Gravid??

[FlyingWil]

Well, we are new to the whole Chameleon thing, and have a breeding pair of Panthers from Chams NW.

We went on vacation for New Years, and while away put the male and the Female in the same cage since they do not have issues being in the same cage. We unfortunately had a latent male on our first female, but our male was rather receptive to what was the other male. So upon introduction of the (replacement) female to our male we could not get the "sexy dance" or head bobbing like when we had the latent male in the same ficus tree. So we slowly keep the two in the large cage for increasing amounts of time, and eventually left the two together while we were away for our 4 day vacation.

Well, bad idea since we were not able to peek in and see what they were upto while we were gone. However our female Sambava is now showing some shades of orange and looks to be slightly larger. I have had a tough time researching if she is gravid or not and the gravid colors, so I thought I would post up and see what you all thought.

Our female, Ivy, is normally a white, green, gray or black or a combination of the colors. Upon introduction to the male she has always shown a whiter color. However upon returning from our vacation we have found her to be displaying more orangess in the area's that have always been white.

Here is her color now:

Here is what we considered her normal colors prior to us leaving on vacation.

 

[rnara002]

Looks receptive or recently turned receptive turning gravid after a four day honeymoon.

 

[FlyingWil]

LOL...

I got an e-mail stating that there was another post, asking if she was looking at the male in that picture? To answer that, no she was not.

 

[OldSkoolxReasons]

How old is she? She looks pretty small to be breeding if you ask me. She doesn't even look like she's 60 grams yet. In that bottom picture she still has baby colors. She could be gravid or just completely stressed out due to a 4 day attempt at mating by the male. Also it is a bad idea to leave a breeding pair unattended for 4 days because after the initial mating or two the female could become unreceptive and get violent and either harm your male or he could attack her because she is biting at him. I took my eyes of my female during mating for an hour and when I came back they were both on their hind legs hissing and trying to strike each other. I'm not saying they can't stay together for 4 days because I've had it happen a few times, but they just need to be monitored to reduce stress on both the male and female.


Justin

 

[rnara002]

She does look on the small side. Just in case i would put a laying bin in her cage in about two weeks. It takes an average of 30 days for her to lay.

 

[FlyingWil]

We normally put our Chams in the ficus tree in our bathroom when we take a shower or bath (typically we alternate chams and put both in once a week when we can have someone there to monitor them). This lets them get a bit of the humidity from the shower/bath. I shot this quick video when my wife was finishing giving our 2 yr old girl a bath, since the male was showing interest in the female and he was approaching her. He normally stays on the opposite side of the female, or will go lower on the tree and just sit there and enjoy it. Apparently our female wants nothing to do with our male at this point and time. Hopefully that will change in time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH1eRbDXBs0

 

[Elizadolots]

FlyingWil, is the second picture older (as in, taken when she was younger)? Because in the first picture and the video she looks quite a bit larger. I'm taking it that those are your fingers in the first picture not your wife's.

 

[FlyingWil]

FlyingWil, is the second picture older (as in, taken when she was younger)? Because in the first picture and the video she looks quite a bit larger. I'm taking it that those are your fingers in the first picture not your wife's.

In both pictures that is my wife's hand... Picture #1 was a current shot (then) and picture #2 was take the week we got her, but shows her "normal colors".

 

[Elizadolots]

In both pictures that is my wife's hand... Picture #1 was a current shot (then) and picture #2 was take the week we got her, but shows her "normal colors".

Okay, that will help people. I think they were seeing that baby and wondering why she was being bred.

 

[FlyingWil]

Okay, that will help people. I think they were seeing that baby and wondering why she was being bred.

Thanks for the assistance. The video I posted is the most current images I have of them. In the video you can see the size of the two much better. Both are right around the 1 year old mark. (I'd have to check with my wife for the ages since she knows and I am bad at that kind of thing).

 

[FlyingWil]

Well, our female (named Ivy) is exploring her laying bin!!! We have a large bin comprised of wet (washed) play sand. I went in to do a quick check on her humidity and she was in her bin, with sand on her nose... she froze when she saw me. I am hoping it wasn't just a sight of something shinny that drew her down there. Now only time will tell.

 

[OldSkoolxReasons]

I was just wondering how you figure them to be a year old. In your first post on the forum you said they were seven months old, that was in november and that would make them both around 10 months old. Do you know the weight of the female? I personally think that is a better indicator of breeding readiness than the one year mark because I've had a couple females that were still far to small at a year. Your girl looks to be big enough in the video however. Do you know who the male's sire is and who her sire is? I hope they aren't related.



Justin

 

[FlyingWil]

I was just wondering how you figure them to be a year old. In your first post on the forum you said they were seven months old, that was in november and that would make them both around 10 months old. Do you know the weight of the female? I personally think that is a better indicator of breeding readiness than the one year mark because I've had a couple females that were still far to small at a year. Your girl looks to be big enough in the video however. Do you know who the male's sire is and who her sire is? I hope they aren't related.



Justin

Justin, thanks for your input. The pair was purchased as a breeding pair from Elliot and Sandy at ChamsNW. (great people BTW). Again, I would have to check with my wife for exact ages.

The male's sire is the Torch, and the female is from Rantabe (spelling?)

 

[kinyonga]

A word of advice...don't let the female see you when she is digging...it will likely make her abandon the hole. If it happens often enough, she could become eggbound.

 

[FlyingWil]

A word of advice...don't let the female see you when she is digging...it will likely make her abandon the hole. If it happens often enough, she could become eggbound.

Thanks for the reminder... she has since been covered up. We cover her up at night like a parrot in the birdcage, to help keep the humidity in. We fed her today through the fogger hole since peaking through the fogger hole we could see her in the bin.

Now it is only time that will tell us if she is just exploring or going to lay.

For some reason the past 2 days she has decided to have a bowel movement over the bin, and we have gone in there every day to clean it out, but she was never in her bin when we went in, nor was there evidence of her being in the bin.

I am not too sure how I feel about the sand box in her cage, and I worry about her consuming the play sand. I wish there was another way.

 

[Elizadolots]

You might want to keep that "bird" cover over the corner of her cage with the laying bin. She isn't going to want attention now.

From everything I've read, the sand is the best option. It's one of those "nothing is really great" situations and this seems to be the best. If she does eat the sand, it's clean and soft and will pass through without causing her harm.

 

[Chamanam]

How did you guys go? Are you poppn the cork yet?

 

[FlyingWil]

How did you guys go? Are you poppn the cork yet?

Yup, Ivy our female laid 23 eggs last week in her bin. So far all look good, and no bad ones as of yet. She is still digging every other day, so we're keeping an eye out for more, but it is doubtful at this point.

 

[kinyonga]

She should have dug a hole, laid all the eggs at once, buried them and been done with it. From the sounds of it this is not what she did...am I right?

 

[FlyingWil]

She should have dug a hole, laid all the eggs at once, buried them and been done with it. From the sounds of it this is not what she did...am I right?

That is exactly what she did... Dig a hole, lay all her eggs, burry the hole. One of our books says to keep the bin in there for upto 2 weeks after, so we're following that since the bin and sand really can't hurt her. We figured better safe than sorry.