---who will even steal food from another's mouth while it is being chewed
As for food--better raise your own or plan on spending quite a bit on Hydei, phoenixworms, crickets and silkies because they're going to eat much more than you could ever imagine!

If you still think it's something you really want to do and you have the time, space, devotion and financial resources to do so, then I wish you as much success as I have had.

If you're interested in any healthy juvenile captive bred Jackson's xanths , I do have a few available.

 

[dereckperkins]

Sorry for taking so long to reply, I forgot the name of this site.

Anyway, I know the cost and care needed to breed them. I had my male and females cage close to each other a while back and she would not eat at all. As soon as a made it so she could not see him she would eat. SO I can't keep the male in her site, unless I'm trying to breed them. I feed her Dubia roaches that I breed. I give her the supplements she needs, and she seems very healthy, she is also friendly, unlike my male Jackson. I don't think she has any health problems, I worry about that kind of stuff a lot, and she has never showed any signs of illnesses before. She is some where around a year and a half old.

 

[dereckperkins]

I forgot to add that I also feed her crickets as well.

 

[laurie]

The answer may be that she just does not want to breed. I had a Cham that would not breed and that was that.

 

[dereckperkins]

I hope she is not like that, I have always wanted to breed them.

 

[Lovereps]

Sorry for taking so long to reply, I forgot the name of this site.

Anyway, I know the cost and care needed to breed them. I had my male and females cage close to each other a while back and she would not eat at all. As soon as a made it so she could not see him she would eat. SO I can't keep the male in her site, unless I'm trying to breed them. I feed her Dubia roaches that I breed. I give her the supplements she needs, and she seems very healthy, she is also friendly, unlike my male Jackson. I don't think she has any health problems, I worry about that kind of stuff a lot, and she has never showed any signs of illnesses before. She is some where around a year and a half old.

No one is suggesting that you keep them together, other than for breeding.
It is generally accepted that they should always be kept separate, without being able to see each other and only being together to breed, then kept apart again.

As Laurie mentioned, she may not want to breed.
She may already be gravid, since before you got her, if you only just got her within the past few months.

FWIW, one of my chams--a supposedly captive bred 6 month old female from a very well-known source---gave birth 7 months after I got her.
She was never with a male after I received her.

 

[dereckperkins]

I don't keep them together, and she acts like she wants nothing to do with the male when I try to mate them. I don't think she is gravid because I have had her for 6 months and she is not fat. The only time she looks fat is when she gets scared, she makes herself look fat by puffing herself out. I guess she does that to make herself look bigger.

 

[RyU]

The answer may be that she just does not want to breed. I had a Cham that would not breed and that was that.

I have a female Sambava that just doesn't want it. Maybe the males are just too ugly for her.

I read in a forum somewhere that a male Jackson's(coulda been Werner's) was refusing a female for unknown reasons. The poster figured that it might be due to her missing her horn that was damaged during shipping. He said he put a "prosthetic" horn on her stump and he finally accepted her. Now I'm not saying to try this, and my point is that chameleons might find others "unattractive".

 

[dereckperkins]

Thanks, female jacksons don't have horns anyway so I don't think that's why. Hopefully its just that she does not find the male attractive.

 

[RyU]

Thanks, female jacksons don't have horns anyway so I don't think that's why. Hopefully its just that she does not find the male attractive.

The Jacksoni Menrumontanus female has a single horn.