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Yemens: Odd behaviour. Help!

Posted By:

Tea

In Relation To:

Cortana

Ok, so as some of you might know, I have a pair of Yemens that I am hoping to breed as I'd very much like some eggs from my girl. I looked at her tonight and the size of her leaves little doubt in my mind that she's gravid. I don't know how I didn't see it sooner really, perhaps it was wishful thinking on my part but I digress. Of course, I'm not totally sure about this, so after having spoken at some length with an experienced breeder on a forum I decided to introduce them to gauge reactions etc and to try and deduce what her egg-status, as it were, is at the moment. Well, upon seeing him she turned light green with blue spots which I took as a sign of receptiveness and that she isn't gravid (this first happened about a week and a half ago). The second time they saw each other she did the same only this time she coupled it with a gaping mouth (no hissing) and pronounced swaying from side to side although, knowing what she's like (grumpy little bugger, typical Yemen), this didn't seem to be aggressive behaviour. So yeah, Colour me confused. It may be worth noting that, thus far, my male has shown zero interest or aggression towards her, just watched quietly. Tonight I decided to try again to see what would happen. Cue more bright green with blue spots, gaping mouth and swaying. This time I decided to run with it and let them do what they wanted for a bit, so when she went to grab a branch in his tank, rather than block with my hand like I did before (so I could intervene should there be any aggression) I allowed her onto said branch. This is where it got interesting... For the first time in about 4 or 5 total showings/introductions, my male started shaking his head and slightly nodding it. Green colouration, no chainsaw chin (as we have affectionately dubbed it), no black colour on him, no hissing, no gaping... on his part anyway. That's when she started doing to him what i was kind of hoping he'd do to her. She started grabbing at him, holding onto his back, mouth open the whole time and nudging him with her nose but not biting. She was still her beautiful bright green/blue colour and still not hissing, but she was getting quite pushy with him... so much so he cr*pped his proverbial pants and fell off his branch! He didn't fall far, it wasn't a high up branch and he saved himself with his tail... but all the same. She just seemed to be harassing him. I really don't know what to make of the above. Please bare in mind that I have never done this before so what I have described might be normal but I'm just not 100% sure what I need to be looking for. Any help would be awesome. The other thing is, as I mentioned, her fatness. This, I feel, needs to be treated as a matter of urgency in case she is retaining eggs. I've noticed patches in her substrate near the glass where she looks to have been 'digging'. I say it in inverted commas because it's not exactly a significant excavation effort but it's been dug at all the same. I've provided her with a tupperware tub full of sand just damp enough to hold its shape when dug and not collapse in on itself but she doesn't seem to be interested. The tub is in a cooler area of her tank and her dripper, which is set to very very slow most of the time is situated amongst the leaves above the tub so as to keep the moisture levels in the sand fairly constant as it tends to dry out very fast. The tub is a transparent blue colour and is about 4 inches deep by 8 inches long by 5 inches wide, or thereabouts anyway. It was a last minute 'oh my god I think she might be gravid' effort when I put it in there but I'm not convinced it's doing the job as she's not even tried digging in it though I can tell she's been in there because of her footprints. I'm sorry about the essay guys, I'm just worried about her and curious as to what the hell is going on between my pair! Thanks in advance, I hope someone can help!!


Points:	250
Topics:	Copulation , Ovulation , Egg Laying
Tags:	Behavior, Breeding, Chameleons, Setup
Species:	Lizards > Chameleons > Chamaeleo calyptratus
Administrative:	Show/Hide

Accepted Answer

7/15/2008 8:04:03 AM

Robin Saunders

Hi Tea- The behavior you saw sounds normal, at least in veiled chameleons.Even falling off the branches when stressed by another animal LOL.You may want to put live potted plants in several places in her enclosure to give her chioces about where to lay. The bigger the pots the better, these guys like to dig, kicking piles of dirt all over the enclosure including the water bowl. They also like to deposit eggs within the root-balls of the plants. The root ball probably offers some security for the eggs and you will wonder for days how these girls intertwine the eggs in there. Potted plants will also offer her another choice in soil integrity, in case she isn't thrilled with the sand . I hope this, good luck. Robin

Member Comment

7/31/2008 8:08:20 PM

Robin Saunders

Hi Tea- I'm not sure if you got the message I sent you, so if I'm repeating myself sorry !! Each time we have put pairs of these guys together the female usually starts out as the aggressor and after 12 hours of being left together, he is still trying to breed and she is done (dark). Feeding them fruits and veggies a couple of times a week will help prevent gout and lead to longer lives. Females can store sperm for several clutches. Good luck.

Member Comment

9/29/2009 11:25:04 AM

dalvers63

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