Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I keep hearing that chameleons end up having breeding problems after the 2nd generation? Things like eggs not hatching. I've read that this is thought to possibly be related to diet. I'm looking at possibly getting into breeding some chameleons but, would like to know more about this problem.

Do you have to keep getting exports?

Do you need to have non-related breeders?

Any additional advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Taylor

I've heard th epardalis people mention this. I have never had any issues with calyptratus. In fact, I've always bred with bigger bloodlines than I've started with, and only bred the biggest and best offspring.

I think a reason for problems is that people breed all the offspring, regardless of selective factors.

Lets say a clutch of eggs is laid. It's 12" deep, under sandy soil. The eggs hatch. They hatch all at once when touching each other - so the underdeveloped, slow developing ones just don't make it out of the shell. They are selected out of the gene pool from the start. Runts and other weak ones might not even make it out of the sand. Still most will beable to dig UP from their nest, possibly a foot or more, to the surface. That's a lot of work. I'm sure this task leaves many babies behind, without ever seeing the surface. Those that do make it to the surface are heavily predated upon. Many are eaten. Even those aren't all going to breed. Amongst the survivors there is competiton. The smaller males will not defend as much territory, and will mate less, if at all.

Out of a clutch of 20 eggs, only a few would survive to reproduce. In captivity, we have much bigger clutches (often), and much easier conditions. Some even cut the weak ones from their shells! None have to dig through the earth to the surface, survive predation, and they don't have to fight for territory and mates.

2 clutches of 30 eggs each yield 30 pairs. Those pairs can produce 900 babies in one round, 2700 in a year (given 3 clutches per year, per female). Take those, pair them up , and you're looking at tens of thousands of babies produced in no time, all without ANY selective factors influencing gene frequency.

In the wild, 2 clutches of 30 eggs will produce, maybe, 1 or 2 pairs - the best babies will be selected for survival and breeding. These will produce a few clutches of babies, all of which will have selective forces acting upon them. So, after 5 or 6 generations, we're ending up with a slightly higher population (maybe), but we've weeded out the "bad" genes, and selected for the benificial ones - large size, color, disease resitance, certain behaviors, etc.

that's why I ONLY breed my best animals. My 3rd generation calyptratus were bigger, and had better coloration than my first generation WC male.

I had not thought of that as a contributing factor before but it makes sense.

I have NOT had a problem with egg hatchings in third generation chameleons for veileds or panthers....don't know why.

Its not necessary to continually get exports....but I always started off my lines with WC's just to lessen the chances of breeding related chameleons together and to lessen the chances that my chameleons could have health issues that could8 come with captive breeding.

I have never bred any chameleon to its relative. I don't expect that if it happened once and then they were "outbred" it would hurt....but I just never did it.

Other comments....
Veiled eggs are definitely easier to hatch than panther eggs.

If your females produce large clutches, expect that they will not live as long as they would if they didn't.

Don't forget that unmated females can produce eggs once they reach sexual maturity, so be sure that they have a suitable place to dig in their cages so that they don't become eggbound.

Good luck!