Could she be too young?

[mary prefontaine]

MY female and male have been almost anxious to get together the last few times i introduced them, today I allowed the male to enter her cage to see what would happen and the female was very receptive, she even took a few steps towrds him as if to greet him. All nice pink coloration. So i turned him loose and she allowed him to climb aboard with no aggression. She just allowed him on. My concern is she is only about 9 months old. Is that too young? Will she have problems if she does become gravid? How will I know?
Lately before I introduced them she has been going towards the bottom of her cage a lot, and I thought she was hunting, or perhaps trying to figure out where she would lay eggs if she did become gravid. Just kind of checking things out along the bottom a lot lately. but all the crickets were at the top so i have been offering her worms, which she has been eating a lot of lately. Why is she doing this? What is she looking for. She also, after offering her worms, went to get some out of a cup and her tongue kind of just fell into the cup and stayed there.
So i pulled the cup out and let her try again, and that time she ate them properly all 4 of them. But then she did not want anymore. Could something be wrong with her? She looks fat and happy but acting weird. She just does not seem to want any crickets for some reason.
All these events took place today. I will put up pictures of both of them in a moment.

 

[mychamtini112012]

Nine months is to young. They shouldn't be bred until they are at least a year old. Year and a half is better. If she's at the bottom shes more then likely looking for a place to lay. You need to place a laying bin at the bottom. Jannb has an awesome blog on it.

 

[Olimpia]

In my experience with my female, when she was receptive she would also pace the whole cage looking for my male. Their cages are next to each other and have a visual divider, but I think she knows he's there and just paced and paced looking for a way to him.

However, the whole tongue thing isn't normal. Do you mind filling out the help form so we can see if anything else is at play?

 

[JRchameleons]

The tongue thing definitely isn't normal. Can you post some pictures of her?

 

[Lancecham]

How much does the female weigh?

 

[mary prefontaine]

unsure of weight

I knew there was something i didn't have and that was a scale. all i know is they are growing fast and both are fat as you can see in the pictures. I will take them to the vet for a check up asap as now i'm a little concerned since she's too young and the tongue thing and just a good general check up needed since i havn't done this yet. let me know if anyone sees anything unusual from the pictures or how their health looks to you. Either way i will make an appointment tomorrow and let the vet know that they bred to see what he/she says.


http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm283/mitzi1956/IMG_0076.jpg

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm283/mitzi1956/IMG_0079.jpg


http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm283/mitzi1956/IMG_0037.jpg

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm283/mitzi1956/IMG_0082.jpg

 

[mary prefontaine]

took both to the vet

Both chameleons appear in good health, weight is 6 oz on the male and 6.5 on the female. The vet says in nature, it is common for the female to breed at a young age. and that if she allows the male to mount her then she is ready for laying eggs. but that on occasion the eggs will not develop properly and i will have to do an ex-ray after she lays to make sure she laid all her eggs fully. So I will put a pan in there in about 3 weeks and watch her closely. then when she looks like she's done i will make an appointment to get an ex-ray done and make sure she doesn't have any remaining.
this will be interesting. So I guess my next step will be to buy a small fish tank for the babies and learn about hatching the eggs. my book is showing me most of this but any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[JackP308]

she may have already been carrying eggs if she weighed as much as him. She don't look to young in the pics and if she is its to late now.