Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi group,

I have searched in vain for these questions on the chameleon lists but mostly its been exercises in futility and frustration. I've read all the books and websites, and I am further seeking firsthand experience from anyone who's bred and raised Panthers, specifically Ambanjas. I have a CB red bar male who mated with my CB blue bar female on 11/10/03 (& probably the next day as well, I could only watch so much . This is my first chameleon pair and I'm both excited and nervous that all goes well. For anyone with Panther experience, I beg these questions:

1) At what age and/or size/weight do you consider your female(s) to be breedable? At what age/size/weight did you first see receptive colors? Was receptivity independent of male contact or only after exposure to a male?

2) How long was your Panther's gestation from mating until egg laying?

3) How many eggs have/has your female(s) laid per clutch? How many clutches per mating? Has anyone "cooled off" their females to slow production & preserve health? (I read about this somewhere)

4) How deep and in what type substrate were the eggs laid? Have
you observed a preference for substrates among your female(s)? How long did digging and the actual deposition of eggs take? What time of day did laying occur?

5) During gestation, how often were food items dusted with Ca
and/or other supplements? Has anyone ever had problems with
hypercalcemia from over-supplementing gravid females?

6) Has anyone had success with cooling eggs (i.e. low 60s, as described for Carpets) for breaking diapause rather than maintaining a steady temperature throughout incubation? (I mean, to break diapause faster to replicate native seasonal flucuations, as in Madagascar's winter to spring)

7) What was the average weight gain for gravid females (grams/week and total grams gained)?

8) What does a red bar Ambanja crossed with a blue bar produce
morph-wise?

9) Most importantly, how do you restrain yourself from keeping all of the babies????

Please send your experiences to:

TwinOats@hotmail.com
or direct me to past recent discussion headings that I may reference.

Thanks guys,
~Kerry in NY
1.1 Ambanjas
1.1 Gracilis
1.0.2 Carpets
0.3 dogs
1.1 cats
?.? fish

First off, CONGRATS!!!
Whoooo.... Here we go:

1.I consider female panthers breedable at 8 months of age. If you can wait longer, do. Around 10 months I would call perfect. I'm holding a female Sambava right now for 1 more month to make it 10. Receptive colors can come at any time from about 6 to 8 months. They get a light brown color or get almost white. Try the female with the male. Is she opens her mouth and rocks side to side, she's not ready, but you can tell either way.

2.My females seem to average around a month from breeding to egg laying. It's a little easier to tell by counting from the day she rejects the male on, and then it's usually about 20-23 days.

3.My females average around 28 eggs. I've had 34 and I've had 12 (10 of which weren't fertile). I have had 1 female lay 3 clutches from 1 mating (over a 4 month period after mating). I also recommend only breeding the females the one time and letting them lay all their eggs from the stored sperm. After the last of the eggs, give them at least a few months off.

4.I use moist Supersoil for my females to lay in. I put them in a kitchen garbage can with about 10 inches in it. I do this after I see them crawling their own cage. They're usually near the bottom of the garbage can, but I've had a clutch right under the surface. They have been laid at all times of day, but I usually put the female in at night, and when I get home from work the next day, the whole process is done. I also had a female VEILED lay eggs during the night. She was put in at night with no light but I heard her digging before I left the room so I turned on her light and early the next morning, I dug up 43 eggs.

5.I dust the gravid females VERY VERY VERY VERY lightly with calcium dust twice a week and calcium D3 dust twice a week. I use Multivitamin also VERY VERY VERY VERY lightly twice a week. I've never had any poblems whatsoever with oversupplementation in any of my chameleons. Every egg I have (250 ) is BRIGHT white.

6.I don't play with the temperatures a whole lot, but I think you'd be in good shape if you could start the panther eggs in the high 60's for 2 months and go up around 75-77 until they hatch. I go with more of a steady 74-78 range.

7.The weight gain in my females increased shaprly after breeding..... Hang on lemmie find some numbers.... Ok for example, a female starting at 65 grams (a good breeding weight) got up to 90 grams a month after mating (increase of 25 grams). After laying eggs, she was around 58 grams. In about 2 weeks she had gained back the weight to the 65 gram range. That's just an example.

8.A red bar Ambanja crossed with a blue bar Ambanja makes a "party colored" ambanja (I think that's the term Morgana used once). It's not a cross at all. Just an Ambanja with both colors. The young will be either blue bar, red bar or more likely a little bit of both.

Good enough? Dang, the whole time I wrote this, I was thinking "LOOK AT MY WEBSITE!" I've written all of this once already! LOL. Let me know if any other questions and keep us updated on what's happening! Good luck!
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
www.BLUEBEASTREPTILE.com

>>8.A red bar Ambanja crossed with a blue bar Ambanja makes a "party colored" ambanja (I think that's the term Morgana used once). It's not a cross at all. Just an Ambanja with both colors.

Tyler,

Nope... I never used that term - party colored - but I like it! *LOL*

Good post!!
The longest we have seen a female go is close to 90 days before laying her eggs.

For laying medium, we use SuperSoil (which is only available in the western U.S., btw) mixed with 1/3 of beach sand. This is less clumpy and tunnels really good when packed down a bit.

Most of our girls dig right to the bottom of the tub to lay their eggs - but a few didn't dig at all. Everyone is different, it seems. We have had veiled lay overnight too.

We incubate at less than 75 degrees, it takes a bit longer but we get stronger hatchlings. Some folks get impatient and raise the temps to 80 for sooner hatching - and we have seen a lot die off out of those clutches. It's best not to rush things.

After the laying process, we give the females liquid calcium (orally). If the female seems to be taking a long time to lay her clutch, we will administer the liq. calcium every few days (a tip from our vet to avoid oxytocin). The extra calcium helps with contractions.

If we all put our experiences down - along with all the tips we have learned - it would make for a lot of reading, indeed! And I am sure almost every scenario would be touch on.
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