 Introduction and Cohabitation of Melleri Pairs or Groups
Melleri Signals Upon Introduction
Pair outdoors, drinking/ photo courtesy K. Francis |
Receptive and Compatible
Female: sleeping color or solid “army” green, no spotting, back is concave/hollowed, belly is soft and draped over the perch, slow-motion “chase me” behavior, perching near and touching the male.
Male: black and white courtship color (hints of yellow in the white stripes and some show blue on their cheeks, yellow and blue lipstick), holding body up off the perch, flipping occipital flaps, nodding head, brief lateral compression of body followed by a slow approach and chase, then stopping when female changes signals, perching and basking near the female.
Aggressive and Dangerous
Female: black and yellow striped submissive color growing blacker, black spotting, swaying, hissing, occipital flaps held upright or flipping, gaping mouth, gular (throat) puffing, running away, charging the other animal, attempted bites, butting with the head to the other animal’s head and ribs, branch shaking, tail thrashing, jumping or dropping to the floor.
Male: courtship color, solid black stress color, heavy black spotting, actions of the aggressive female above.
This is the experience of member Kristina Francis:
By the time my male melleri was about two years old, he had become a terrible roamer. He wandered constantly and pawed house and enclosure walls, so the stress was taking a toll on his health. He had a varied and nutritious diet, natural sunlit outdoor cage and a cool indoor free-range set-up, his own humidifier, regular vet attention, everything except one thing. I had read of how male chameleons can live better, longer lives when they have mates. I purchased a female sight-unseen over the Internet, roughly the same age. Since small changes in their captive environment can turn chameleons around, I felt it was worth trying. It turned out to be the key to his recovery and peace of mind.
One week after her arrival, I showed her to the male via a makeshift blind to avoid stressing her. The male was perched on my glove and he showed submissive color (black and yellow increase) and watched her with both eye turrets. I stood 20’ away and only allowed him to see her for a couple minutes.
The next week, I let him bask in his outdoor 12’ Ficus benjamina while I walked into the yard with the female on my glove, no closer than 30’ from the base of his tree at any time. She was still under quarantine, so going any closer was not warranted. I stood still when she started vibrating, and watched as the male, across the yard, whipped his head around and started full courtship display. He turned black and white and flicked his occipital flaps excitedly. The female vibrated several bursts, with pauses between. Perhaps she was receiving the infrasonic communications from the male? She showed a mild warning posture (momentary gular puff and one flap raised and lowered) and then showed receptive coloration and posture. For once, the chameleons ignored the human in their midst, they were staring at each other with interest. I knew then that I had a proper gender pair. The male’s condition improved daily, as if he remembered there was a female nearby and this eased a stress-immune problem. I imagine he was receiving her vibrations all the way down the hall.
I gave them a break from seeing each other for a full month. Later, I reintroduced them at a distance, once a week, for several weeks. When the female was clean of parasites, the male had recovered from his own illness. They were showing mutual receptivity, no threat gestures, so I started experimenting with indoor introduction. This involved close quarters and close observation. They seemed most relaxed when the male was introduced to the female’s territory. This also made sense, since the female stayed in her trees and the male roamed. Their exposure sessions extended from minutes to hours, and one day I got distracted and forgot to separate them for the night. They had roosted side-by-side, elbows touching, when they could have chosen any number of individual sleeping perches. They stayed this way until their morning feeding.
Three months after her arrival, they started cohabitating in the female’s free-range set up. I added the male’s trees to hers to give them even more cover and perches. They have been together, with the exception of her gravid weeks, since 2001. They are healthy, shed regularly, and eat with vigor. I have measured the female’s tongue shot at 25” (she is only 19” total length). The female cycles without complication each year, but there were no fertile eggs until they were both four years old. She lays one clutch annually. The male has never roamed since, he now has a reason to stay in the territory and guard against any rivals. Incidentally, I have experimented with introducing a melleri replica, and both chameleons move quickly in unison to oust the invader. Apparently, male and female mutually own and defend this territory.
With long-term cohabitation, an experienced keeper will notice when one animal is keeping the other from eating its fair share, or getting its time in the basking spots. Knowing the animals as individuals and staying alert to any changes are vital for successful cohabitation.
Pair sleeping/ photo courtesy K. Francis |
A couple years later, I hatched and raised the above pair's offspring. I experimented with a large group, several small groups of 4-5, and separating individuals into opaque containers. The best feeding responses occurred when all were housed in one very large enclosure together. Out of the original 50, I kept a small group. Four of these are cohabitating still, at over a year of age, and are among the largest in the total clutch. They continue to show clumping behavior to roost, drink, and bask, even with separate basking stations in their cage, plus mist nozzles. Wherever one is, the others follow. These CBs will be paired off with unrelated mates at puberty (approx. 18-24 months old). Each day, I watch and listen for signs of rejection, just in case; one can never be too careful with cohabitation.
Cohabitating chameleons that accept each other is risky in itself. It is not something a novice keeper should attempt. Parasites and disease may spread between animals that are in the same enclosure, so if something happens to one, the other will also need treatment. One vet bill will be doubled or tripled, depending on how many chameleons live together. If you are considering cohabitation to reduce costs of equipment or lighting, think again! Each cohabitation enclosure must have enough basking spotlights to avoid competition and give them options. We have witnessed that cohabitation is useful for breeding and for stimulating feeding response in neonate melleri. We have reasons to believe it has further psychological and developmental benefits for melleri. However, it is not for every individual chameleon, not for all species, and certainly not for all keepers. Cohabitation is not a method to save on labor, space, money, energy, or equipment. If anything, it takes more of all!
Some WC melleri are imported with an aberrant destructive behavior that cannot be trained out of them. These melleri are called "Biters", or "tail biters". A Biter will purposefully hunt, wrestle, and mutilate or eat any other chameleon's tail it can reach. Only the tail is the target. It appears to be an inherited tendency, as a normally passive WC juvenile spontaneously adopted the behavior as it entered puberty.1 It has been reported in an adult WC female, who would savagely bite her mate's tail whenever introduced for courtship.2 The evidence of other WC Biters exists as the bite marks seen on the tails of WCs at importation. One Biter can do a lot of damage in a crowded holding cage. It is necessary to house a Biter in solitary for the safety of other melleri, and perhaps cull from breeding altogether, to avoid the temperament from being passed on. The Biter trait has not yet been found in CB melleri, but we have no data of known Biters successfully breeding. It could be a recessive mental disorder that naturally de-selects itself by ruining or discouraging courtship. Normal melleri that are not Biters, but mistake a tail tip for a prey item, spit it out and do not repeat the offense. Biters do repeat, every chance they get. The good news is that Biters can be sweet and harmless single pets for keepers, perfectly safe to handle and hand-feed, because fingers are not tails.
Can you find the 4 blue-green yearlings clustered in this Schefflera? /photo K. Francis |
They appear to actively seek contact security. Note the healthy, mellow colors. / photo K. Francis |
Three baskers take offense at the camera. / photo K. Francis |
They have a 6' wide cage, but choose to clump together. / photo K. Francis |
They still think they are small enough to share a branch. / photo K. Francis |
Mr. Skelton of the Bristol Zoo in the UK reports that the zoo's 2005 CH melleri, both those raised in solitary and in groups, have excellent health.
1. pers. exp. Kristina Francis, 11/2006
2. reported by a melleri keeper at the Hamburg, PA Show 4/2006
3. pers. comm. October 20th, 2006
Here are some suggestions for recreating this peaceful cohabitation in your collection:
Know your animals as individuals. Do not push your animals into situations they seem nervous about. Nervous animals can panic and attack each other.
- Watch their eyes, postures, and colors. Allow them time to vibrate (communicate via infrasonic frequencies) at each other and identify themselves this way. Stop the introduction the second you sense stress in either animal.
- When you see passive (sleep) colors, allow the animals increasingly longer durations of visits. Gradually, bring them closer together.
- Wear long-cuffed gloves to protect yourself from claws and to safely separate animals in case of a fight. If you are reading their body language properly, you will not find yourself forced to be referee. Just in case, be prepared for a sudden change of mood.
- Hand-feed the animals simultaneously. Do not encourage jealousy or food competition. A bold melleri will shoot the prey in front of another, and you don’t want a possible two-tongue injury or a fight. Some individuals can even grow jealous of the animal getting more attention from the keeper.
- Listen for sudden rustling of leaves. This may be a warning tail thrash or a sudden charge.
- Be very patient, and know that some proper gender pairs will always be incompatible. Melleri are individuals and they may not take a liking to each other, just as with people. If a single melleri in a cohabitating pair goes off feed or water, or shows stress, immediately separate the animals.
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