Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a baby blue bar cham, and was wondering if there is a good way to tell if its male or female. I have noticed sometimes that he starts to get blue on certain parts of his body. Does this mean that it is a male, or do females get a bit of color also? Also i heard that if female chams done breed they will die, so if i have a female do i need to get a male and breed them to keep her healthy?

-Post a photo. The trained eye can give a good guess.
-Males are colourful. Females are lesser so, any colour showing will be a faded blushing on their pink, brown, tan... background.
-Chameleons do not have to breed. Breeding actually wears them out.

"Blue bar" means nothing. It does not denote the Species or the geographic locale or morph. It's just a description of what the chameleons bloodlines colour's will show. (If it is a female, it will not have blue bars obviously, but it carries those genes.)
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WILL HAYWARD,
CANADIAN CHAMELEONS

It's not always 100% way to tell but female panthers start to develop a pinkish or orange/pinkish coloration and young males tend to be a less colorful greyish sort of coloration until their colors start to develop. Its a lot more subtle than it sounds and it takes a bit of practice to recognize the differences when they are really young but as they get older the differences become more obvious and of course once they start to reach sexual maturity males and females are like night and day. Females will not die if they do not breed. This is a myth perpetuated some of the not so educated causual veiled chameleon breeders that have come and gone through the years. It is however true that female panthers do not live as long as males and if you are looking for a pet and not looking to breed you definitely want a male. A responsible breeder would pick up on this and offer you a male if you were looking for a pet.

Awsome thanks for you help you guys Ill Post a picture of him this morning Thanks again.

Sorry, you are wrong. Females can live as long as males, or longer. Females that breed often are likely to live shorter lifespans.

There are plenty of female Veiled chameleons still chugging along at 7 years old with no sign of stopping.

However, Males do indeed make a better pet in my opinion. There is no risk of inducing infertile egg production- a potentially big dilema.

First of all the guy was asking about panthers which is a species I have worked with for about 15 yrs and yes males do in fact live longer than females whether you breed them or not as I have had both bred and unbred females over the years. This is typical with all species of chameleons as even unbred females produce eggs occasionally which taxes their bodies quite a bit and while many of them may live for many years (like the introduced veiled population on Christmas island where females with lifespans of 13yrs have been recorded.) a healthy female veiled will still has a shorter life expectancy a healthy male.

My apologies for wording it so. I meant no offense.

Changes in husbandry of females to the average "Recommendation for this species" can eliminate almost all chance of infertile clutches. Lower temperatures, restricted diet, and solitary segregation can go a long way. It's my belief that careful monitoring of these things and smaller details can ensure this at any age for any length of time.

I should also ask about the Calyptratus introduced to Christmas Island. I've not been able to find any record or documentation of this. I'd be very interested in reading about it.

I'm aware of their introduction to the Hawaiian Islands as well as Florida and surrounding area.

I saw Phillipe DeVosjoli give a presentation several years ago and he mentioned the Christmas Island population and talked about longevity of the females . He mentioned this longevity in comparison to to the relatively short lifespans females have in captivity. I'm sorry you can't find this reference on the interenet but I guess then everything out there ISN'T on the net. Perhaps if you meet Devosjoli in real life you can ask him yourself about it.

Drats, passed up on my chance to meet him this year already! I did meet Bill Love, but missed his presentation at the international Herpetological Symposium.