Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Greetings everyone. I introduced a male veiled to one of my females yesterday, to see how the interaction would be. They danced around a bit, with the male chasing the female (both are about 8-10 months old). He grabbed her hind legs and went to mate, but it was hard to tell if he was successful or not. The actual time of contact between the two cham's was no more than 5 seconds. Would this be long enough for a successful copulation? After the minimal contact, the female moved away. She wandered around for a few minutes and walked out of the cage. When I tried to put her back, she turned the dark black/blue stress colors. I am not sure if this is due to the stress of me trying to move her or if it was a successful mating. When I put her back in the cage with the male, they were not friendly to one another. The male went after the female again, but in an unfriendly manner. I tried to take the male out of the cage, but he didnt care what I wanted or that my hand was wrapped around him. He went into attack mode on the female. I managed to get him out before he bit the female, but it was a close call. What does everyone think? Was it a successful mating? If so, how long does it usually take before the female will show gravid coloration? Please advise. I have some experience with veileds, but not with breeding.

Thanks in advance.

Rob

Rob,

5 seconds is not a breeding..... sounds more like a foiled attempt. Veiled will stay together for 15 minutes or more... and you can see that they are "together"

Try introducing them in a neutral pace... outside of either's cage. If you have a portable tree - even a silk one - try that. We have even placed breeders on the floor with a large tree branch. If they want to mate - they will.

Hope this helps some,
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Thanks for your response. That is what I needed to know.

Rob

happen. We introduced the female into the males cage, he chased her for a couple minutes, and once he finally caught her, they embraced for about 30 seconds and then she turned black with the yellow and turquoise and started trying to bite him. We removed her from his cage and she retained the "gravid coloration" (based on pics in one of my chameleon books) for about 5-9 hours. This was about 2 weeks ago, and our female seems to be acting gravid. If we show her to the male, she immediately goes jet black. I'm not much help because I don't have any experience breeding veileds either, but I thought it was interesting that we had the same sort of thing happen.
Good luck with the breeding.

If the female is already gravid with an infertile clutch - she will respond in this manner too.

Sometimes that first clutch sneaks up on you - you need to watch for receptive coloration in the females - as that signals the time for breeding. Even if she doesn't mate, her body forms the eggs and she lays them. Once she is well into that process, she will not breed.

Sounds like you will have to wait for the next time.
Good luck,
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