Need a little bit of help!

[Camey]

hi can someone help me out please?
my female veiled is about 10mnths old and was wondering what they look like when there receptive? Also she is not showing any signs of laying infertile eggs. Is there a time of the year when they are ready to be mated. When will she start doing this???
sorry for all the questions i just cant find enough information about this and i know you guys are pretty good at this stuff

 

[Carlton]

It can vary a lot so we probably can't predict this. Some never do form eggs. If you don't overfeed her and she isn't around a male (even just seeing one) she might not start. You can start weighing her...if she starts gaining weight quickly and you haven't changed her diet she may be working on a clutch.

 

[Miss Lily]

There is no set time for them to lay a first clutch - they all mature at different rates. Some may lay as early as 6 months whereas my first cham, Lily, didn't lay her first clutch until she was 14 months old! I thought I had everything set up just right and that she wouldn't lay a clutch at all. How wrong I was, lol - she finished up cycling an infertile clutch of 104! I think that this was mostly due to me over feeding her when I first got her - she would eat loads, and I didn't know any better, plus being a newbie I loved watching her handfeed. I am determined NOT to have a repeat performance with Amy - luckily she isn't as greedy as Lily was!

Receptive colouring is usually the bright robin's egg blue spots and brown/orange splodges. Do you have a pic of your cham? When I got Lily at 6 months she had her adult colours and was quite big, but Amy is now 6 months and still quite small and she is still just plain green!

 

[kinyonga]

When the chameleon is sexually mature and receptive she should show mustard/yellowish splotches and bluish dots. Are you asking because you want to breed her or is it just that you want to know if she is going to lay eggs?

Non-receptive/gravid coloration has the mustard/yellow splotches and the blue dots but the background color is almost black. They can drop the dark background color at times (like when there is no reason to pass on that information) but still be non-receptive/gravid.

In the wild they do not lay clutches all year generally...but in captivity they can lay them 3 or 4 times a year.

In order not to have to worry so much about when she might lay eggs or if she is carrying them, I recommend that you provide her with a suitable place to dig in the cage at all times. She should know what to do and you don't have to worry about missing the sometimes subtle signs that she needs to lay eggs.

The minimum size for the opaque container is this...it should be big enough for her to fit into with a couple of inches to spare on all sides including above and below her. I fill it about 3/4 full of washed playsand that is moist enough for her to dig a tunnel in without it collapsing on her.

 

[Camey]

Im going to hopefully breed her with my year old male. i just need to know when she is ready? also do i put her in my males enclosure or the other way round? I would prefer to put her in his because my male isnt hand friendly due to previous owner.

 

[jannb]

Im going to hopefully breed her with my year old male. i just need to know when she is ready? also do i put her in my males enclosure or the other way round? I would prefer to put her in his because my male isnt hand friendly due to previous owner.

He may hurt her too. You will have to keep a close eye on them and be ready to seperate them at any time. I would not try to breed until she is over one year old. Up until then her body still needs the calcium that the eggs would take away from her.

 

[kinyonga]

I also recommend that you don't breed her until she is about 1 year old too. I like to make sure that the female is done her own growing before (fertile) egglaying is brought upon her.

I hold the female outside the male's cage and watch the reactions. If the female is calm, keeps a pale background color, walks slowly away from the male and doesn't inflate her body or rock back and forth or hiss or gape or darken her background colors, then she is likely receptive to the male.

Obviously then, if she inflates her body , rocks back and forth, gapes, hisses, etc., she is not receptive.

If the male holds his hand up near his chin, inflates his body, inflates his gular pouch, coils and uncoils his tail, he is not recognizing her as a receptive female.
If, however, he doesn't do any of those things (except for inflating his body) he likely recognizes her as a receptive female.

If they both seem to be receptive to each other then they can be put together. I would still watch them for a bit once they are put together to make sure they remain receptive to each other.