Female or Male Panther? (6 months)

[qubit]

Hello! Meet Qubit. We bought a male hatchling (roughly a week old I’m guessing) from CB reptile and we’ve had them for six months. I’m beginning to suspect that they’re actually female because of the coloration and tail thickness / lack of obvious bulge.

I also wonder if they are beginning to produce eggs because of the round-ish tummy. Head cask doesn’t appear fatty, but if it’s a girl I want to taper back feeding.

We have a laying area in the enclosure (36 x 36 x 18) just in case, but I haven’t seen them leave the canopy to investigate.

What’s your take?

Thank you!!

Taken this am:

Taken last week:

 

[Chameleoking]

I'm gonna say male but its hard to tell.

 

[qubit]

Right!? Here’s a close up of the vent region..

 

[Beman]

Female. Tail base is thinner and no hemipenal buldge after the vent. http://www.muchadoaboutchameleons.com/2013/04/male-or-female-how-to-sex-baby-panther.html

 

[ERKleRose]

I say female, as well. Do you have just one or multiple of them?

 

[qubit]

I say female, as well. Do you have just one or multiple of them?

Just the one!

We had a veiled in the past but she had a huge clutch (60+ eggs) and passed shortly after laying unfortunately, so I’m trying to avoid that this time!

Thank you!

 

[qubit]

Hello! Meet Qubit. We bought a male hatchling (roughly a week old I’m guessing) from CB reptile and we’ve had them for six months. I’m beginning to suspect that they’re actually female because of the coloration and tail thickness / lack of obvious bulge.

I also wonder if they are beginning to produce eggs because of the round-ish tummy. Head cask doesn’t appear fatty, but if it’s a girl I want to taper back feeding.

We have a laying area in the enclosure (36 x 36 x 18) just in case, but I haven’t seen them leave the canopy to investigate.

What’s your take?

Thank you!!

Taken this am:
View attachment 305736
View attachment 305734
Taken last week:
View attachment 305737

Here are some more pics of them with the tail straight out - what do you think?

 

[ERKleRose]

Still female to me. Do you want any links or care images about lay bins/egg-laying and/or have any questions for us to help make sure everything is set up properly?

 

[Beman]

You have a girl.

 

[ERKleRose]

Also, I LOVE your DIY feeder, too!

 

[qubit]

Still female to me. Do you want any links or care images about lay bins/egg-laying and/or have any questions for us to help make sure everything is set up properly?

Sure! That would be great! Thank you!

 

[qubit]

Also, I LOVE your DIY feeder, too!

Thank you! It’s been working really well.

 

[ERKleRose]

Here's two links, two YouTube videos, and two podcast episodes about egg-laying:

• https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/egg-laying-and-the-laying-bin.345/
• https://www.madcham.de/en/legenot/
• tps://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-76-chameleon-egg-laying-sites-with-carl-cattau/
• https://chameleonacademy.com/ep-205-creating-a-chameleon-egg-laying-bin/

And the lay bin care image:

Let us know if you have any questions, too! If you want us to check your husbandry to make sure everything is spot on, just us know, as well!

 

[TayloredExotics]

Definitely female, does not appear to be currently carrying eggs. But it's never too early to introduce a laying bin! You'll probably notice a color change when she goes through her first receptive period; most likely she'll be a nice peachy to tan for a week or two (though one of my girls gets nearly fuschia), after which she may start showing gravid coloring (mostly black with pink to tan striping, especially if surprised/scared). That's the point at which you want to make absolutely sure she has access to a laying area, and to keep a closet eye on her in general.

 

[qubit]

Here's two links, two YouTube videos, and two podcast episodes about egg-laying:

• https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/egg-laying-and-the-laying-bin.345/
• https://www.madcham.de/en/legenot/
• tps://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-76-chameleon-egg-laying-sites-with-carl-cattau/
• https://chameleonacademy.com/ep-205-creating-a-chameleon-egg-laying-bin/

And the lay bin care image:
View attachment 305799
Let us know if you have any questions, too! If you want us to check your husbandry to make sure everything is spot on, just us know, as well!

Thank you so much!!

Definitely female, does not appear to be currently carrying eggs. But it's never too early to introduce a laying bin! You'll probably notice a color change when she goes through her first receptive period; most likely she'll be a nice peachy to tan for a week or two (though one of my girls gets nearly fuschia), after which she may start showing gravid coloring (mostly black with pink to tan striping, especially if surprised/scared). That's the point at which you want to make absolutely sure she has access to a laying area, and to keep a closet eye on her in general.

Thank you! That’s super helpful. I’m curious - how much do you feed your girls when they’re this age?

We usually have 1/2” dubia roaches (sometimes crickets) and meal worms on hand, with the majority of her diet being ~10-15 dubias and a couple worms as a snack. Dusted calcium without D3 daily, calcium with D3 every two weeks, multivitamin once/month. She always empties her feeder right away and seems hungry.

 

[TayloredExotics]

She's still showing only juvenile coloring (assuming your photos are a good representation of how she looks normally), so you're probably safe to keep giving her as much as she'll eat in a 10-15 min window each day. You could cut her down to every second day, or maybe 4 days/week, but keep an eye on her body tone. You want her cask to be a little convex but not so plump her eyes bulge out of her skull

Once she starts showing receptive colors, you'll have to cut her down to an adult diet, though I'm sure she'll still always act as though she's starving My girls are a little over 7 months right now and I've noticed their metabolisms have dropped significantly in the last couple weeks; that is, they're staying the same wight with probably only 60-70% of the amount of food they were getting before. This happened right around the time they started showing big girl colors, so it's probably correlated with hormone changes as they mature

 

[ERKleRose]

We usually have 1/2” dubia roaches (sometimes crickets) and meal worms on hand, with the majority of her diet being ~10-15 dubias and a couple worms as a snack. Dusted calcium without D3 daily, calcium with D3 every two weeks, multivitamin once/month. She always empties her feeder right away and seems hungry.

I'd stop the mealworms as being a staple, just a rare snack for variety if wanted, as they aren't the best. I've attached feeder and gutload sheets for you to just have if want to read through them. More variety is better for both! Your supplement schedule is great, but the multivitamin (does it have D3 in it?) should be given once every two weeks as well. What are your supplement brands (not all are equal)?

 

[yoshimoto0]

im a veiled chameleon person, but of what i know.. i would say female.

 

[TayloredExotics]

I'd stop the mealworms as being a staple, just a rare snack for variety if wanted, as they aren't the best. I've attached feeder and gutload sheets for you to just have if want to read through them. More variety is better for both!

Ooh, good catch on the mealworms, I missed that! Yeah, I second that they're a decent treat, but I wouldn't give them too often!