Chameleon is an animal from Agamidae clan. It is like lizard which has some specification on their physic. This animal is really popular mostly in Africa and Madagascar. There is kind of chameleon which Madagascar’s endemic animal called Yemen Chameleon. The Yemen Chameleon also known as Veiled Chameleon has physically characteristic. They are look like to wearing veiled over their head. That veiled looks like helmet which if you see from far way it will look like their head is triangle.
Same as another animal from Agamidae clan like Iguana, Chameleon has exotic body color which really eye-catching. Their color tends light and has different color depend on their kind. Mostly chameleon has green color which combined with orange and yellow. The most iconic body part of chameleon is their tail which curly rolled perfectly. Also, their body shape which looks like bowing also being their characteristic.
This animal which using insects as their mainly food is like to living in the tree. They love to climb and move tree by tree. But not every chameleon spends their time over the tree like Brookesia Chameleon, for example. Brookesia Chameleon is living in the land of forest. Basically every continent has their own chameleon species which really much. Talk about food, they hunt and eat it by using their tongue. Their tongue used for catch the food. It has sticky texture which functioned to grab the insects. Also, it can stick out long and fast so they can easily catch their prey when it off guard.
Now let’s move on to their breed cycle. As we know chameleon breeds by laying eggs but there are some chameleons which breed by both of laying eggs and give birth. These two different breed methods also have different period and sequence. Let’s move on to the sequence to be more effective. Be awareness that all written below is different in every kind of chameleon. It can be shorter or longer. There is no sure counting on how long does it takes except you have experience in chameleon breeding.
Laying Eggs
1. Heat period
Adult chameleon will entering heat period when the time coming. How that time coming? Well you can observe it by their appearance. Male chameleon will signs something that means they are on heat. One that really simple to be observe that their throat will getting red. As we know that chameleon does can change their body color which tell you something like cold, pressed, stressed, or sick.
For your information mood or hormone changing also make the color change. The mood of hormone changing such like heat period or pregnancy. But actually chameleon didn’t really transform by changing their color. It prove by the pigment of their skin is stay while camouflage. Back to the transformation body color to catch his female, so does the female changes their body color. The female which usually colored as brown will change it into light orange which means that she said ‘yes’ for the male.
By this fact we know that body color changing is representative of the art communication of chameleon. Don’t be shocked if your male chameleon becomes really wild when marriage process. That’s because some kind of chameleons love hard style sex which brutally and tend to be controller. The male chameleon may claw their female.
2. Pregnancy
The female chameleon will be pregnant after 3-6 weeks after marriage process. In this point the female iguana will re-transform again to another color like Yemen Chameleon, for example. The female chameleon which has navy-brown color will transform into cream combined by little bit orange and green. They usually change into more pale than before. Beside their tummy which getting bigger, their backbone which in normal position is like bowing will be change straightly. It may cause by their eggs which placed in their tummy so to protect their eggs to not press by their bowing-backbone, the adjustment that appeared is like that. Don’t panic because it will be quickly normal if lay eggs process is done.
3. Lay egg
To tested when to know the right time the female chameleon lays egg, you can add some land over the cage. Chameleon mama will get down to started digging a hole to placed their eggs. This process also called as nesting. When you found a hole in the cage, move the mama chameleon into place which make her more focused to laying egg. The important point in this place is of course sand which used to dig as nest. You better using loose soil as the base.
Chameleon using land like loose soil to incubate their eggs naturally. Don’t forget to add some plants, food, and drink water inside it. Install UV light and lamp to make them stay warm and absorb the energy and nutrition. Cover that place using wire. During move and laying eggs are around 3-7 days takes. It is different on every kind of chameleon there are shorter and longer so just be patient and still place food and drink for them. The egg which produced also different of each chameleon.
For Yemen Chameleon they can produce 40 eggs. The size and the color also different each other. Usually the eggs will cracked out perfectly after incubate for 4-12 month incubate. Once again it depends of the kind of chameleon.
Both Laying eggs and give birth
There is no different of heat point so we will directly jump into pregnancy point. The pregnancy and birth process will be in the one point because it similarly same so just make it simple.
- Pregnancy and give birth process.
The chameleon which breeds by both of laying eggs and give birth is passed the eggs process. It will keep inside until wrecked out but still inside of tummy. After the whole eggs cracked, the baby will be out by birth process. Actually even called birth, the chameleon baby which out by this process is still inside egg but it’s honestly the base pocket (yolk). This yolk is really sticky which used to stick them in the nest or tree. During embryo until it out in yolk usually takes for 5-7 months. The chameleon which using this method to breeding is Jackson Chameleon.