New To Mellers

[JohnnyMurderus]

Hey guys and gals

Ive always been an avid lover of reptiles. Stared with my first bearded dragon, and has gone along way since then. I currently decided that i needed a new challenge and picked up what looks to be 3ish month old Mellers Chameleon. I fell in love as soon as i saw it. My only problem is the guy at the store had no idea of it was a male or female, and being as mellers are very hard to sex I'm having some trouble. If anyone has any ideas or indications that i could use it would be greatly appreciated. The fact that it was wild caught and is incredibly hard to handle at this point doesn't help my cause either.

Thanks

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Almost impossible to sex melleri. Unless he flashes you his male parts. lol Which he wont do until he starts to get sexually mature. In the case of melleri you got at least a yr to wait if not more. I dont think theyre of breeding age until at least 2 yrs of age.

 

[JohnnyMurderus]

thanks for the reply its kind of disappointing not knowing. I was trying to see if there was a faster way so i dident have to wait so long, but i guess ill just have to wait it out. I named it Zigzag, at least i chose something asexual haha

 

[Carlton]

thanks for the reply its kind of disappointing not knowing. I was trying to see if there was a faster way so i dident have to wait so long, but i guess ill just have to wait it out. I named it Zigzag, at least i chose something asexual haha

Just remember that your cham won't care what you name it...it can't hear you anyway! Watch when it defecates...you can often catch a glimpse of hemipenes and then you'll know what you have!

 

[Jimturner]

Yea… they seem almost impossible to sex. I still don't know for certain what sex any of mine are! The small juvies are even harder to guess. Is this your first cham then? This site has a wealth of great info on general cham husbandry and check out www.melleridiscovery.com for lots of meller specific info. Cheers!

 

[summoner12]

There isn't much point in wondering about their sex until they are about two years old. You might get lucky and see male 'junk' while the cham is pooping... Sometimes their hemipenis will come out... but you have to catch them in the act and they can be shy about it lol.

 

[JohnnyMurderus]

hey Jim actually this is my third chem,i had a 4 year old veiled that i had to sell, long story short got kicked out of my house and there was no room in my batchler apt. I've now bought a house and since then got another veiled and now this mellers ( also have crested geckos and 2 redsandfire beardys)

 

[nicholas]

I would be very, very nonexistant/out of site to him/her for a while and let it settle in. When they are wild caught they are very easily stressed and when you add the fact that it was a pet store who housed him makes it all the more worse. I would get a fecal done asap as they are very prone to outbreaks of internal parasites due to the breakdown of there immune system form the exportation and pet store experiences. And would be giving it almost unlimited water and food for a decent amount of time during the acclimation. They are very sensitive chameleons when first imported, more so than most others. TRead alot on Melleri Discovery and I am sure you will get it. Good Luck they are a magnificent species!