Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently acquired an 8 month old female veiled chameleon as a potential mate for our existing 18 month old male. Not wanting to rush things I put her into a ficus tree within sight of the ficus containing the male. We have them in seperate trees in our living room with barriers around the pots to stop them from roaming the house. The male immediately became very excited and started displaying. After an hour or so of racing around his tree, to my shock and surprise I watched him launch himself from a branch 4 feet high in the direction of the other tree. He missed the tree and landed on his feet on the floor. I have never read of this type of behavior in veiled chams. Has anyone else experienced this and what should I do? David.

Don't let them see eachother if there is a potential for the male hurting himself to get to the female.

Males are very determined to get to females sometimes and my panthers can get "over joyed" sometimes.

Just remember "out of site out of mind"....well most of the time at least.

Thanks. I took a slightly different approach in the end and put them both in one tree. It was always my intention to see if they could live together in one tree (I read about this being a possibility). It took about 5 seconds for the male to get to her. I hardly had time to get her off my hand before he grabbed her. Fearing hostility I stood by to break them up. However, the male was not too aggressive - no biting or butting. He just really really needed a hug! The female didn't look too happy about it all and had her mouth open for much of the time. After several hours I called a time-out and put her back into her own tree within sight of his. The male seemed much less inclined to jump over to her after that. I put them together again for a while the next day and it was more of the same. I'm still not sure if I should let them at it again. She is still in her light green with white lateral stripe colours and he is still keen as mustard to get the job done. How long should they be left to mate and should I leave them in view of each other? Do you think that they could share a tree when she is gravid? Do they always hang by their tails whilst mating?

"How long should they be left to mate and should I leave them in view of each other? Do you think that they could share a tree when she is gravid? Do they always hang by their tails whilst mating?"

I would just leave them to mate till the mating is done, or until the female becomes aggresive towards the male. Though don't leave them together for more than 3 or 4 days.

I wouldn't recommend them sharing a tree when she is gravid as them become even less tolerable of males while gravid. I don't know if them even being able to see eachother while she is gravid is good, though it just depends on the female and whether or not she becomes upset by it.

They breed in whatever position they end up in, upside down, hanging, or right side up.

Thanks for the advice. David.