New to chameleons and I have questions!

[ThisGal]

Hello y'all! So I recently became the owner of 3 baby veiled chameleons, they are about 5weeks old. They are Kyra, Rigley, and Kizmit. They all came from the same parents, but their mom died about 4 weeks ago. The guy that gave them to me had been housing 32 babies together with the mom in one enclosure, and the dad in the other enclosure. He believes that the mom died of old age because he had owned her for about 6.5years . now i have these 3 housed in an enclosure that is about 4feet tall, and 2 feet wide, give or take. In the cage they don't seem to pay any attention to each other , but when i handle them, they crawl all over each other on my hand. They haven't hissed at each other or anything though. All 3 of them are different sizes as well even though they are the same age. Kyra is super super tiny, Kizmit is rather large for her age, and Rigley is somewhere inbetween those two. Kyra and Kizmit are both female and Rigley is the only male. How long can I house them all 3 together? Since they have been together since birth and are growing up together can they stay in the same enclosure? Or should I get a second enclosure and put Rigley with one female and the other female in the second? I heard that same sex chameleons shouldn't be house together after a certain age, is that true? They all seem to get along.

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the forums. Chameleons are solitary animals and each should be housed separately. They all will not thrive together and once sexually mature the male will mate with the sisters and you will have a bunch of deformed babies. I keep veileds and know them quite well. I have a care sheet attached below that tells how I have been able to keep my guys healthy over the years.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html

Info for your females. They lay eggs with out a male even being around. I recommend keeping a laying bin in their enclosure at all times and keep them out of sight of the male. Just seeing a male can make them start forming an infertile clutch.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/jannb/345-egg-laying-laying-bin.html#comment2073

 

[sandrachameleon]

I agree, you need to plan to house each one on its own, and fairly soon too. You can see the difference in sizes - and the smaller ones will fall further behind with competition and stress.

a few more links to useful info for you, in addition to the good one jannb provided:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/ryan-jarosek/119-new-arrival-bringing-home.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/syn/226-frequently-asked-questions.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/frequently-asked-questions-71620/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs...hameleons.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/74-feeders.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/92-hydration-importance.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/65-supplements.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/407-gutloading-isnt-just-crickets-roaches-gutload-everything.html
http://www.chameleonnews.com/
http://www.chameleonsonline.com/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/olimpia/522-average-cost-owning-chameleon.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/olimpia/573-chameleon-physiology-supplements.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/662-temperature.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/659-green-leafy-goodness-gutloading.html
http://raisingkittytheveiledchameleon.blogspot.com/

 

[ThisGal]

Welcome to the forums. Chameleons are solitary animals and each should be housed separately. They all will not thrive together and once sexually mature the male will mate with the sisters and you will have a bunch of deformed babies. I keep veileds and know them quite well. I have a care sheet attached below that tells how I have been able to keep my guys healthy over the years.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html

Info for your females. They lay eggs with out a male even being around. I recommend keeping a laying bin in their enclosure at all times and keep them out of sight of the male. Just seeing a male can make them start forming an infertile clutch.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/jannb/345-egg-laying-laying-bin.html#comment2073

How long can i keep them all in the same enclosure before seperating?

 

[LilBlue]

I wouldn't wait more than a month, at the very least separate the male from the females. I can tell you first hand the effects of having babies together for too long(I took in a female "runt"). She was a slow eater in a group of babies and she had MBD pretty bad, managed to stop it but she was pretty bent up. Grew to half the size, got around ok, never had eggs and lived to be 3.5yrs.

I understand you just took on one heck of an expense needing to set up 3 new homes. Hopefully they can all be separated in the next month or so. Check CL and the likes. A good idea would be to go to an independent pet store, and see if they will give you a discount on purchasing 2 or 3 cages etc. they usually will.

 

[calvin]

Ya they probable do need to be separated soon. I hope they do well!

 

[Lizardguy1]

In my experience you can keep siblings together in the same cage till 4 or 5 months old, provided they remain around the same size. Based on your description it sounds like one is significantly smaller then the other 2. You may want to separate the slower growing one sooner than that.

Also being in Las Vegas you may want to Check out Lizard of Oz and Exotic Pets Classifieds, both on Facebook- there are good ads on there for cages/ accessories, and lots of other locals in to Chameleons-