Chameleon Breeding Strategies

Chameleon mounts

The question about chameleons breeding is quite popular one. No wonder it is: chameleons are still pretty rare, especially the ones of high generation.

So, how to build your own chameleon mount flock?

Obtaining the very first chameleon

Chameleon capacity unlike others can’t appear randomly, therefore first of all at least one mount with this capacity is needed. At the moment it’s not hard to buy a breedable chameleon in Bonta sellrooms. I would recommend to get a low generation, preferably male, one. There are several reasons why at the initial stage low generation (for example, ginger) mounts are better:

• they are cheap;
• they are much faster to train;
• male mounts are better than female because they don’t have to wait for the next mating till their chickens hatch;
• low generation mounts can be comfortably bred in public paddocks.

Laying the foundation

The next step is fast increase of chameleon mounts number. At this stage the quantity is much more important than quality, i.e. specific breed or purity of the line. The best available option are ginger and almond mounts: they have the shortest pregnancy time, do not require expensive machines to train, and can be made fertile in a couple of days of lazy breeding in public paddocks.

The end of this phase depends on the size of the flock in whole (chameleons and non-chameleons), breeding plans, and number of available breeding slots. However, I believe it is better to have at least five ginger or almond female chameleons before moving further.

For those who do not purify the lines and mate mounts randomly it may be a good idea to mate low generation female chameleons with higher generation mounts right from the beginning. And male chameleons in this case should be mated with low generation females for the faster results.

Chameleon rainbow

With five-ten female chameleons the foundation of the chameleon flock is solid enough to proceed to the next stage — obtaining chameleons of the desired colours. There is not much to say about it, the process is the same as for regular mounts, except the chances to succeed are much lower.

Here the breeder may choose one of two ways: to purify chameleons or not to. Both ways have their pros and cons.

Pure breeds

Pros:

• guaranteed colour of the chickens
• higher sale price if sold breedable even for low generation breeds
• eaiser to breed for capacities if the lines are already purified

Cons:

• hard to obtain (purebred mounts are rarely sold on the market and usually have to be obtained by breeding)
• require more time for breeding as can be mated only with other purebred mounts
• very hard to breed for capacities at the initial stages when purifying is required
• high time and effort investments needed
• private paddocks are required for commercial breeding of high generation mounts

“Interesting” pedigree

Pros:

• faster to breed as can be mate with whatever partner is ready
• can be mated with low generation females who have shorter pregnancy period

Cons:

• no control over the colour of the chickens — breeding becomes a gamble
• lower sale prices on breedable mounts
• extremely low probability to obtain a mount with certain capacity and colour
• high number of low profit mounts

Purified lines give more reliable and predictable results, but require much more time and effort. Mounts with mixed ancestor trees provide faster results, but tend to surprise the breeder.

It’s up to a breeder to choose the strategy that suits the best.