If the female's background was not dark but she was hissing

and swaying and gaping,then she could have been reacting to

the male's behavior thinking that he was aggressing towards her.



When I mate my veiled chameleons, I take the female on a

stick (rather than on my hand...I find that she will be more

relaxed on the stick) and I hold her in front of the male's cage

so I can see their reactions. (I never mate a female until she

is over one year of age.)



If the female has an almost black background and/or hisses

and/or sways from side to side with her mouth open, I put

her back in her cage 'cause she is NOT receptive. I will

try the following procedure every few days and have never had

a female that eventually didn't breed. (I have had a male

that doesn't breed with a female though.)



IMHO putting a non-receptive female into a male's cage is

just asking for trouble. I have had the odd female have the dark

background, but not show agression (hiss, sway, gape, lunge)

to the male....but aside from her dark background she will show

"desire-to-mate-behavior"....and they eill often mate if this

occurs.



Normally, the female that is receptive kinda "hugs" the branch

with her body and keeps her "normal" background color.

She may have yellow spots and/or bright torquoise/blue dots too.)

If this happens, I open the door to the male's cage and hold

her closer to him...but not so close that he could bite

her...and watch for his reaction to her. Often, when the male

first sees the female he seems to mistake the female for another

male....and will turn bright colors, hold one front foot up

close to his neck, move his tail in and out, flatten the body

and push out his gular pouch (throat) and get ready to fight.

This is, of course, all aggressive behavior that a male would

use towards another male who was invading his territory.

Usually, once he realizes that its a female and that she's

receptive, he calms down and starts courting the female instead.

Until he does this, its not safe to let the female

be too close to him....he might lunge at her and bite her.

If/when they are both calm, I place her on the branches

in his cage a little way away from him and try not to let them

see me watching. Sometimes if they see me, they can go back to

the aggressive displays intending the aggressiveness towards

me.... but "mistakenly" take it out on each other instead.



Once I'm sure that they are okay together, I leave them alone

and check on them every couple of hours to make sure that the

female hasn't turned dark in the background and is not repelling

the male (hissing, gaping, swaying). Once she is in

non-receptive (dark background) coloration or repelling the male,

I put the female back into her own cage.



Hope this helps!

Good luck with the breeding!

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