Breeding Panther Chameleons

Today I talk about breeding panther chameleons. It isn’t that hard to get babies, but it is not easy to raise them properly. And selling them is a task all to itself! Hang tight because we are going to do an overview of the entire process!

Breeding chameleons and raising up babies is one of the most interesting experiences. But it is a lot of work and chameleons aren’t the easiest to breed and raise up if you do it properly. Now, doing an episode on breeding has always been a challenge for me because there are so many different aspects of breeding that I end up making an episode out of just one focused aspect. But in this episode I have committed to myself that I will keep it as a general overview to be able to touch on each stage and decision point in the entire breeding lifecycle.

When we think about breeding chameleons we tend to focus on breeding, then deal with baby care when they hatch and then think about marketing when they are ready to be sold.

Well, we are going to turn that all around! I know the first thing you want to hear in a panther chameleon breeding episode is how to get eggs. The good news and the bad news is that getting eggs is the easy part! But I am going to do this episode in the order someone starting off needs to think about breeding. Done right the experience is a whirlwind of activity, exhausting, and a little slice of heaven that you will remember as an incredible experience. Done wrong and it is a nightmare you never want to repeat.

So, let’s dive in, I have four items for you to plan and decide on before you put a male and female chameleon together.

1. Decide where you will sell the babies
2. Plan the Nursery 
3. Decide on the locale 
4. Select your bloodlines

Decide where you will sell the babies -The first thing to get out of the way before you do anything else is come up with a plan for where to sell the babies. I know that isn’t the glamorous part of breeding. You are envisioning living in a jungle populated with all these cute little things running around zapping fruit flies. I mean, that is what I love about breeding chameleons! Raising up chameleon babies is one of my favorite things to do. But they will have to go to new homes unless you are adding 30 adult cages to your home. Even if you decide you will sell them online it is important to make that decision because you will have figuring out shipping on your mind. If you plan on working with local pet stores or other breeders then you can broach the subject now. Would they buy from you? How much would they pay? The reason why this is so important to get out of the way now is that the #1 thing that makes breeding chameleons a nightmare you will never want to remember you did  is when your babies start getting too big for your small cages or, worse, if you are keeping them together, they start physically bullying each other. Having to keep your babies longer than you prepared for because you can’t sell them makes a fun project turn down a dark alley.

Plan the Nursery – The next thing is to design your baby nursery area. This is the tough part about raising chameleon because the responsible approach to raising baby chameleons is to raise them individually. This takes space. With around 30 eggs per female this is not an easy task. And, admittedly, most breeders do not do this. They take advantage of babies not being physically damaging in their dominance plays in the first couple months to raise them together and move them out before problems arise. But when you see the tell tale half-moon bite mark on the baby you purchased (which will be gone in a few sheds), or the nipped tail, you realize that raising babies together is a compromise to their health for our convenience. There will always be a hierarchy and members of the clutch which don’t grow as fast, are submissive, and will be bullied. I have done it both ways and I know first hand the sacrifices I am making those babies take for my convenience or lack of preparation. It can be done. With a little skill it can be done with no physical damage to the babies before they are sold. But the Chameleon Academy is about presenting the best of husbandry and group raising is not done for the benefit of the baby chameleons. And, even if it is the widespread practice, it needs to be openly acknowledged that it is a deliberately chosen compromise. You need to decide what kind of nursery you will set up before you go down the path of breeding chameleons. Do not follow in the steps of the former generation of breeders. If you are starting your breeding then you are part of the next generation of breeders that has a chance to build a breeding project better than what we did before. The community is becoming aware of the benefits of individual raising and that is becoming a marketable differentiator for you. It will set you above your competition and, some time in the future, the customers will demand this level of husbandry. If you are starting now you may as well be on the side of where we are going. I look forward to the day that individual raising is the standard and I can move on from this highly awkward position of almost apologizing for the nature of chameleons. But, honestly, we as a community should have never accepted group raising as acceptable in the first place. Yet, here we are having to go through a slow transition because we spent so much time teaching ourselves how to keep separating the baby chameleons into smaller and smaller groups to try and stay ahead of the bullying. And, all the while, convincing ourselves we knew what we were doing and telling ourselves we were giving the best care.  I am not saying that a group raised chameleon can’t be in good health and make a great pet. We have gotten very good at doing the separation thing. But we can’t present that as the standard to strive for. So, this is the challenge for you. Be part of the new generation that is growing up with best practices in mind. Established breeders have infrastructure and processes that they can’t just change around easily. So don’t burden yourself with their burden. Start off slow and start off right. You have at least six months to pull it all together. But before you do your first mating, have a firm plan as to what you will do as far as caging. 

Decide on the locale– One of the pleasures of working with panther chameleons is that there are so many different colors. The challenge is to pick one! And this is an important decision. I strongly suggest that you do not mix locales. I will leave the debate as to how that affects our community to another discussion. It is important, but right now I will focus on the challenge of selling the offspring with a mixed locale panther. If you are an established breeder with a name and a good reputation you will be able to do a mixed locale and may do very well. But for a first clutch, you will have a hard time getting people to trust what your mix will look like. Mixed females will be especially hard to place. There are so many incredible colors available. Pick one to start off with and stick within that locale for your first breeding experience.

Select your bloodlines- Selecting bloodlines may or may not be straightforward. You would like a pair which is not related. Often that isn’t hard as if you go with a major breeder they may have multiple bloodlines that they produce. It is easy to get exceptional genetics just by asking! I can tell you that it wasn’t always like this so enjoy! Just know that getting a male from one breeder and a female from another may not mean they are genetically different. You may be surprised how much breeders trade bloodlines. And with the huge number of breeders working with panther chameleons how few bloodlines we really have! Getting new blood from a Wild-caught is an option, but make sure that you know the locale. You can mostly tell the males from their color, but the females require either a genetic testing or to be proved out by seeing what her male offspring look like. The proving out can be a long process. So it isn’t a bad idea to get a spectacular wild caught male and a multigenerational female whose bloodlines are stellar. The one thing I will say is to not compromise on your breeding bloodlines. Get the best you can. You are going to be going through a long process and a lot of work and will be raising up 30 of these little dragons. It will be the same amount of work whether it is an unknown lineage from the discount table at the reptile show or the top lines from a well known breeder. The difference will be in your ability to sell them and your satisfaction with the babies you hold back.

Once you have made the decision that you are going to breed panther chameleons the very first thing to do is start your social media outreach. Wait, what? Babies aren’t due for another year and a half! Exactly, that should be enough time for you to get a social media account up and running and humming along by time you are ready to sell babies. And I am serious about this. You do not just open a social media account up and say “Babies for sale!” No one cares. They will buy from whomever they have developed a trust with. And that is why you are starting 12 to 18 months before you have babies to sell. Start an account now and bring people along with you as you set up. Share your breeding philosophies. Share your experiences. Let people go through the breeding process vicariously through you. Don’t come on as a business until you really are a business. Be human beings with a love for chameleons. When you start you will have no one following you. That is okay. It takes time to nail down your groove as far as social media. Be grateful that not many are watching you figure your social media self out. If you are good and approachable your following will grow. Remember, you have 12 to 18 months. Don’t worry if it starts slow. This is, one again, a whole podcast of its own, but you do have to be careful with social media in today’s world. Most of the major platforms, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube all have policies against selling animals. The policies are vague and so can be interpreted however they want. Facebook and Instagram are aggressively hostile towards breeders. Youtube and TikTok have not yet shown that they care to enforce. Really, it does come down to that they are willing to overlook what you are doing until someone complains. And we have a lot of complainers out there. So do not present yourself as a business breeder. Just show your progress and when the time comes to make sales you’ll have to shunt everyone interested to your email. Because they check your private messages on their platform as well. Now, there are two other options. I highly suggest you get an account on chameleonforums.com which is our longest running chameleon social media and where you can definitely sell your chameleons. Make this a top candidate for your time and effort to invest. This will get you in touch with the chameleon community and people interested in purchasing chameleons. The bonus is that they are very likely to know what they are doing. The other social media platform we are trying to get started is a photo sharing app called Vero. Many chameleon community people are there trying to start a settlement on a platform that does not have an express policy against us being breeders. There isn’t a whole lot of people there for the reptile community, but, hey, if you want to be adventurous I invite you to join us. Look me up under Bill Strand! So, get things started now and don’t be salesy. Earn your right to be salesy. Don’t worry…you have time. So, get a presence somewhere. chameleonforums.com and pick at least one of the others knowing the risk you take. We are all playing the game somewhat. I mean, me as a podcaster, I am not on their radar, but breeders are the cornerstone of our community and Chameleon Academy is all about building the community so I am sitting in squarely in their boat. All the people I teach about chameleon care won’t have anywhere to practice it if we don’t have our community of breeders. So, yes, this social media challenge is something I am 100% involved in. So, now is the time to start your accounts and I’ll get back to the chameleon set-up.

As far as housing, the male and female need to be in separate cages. At no time should the male and female be housed together for any reason besides a mating encounter. If the person you buy chameleons from says that they can be kept together. If the breeder you are thinking about buying from keeps their chameleons together – go somewhere else. I never liked the phrase “They are only doing it for the money” because that really isn’t usually true. What happens is that people love working with the chameleons, but they slide into a business mindset where they start seeing how much they can optimize the system for profit without a detrimental effect on production. And that is where it starts to go downhill. You as the customer are the ones that need to demand proper husbandry for the parents of the babies you buy because that directly affects the health of your baby.

But do not be convinced by anyone that keeping chameleons in the same cage is okay. People come up with the most amazing exceptions, but this is one where you know there are no exceptions. 

Panther chameleons are highly visual and I keep the females visually isolated from the males. 

Everything starts with the health of your chameleon. So, your breeding actually starts the second you have your chameleons. The nutrition and husbandry dictate how healthy the parents are and what nutrients the female can give to her eggs. Sure, there isn’t much the male puts into the equation, but he needs to be healthy enough for the female to consider him a good match. The health of your babies is dependent upon your husbandry long before you mate your two chameleons. And this is why it is worth it to purchase captive bred chameleons from a breeder that has cared for the parents. It all adds up.

Panthers will become sexually mature at different ages depending on how quickly they grow up. This is a combination of husbandry and genetics. Eight to 12 months old is a decent estimate.  I suggest waiting until they go through their color change to adult colors. The goal isn’t to mate them as soon as their bodies can handle it, but when they are large enough and stable enough in their growth for it to be the optimal time for the mother to go through the egg producing process. There isn’t a measurable number I can give you to determine this state. We aren’t necessarily clear on it ourselves. This is one of those things breeders feel is important, but can’t be fully defined. There is still a great amount of art involved in this. But the turning of adult colors is the when you have a pretty good idea that you can start seeing how they feel about it.

Once the panthers have changed to their adult colors you can consider putting them in eye shot to see what they do. I usually bring the female to the male’s cage. When they are not ready or receptive they may stare at each other not knowing what to do or, more likely, flatten and gape to scare away the intruder. This is the sign that you need to come back and try another day. When the male is ready he will start bobbing his head and making his way towards the female. When the female is receptive she will not threaten him and will calmly allow him to approach her. She will retain her calm colors of a tannish or dull pinkish color. If she fires up in color or attitude (and usually both) you know it is a no go. I just keep trying. Eventually she allows him to climb on top of her and they will copulate for 15 or so minutes. If the copulation is not successful, which is not uncommon when it is his first time, I will leave them together under supervision and they will often try again. He eventually gets it. Some breeders will leave the pair together for a couple of days or until she makes it clear she has had enough of him. I, personally, remove her as soon as a positive mating has occurred.

Once you have a mating you have about 30 days before eggs will be laid. During these 30 days it is your job to treat her extra special. She needs to be visually isolated from any other chameleon and needs her privacy. She immediately gets put on the all-you-can-eat program where you provide a variety of feeders that are well gut loaded every day. You can keep the same supplementation schedule as before. Just go to feeding every day and as much as she will eat. Make sure your hydration husbandry is on point because she is also preparing for a tough dig day. Keep an eye out for her to start exploring the cage around the 30 day mark. This is her looking for a suitable laying site.

The nice thing about female panther chameleons is that they are easy egg layers. They are not picky about their laying site and they are just as likely to decide to lay their eggs in a potted plant as they are the specially prepared laying bin you slaved over to make just right. When she is ready to lay she may pace the cage for a couple of days. She will give a sense of being restless. When she has found an acceptable place she will start digging. This usually happens in the morning as it could take many hours for her to dig the hole out, lay the eggs, and fill the hole back up. Her branch grabbing mitts don’t move much earth.

Despite the good chance she will pick the nearest potted plant, I always try and provide a laying bin. This is any large plastic container which I put in 4” to 5” of 50% sand/50% soil mixture. I don’t want to give any deeper than 4-5” because she is looking for a hard surface to lay against and she very well may dig to the bottom of the container to find it. Chameleons were not designed to tunnel and tunnels can collapse. The idea that chameleons need a deep laying bin is an error in our interpretation of what we see. We saw chameleons dig to the bottom of the bucket and interpreted that as they wanted to dig deep. The reality is that they were looking for a hard surface to lay against and they were being forced to dig way deeper than they wanted. In the wild chameleons dig only deep enough that when they turn and are depositing the eggs, their head is sticking out of the hole. This is how deep they expect to find a packed layer of earth. So don’t give them more than 5”. And expect there to be controversy on this. People don’t like to change what they have been doing for years and years. Instead of changing they like to double down on insisting the old ways are the best. And this is what I mean by you not taking on the burdens of the past. Find any picture of a chameleon laying eggs in the wild and you will see what I mean. Don’t believe it because I said it. Believe it because that is what you see in the wild. And it works. I often like to use a clear plastic container that I wrap a dark trash bag around so she can lay without seeing light come through her hole. And then I sprinkle a light layer of sand on the surface. The light layer of sand will be disturbed where she dug her hole and when I remove the trash bag I will usually be able to see the eggs clumped together against the side.

If she started late and night is falling you can let her sleep in her hole as long as it is safe and not going to fall in on her.

When she is done digging she will turn around and start laying eggs. A typical clutch will be around 30 eggs. It will be more or less depending on her body size. When she is done she will methodically fill the hole back up and then climb into the trees ready for the pampering you will give her.

So, what happens when things don’t go perfectly? You may find that she digs test holes before laying. This is okay. Don’t worry about that.  Even if that happens for a couple days. I use that as a sign to provide alternatives to see what can make her happy. The warning signs you are looking for that things are not going well are when she starts resting during the day with her eyes closed. At that point it is a difficult decision. The absolute best scenario is where she lays the eggs herself. But you may need vet intervention if there are closed eyes. 

Through out the entire egg laying process – and this starts when she starts to pace the cage – she needs privacy. Being on the ground and laying eggs is a very vulnerable position for her to be in all day. So she will be easily spooked. That is the last thing you want when she is thinking about laying eggs so consider putting up visual barriers around the cage to give her that sense of security.

Yu ca. learn more about making the ultimate laying bin at this link Creating the Ultimate Chameleon Egg Laying Bin or listen to the podcast episode in the embedded player below.

Panther eggs do pretty well incubating at general room temperature. You could literally take the laying bin or potted plant and put it in another cage and do incubation like that. The most common practice is to dig the eggs out and lay them 1/2” apart in a bed of vermiculite or perlite. I use vermiculite that is moistened so that when I pinch the vermiculite I have moisture on my fingers, but not a drop of water. There is communication between the eggs and if they are kept together they tend to hatch at the same time. This allows them all to use the same hole being dug to get out and when they disperse all at once there is a better chance of some of them escaping predators who notice the sudden explosion of snacks. When they are incubated apart each egg will hatch on their own. There is debate as to which is better, but since both work I will say you are welcome to do either and I am confident you will have success.

Panther Chameleon eggs hatch between 7 to 12 months when incubated in the mid 70s. Many people use the closet method where they just put the eggs in the closet or under the bed. You can use an incubator if you can find a cooling incubator. Some people make one out of a wine cooler. Breeders have found that a diapause, where you have a significant cooling period, can help control the timing of egg hatching, but this is not necessary for panther eggs to hatch. Other species will not hatch without the diapause. Luckily, panther eggs are surprisingly flexible.

Healthy eggs will be a bright white. And now you know why we are so big on giving calcium! There may be staining from the dirt. If you see translucent patches, this is where there was not enough calcium to finish the job, but they should still hatch under our protected conditions. If any eggs are infertile they will soon turn yellow, shriveling, or start molding up. These should be discarded. If in doubt, incubate. If it isn’t obviously dead and does’t have mold on it then continue to incubate it. One of the consequences of not using a diapause is that some eggs won’t get the signal to mature and they may take 12 months or more to hatch. As long as they do not have mold on them keep incubating!

Okay, there is your overview of the breeding process! Whew! And, yeah, I have a list of all the podcast episodes and webpages I need to make!

But it really isn’t that hard. The hardest part is setting up the infrastructure to raise babies the right way. It is a lot of work but, being totally honest here, you will not make money on your first clutch. Free yourself from that expectation. Have it in your mind that this is all about the experience and do it right so it is a good experience. You can make money selling panther chameleons, but the first clutch or two are to pay for the infrastructure. If you want to breed once for the experience then do so without expectation of making money. Yes, you will sell them, but be okay with not making money overall. Now if you set up the infrastructure right, and you now have a loyal fan base on social media, you might decide to do it again. And maybe that clutch finishes paying for the infrastructure. So if you have a longer term patience and vision this could lead to a legitimate side business that has the chance to pay for itself and buy your spouse dinner to compensate for the time you spilt 1000 crickets in the kitchen.

So, my advice in summary

1. go into this well prepared and answer the four questions I asked in the beginning
2. Pay what it takes to get the best possible breeder stock. It will make selling easier and that will make this a happier project for you.
3. Decide how you want to put together your individual cages. From $10 butterfly mesh cubes to $125 dollar nursery cages the options run the gamut. But, raise them separately
4. Start your social media presence long before you are selling anything.
5. Do this with your family. And if they are not interested, then make sure you use some of the sales money to take them to a good dinner or fun day outing. And, if you plan on breeding again, dump the rest into building better infrastructure for your next clutch of babies.

And there you go, 18 months in 45 minutes. Breeding chameleons is an incredible experience. Just do it right.

But, let’s get back to the mother! Once the eggs are laid she needs to be given extra special attention. Give her a nice long hydration cycle and keep with the everyday feeding of as much as she will eat for another week or two. You should be able to tell how quickly she is bouncing back just by how she looks and her behavior. Sometimes they bounce back like it was nothing and sometimes it took a little bit more out of them. And continue with the privacy while she rests up.

And now is your time to prepare your nursery. You have six or so months to get the cages and lights and misting and fogging. Whatever you decided! You know how many eggs you have so you know how much you need to buy. And now is the time to do it. There may be lead times on cages and lights so do not wait until they hatch to order and get cranky when everything isn’t sitting on the shelf waiting for you to order. Order now and get it set up and running by the five month mark. And somewhere around the five month mark you need to start thinking about starting your fruit fly and bean beetle colonies. They take a little while to get going and you will be needing a lot! The larger fruit fly, Drosophila hydei is a good one, but they can take the smaller D. melanogaster if that is all you have.

Okay, reminder about the social media platforms. You should be documenting every part of this process and bringing your followers along with your project. You are letting them feel like they are a part of it. And it will mean so much more to them to be able to get a baby from the chameleons they watched grow up and celebrated with you when they mated and laid eggs. Yes, this builds up to you having people who will want to buy your babies, but this is also a genuine sharing of a very cool experience. Keep it real and keep it genuine.

During incubation the eggs will grow in size. You will know the time of hatching is upon you when you start to see beads of water on the surface of the egg. Next there will be a star shape cut out on the end and a baby will crawl itself out. Soon you will have babies crawling all over the place. This can all happen in a day so you need to be checking in on your eggs every day after the five month mark.

During incubation the eggs will grow in size. You will know the time of hatching is upon you when you start to see beads of water on the surface of the egg. Next there will be a star shape cut out on the end and a baby will crawl itself out. Soon you will have babies crawling all over the place. This can all happen in a day so you need to be checking in on your eggs every day after the five month mark.

Hopefully you have your cages ready to go and can transfer your babies right into their new home. The key to successful caging is that you offer gradients even if working in a small space. This means they can get in and out of the heat, UVB, and high/low humidity. There is a movement towards using bioactive enclosures for raising baby chameleons which create a miniature environment.

The babies may not eat for 24 hours as they have nutrition from the egg. But I offer anyways because some come out ready to chow down.

When it comes to feeding babies, make sure there is always food. Their job is to grow as fast and they can and it is your job to give them the building blocks to do that. Fruit flies can be kept inside the baby cage by providing a small cup of banana, orange, or other fruit. They will just congregate around the fruit and won’t bother trying to leave the cage. It may even bring in wild fruit flies which will just provide extra nutrition. I get mine on crickets as soon as possible as that will bulk them up quicker than fruit flies

The babies may not eat for 24 hours as they have nutrition from the egg. But I offer anyways because some come out ready to chow down.

When it comes to feeding babies, make sure there is always food. Their job is to grow as fast and they can and it is your job to give them the building blocks to do that. Fruit flies can be kept inside the baby cage by providing a small cup of banana, orange, or other fruit. They will just congregate around the fruit and won’t bother trying to leave the cage. It may even bring in wild fruit flies which will just provide extra nutrition. I get mine on crickets as soon as possible as that will bulk them up quicker than fruit flies

I supplement my babies with the same regimen as I do adults. Some breeders wait for a couple of months before they start supplementing and I, personally, do not see a difference in outcome so take your pick.

Babies will thrive in the same environmental conditions as the adults. The difference is that their little bodies cannot handle the extremes as well and they cannot take as much energy. So, you can use the same temperature and humidity levels of the adults, but you need to use bulb strengths that are proportional to the cage size. For example, a T5 UVB light is perfect for the 4’ tall enclosure, but could be too powerful for your baby cage. Here is where a knowledge of how to use UVB lights comes in handy. A T8 5.0 or CFL might be the right tool for setting up baby cages depending on how much space you have above the cage to lift the bulb and fixture.

And then there comes selling. And, yes, every single one of those husbandry paragraphs I just went over could easily be an entire podcast’s worth of detailed information. But I promised you and myself that this would be a summary episode so we could touch on every part of the breeding process!

If you are giving the baby panthers the right husbandry and they are in their own cages you will see a quick growth. You should sell them when they are large enough to be well started and obviously well on their way to being a young adult. Under proper conditions this is often around the three month mark. You will get a sense for when they seem ready to go to a new home. And if you have them in separate cages you will get to know each one of them and will be able to have a feel for whether they are ready or not. Individual keeping has the side effect that you get to know each of them personally and can give each specialized care. And so there is no reason why the ones hatched smaller can’t all catch up to the largest hatchlings. You end up with a clutch of alphas. That is a good thing when it comes to selling!

If you have been documenting the project from the beginning you very well may have a dedicated audience that has, by this time, purchased each one of your babies and are waiting for them to be ready to be shipped out. By keeping them individually you can name them as they show their personalities and introduce them to your digital audience. People will gravitate to certain ones that show certain personalities. ‘But you may be able to send them to good homes without having to sit on the street corner with a cardboard sign saying chameleons for sale. This is the power of starting 18 months ago and growing with your audience. 

Babies will thrive in the same environmental conditions as the adults. The difference is that their little bodies cannot handle the extremes as well and they cannot take as much energy. So, you can use the same temperature and humidity levels of the adults, but you need to use bulb strengths that are proportional to the cage size. For example, a T5 UVB light is perfect for the 4’ tall enclosure, but could be too powerful for your baby cage. Here is where a knowledge of how to use UVB lights comes in handy. A T8 5.0 or CFL might be the right tool for setting up baby cages depending on how much space you have above the cage to lift the bulb and fixture.

And then there comes selling. And, yes, every single one of those husbandry paragraphs I just went over could easily be an entire podcast’s worth of detailed information. But I promised you and myself that this would be a summary episode so we could touch on every part of the breeding process!

If you are giving the baby panthers the right husbandry and they are in their own cages you will see a quick growth. You should sell them when they are large enough to be well started and obviously well on their way to being a young adult. Under proper conditions this is often around the three month mark. You will get a sense for when they seem ready to go to a new home. And if you have them in separate cages you will get to know each one of them and will be able to have a feel for whether they are ready or not. Individual keeping has the side effect that you get to know each of them personally and can give each specialized care. And so there is no reason why the ones hatched smaller can’t all catch up to the largest hatchlings. You end up with a clutch of alphas. That is a good thing when it comes to selling!

If you have been documenting the project from the beginning you very well may have a dedicated audience that has, by this time, purchased each one of your babies and are waiting for them to be ready to be shipped out. By keeping them individually you can name them as they show their personalities and introduce them to your digital audience. People will gravitate to certain ones that show certain personalities. ‘But you may be able to send them to good homes without having to sit on the street corner with a cardboard sign saying chameleons for sale. This is the power of starting 18 months ago and growing with your audience. 

Shipping is something that makes anyone doing it for the first time nervous. But chameleons are safely shipped all the time. When they get sealed up in the box they go to sleep in the dark. I have an episode all about shipping chameleons and I will refer you to that one. But know that it isn’t that hard and you can do it. In fact, chances are you got a chameleon shipped to you. Take a look at how they came in. That is your packing example!

Okay, there is your overview of the breeding process! Whew! And, yeah, I have a list of all the podcast episodes and webpages I need to make!

But it really isn’t that hard. The hardest part is setting up the infrastructure to raise babies the right way. It is a lot of work but, being totally honest here, you will not make money on your first clutch. Free yourself from that expectation. Have it in your mind that this is all about the experience and do it right so it is a good experience. You can make money selling panther chameleons, but the first clutch or two are to pay for the infrastructure. If you want to breed once for the experience then do so without expectation of making money. Yes, you will sell them, but be okay with not making money overall. Now if you set up the infrastructure right, and you now have a loyal fan base on social media, you might decide to do it again. And maybe that clutch finishes paying for the infrastructure. So if you have a longer term patience and vision this could lead to a legitimate side business that has the chance to pay for itself and buy your spouse dinner to compensate for the time you spilt 1000 crickets in the kitchen.

So, my advice in summary

1. go into this well prepared and answer the four questions I asked in the beginning
2. Pay what it takes to get the best possible breeder stock. It will make selling easier and that will make this a happier project for you.
3. Decide how you want to put together your individual cages. From $10 butterfly mesh cubes to $125 dollar nursery cages the options run the gamut. But, raise them separately
4. Start your social media presence long before you are selling anything.
5. Do this with your family. And if they are not interested, then make sure you use some of the sales money to take them to a good dinner or fun day outing. And, if you plan on breeding again, dump the rest into building better infrastructure for your next clutch of babies.

And there you go, 18 months in 45 minutes. Breeding chameleons is an incredible experience. Just do it right.