Breeding chams help

[Emasse2243]

I've been doing alot of research on the internet and reading books, and I really feel it isn't to hard to breed chameleons. I would like to breed Veiled just for the experience and maybe some extra cash, I will list everything I've learned and add comments on how I did or if i need to do something instead! Thanks

So! I first should get a female and a male (obviously) and wait about a year, sometimes I found that female's don't always need a male to get pregnant, So you can try feeling for eggs, Then I should get bucket and add 8 inches of eco earth and moisten it just so she can tunnel without collapsing. Next she will lay her eggs digging various holes until she finds the one she likes, This could take 72 hours. After she is done she will climb back up and I can feed her because she will be very hungry. Then gently remove the eggs and put them on hatching bedding and put a couple in individual Tupperware containers, Then weigh the container and put the date and weight on the containers, then put the containers into a large Tupperware container with water at the bottom. Then I put it in a closet and rest the lid on top, and check weekly on the weight, if the weight isn't the same then I should add water drops in all four corners but not on the eggs. Then in 7-9 months the eggs will hatch. Then I just simply put them all in a cage and sell them.

Ok! so comments and advice is very appreciated! I would like to know what I can feed them, also I read that generally there expensive to breed and wont earn money but I cant see why not, If I sell all 36 eggs for $40 that is $1440 and say I waste $200 on food (which will probably never happen) other then the breeding bedding I cant put my head around the problem. Well Thanks soo much! comments are appreciated

 

[Ninkylou]

Welcome to the forum. This is most definitely the place to learn all you need to learn about chameleons and breeding.

I don't want to be the first person to rain on your parade but the things that sound too good to be true usually are.

A female can lay infertile eggs without a male.

When you are calculating the profit, you are assuming you will sell those babies immediately...Probably not going to happen and it would undoubtedly cost you more than $200 to feed a few dozen babies.

Conisider the cost of your initial investment as well. 2 chams, enclosures, food, vet bills (females can have issues with laying and become egg bound).

I think you need to do some more research. Own a few chameleons before you make the decision to breed. i would recommend getting a male and seeing how you do with him. Buy a female later on once you are sure this is for you, you can buy an adult female at that time.

Here is a link to a forum sticky on breeding. I would suggest you read it. You can also find a thread about the cost of a breeding where someone has tallied it all up and I'm pretty sure the profits are not near as tempting as you seem to think they are.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/some-thoughts-breeding-2612/

 

[Olimpia]

Well, to correct a few details:

1. Females can lay eggs without a male, yes, but they won't be fertile. So those you can throw away.

2. The laying bin should be at least 12" deep, and what you put in it can be something like soil or sand, moist enough to hold a tunnel. These work better than the Ecoearth stuff.

3. Say you have 36 babies hatch - that's too many for one cage. Babies will do better when you separate them into small groups, and keep separating them as they grow into smaller groups sorted by size. So you should be looking into getting several baby cages, not just one.

4. You have to be ready to assume that you may not sell all of them immediately, especially not female veileds. So you have to be prepared to house more than just a few "left over" babies for what might be months. So take into account what space you have to house them and funds to feed them. Or be prepared to drop the price to move them quickly.

And don't be too quick to count on profit! 36 babies eating (conservatively) 15 crickets each a day still puts you at 540 crickets a day. So you're looking at several thousand crickets a week, at about $15-30 a box, depending on how much shipping is.

I recommend you keep researching

 

[Saldarya]

The above 2 posts lay it out pretty well, but in short, it is not nearly that cut and dry.

The 2 key bottle necks that people dont count on, as mentioned above, is the space to house the juveniles as they grow out, and the amount of food they will eat over the course of 2-3 months.

I will tell you for my panther breeding, I have on hand 100k+ crickets of various sizes, and am constantly breeding more.

Needless to say if it was easy as you outlined, "Everybody would be doing it".

 

[Emasse2243]

Thank you soo much everyone! I do have alot to think about, maybe Ill just stick to collecting reptiles, you all good points that I never thought about and true about if it was easy why wouldn't everyone do it.

 

[TruBlu]

great advice