Female veileds can live 3-5 years easy, if not over-fed and over-bred. I never breed my females until they are at least 12 months old. If over fed, they develop many more eggs, and will live much shorter lives as a result. If she was bred by a breeder, there's a good chance she's partially burned out - commercial breeders try to get as many eggs out of each female at a time(50-80 eggs a clutch). These females usually never survive their second or third clutch. However, if she was fed modestly, and produced normal clutch sizes, she' got potential to live another 2 -3 years or so. Just make sure you don't over feed her. Give them a large amount of plant matter and cut back on the insects - you'll see egg numbers drop, and hatchling size increase. She'll also recover from laying much faster.
When you incubate the eggs - you can do it in the mid 80's, or in the low-mid 70's. 80-'s hatches them out faster, but smaller. 70's is slower (7-8 months for my guys) but they're much, much bigger and stronger. I don't even use an incubator - just a plastic shoebox in a closet.
Veilds will not show any courtship behavior in normal captive situations -as in housed separatly. If you allow the male and female to cohabitate(don't even ask how big of an enclosure you need for THAT!), you'll see they have a very elaborate courtship ritual, and are in fact a very sociable species at certain times. Males will show off pretty often, but they learn that a non-receptive female is left alone. If housed separatly, they don't know, and will literally rape a female if given the chance.
A male that is used to females will not rush in- he'll flare up, go crazy with colors, and really show off - they do this spring thing with their tail that's really neat. They bob their head, shake, go crazy - it's awesome. More importantly, a male that rushes in is not likely to impress the females - a male that goes through the display will make a semi-receptive female relax. They tend to become receptive when housed in proximity with dispalaying males.
I spent hundreds of dollars on an outdoor cage years ago for my veileds - I made a 12'x8'x8' screen cage to house a trio oudoors in the summer, and it was awesome. After a few hours, the male left the females alone. When they became receptive, they would move up the trees to his level. They'd do the whole courtship displays for days. The females would sleep next to him after they were gravid, until they had to lay eggs. It was pretty neat.
Chameleons are very social creatures - they just need to have the right amount of space.
Eric A
