Reproduction
They are ovoviviparous, meaning that they give live birth. Once mature I house one male and female together in an enclosure. Males “fire up” their color and approach the female performing an agitated “dance” in front of the female which consists of sporadic muscle spasms and their tail curved upwards towards their head like a scorpion. If the female is receptive, she will allow him to approach and caress her eventually allowing him to mount. If she is not receptive, she will violently wag her tail, thrashing it from side to side and move off. She may also change her color as well as raise her dorsal crest or inflate her throat when unreceptive. Males do not appear to be as aggressive during breeding attempts as other species of lizards I have breed. Meaning that they give up easily when presented with the “I am not ready” displays and they do not bite the neck to hold the female in place, instead placing their chin on the neck or head to guide her.
Once successfully bred, it is easy to tell when a female is gravid as they get obviously, to the point of looking painful, large, and distended. Once the female nears the time to give birth, she will spend most of her time at the base of a branch close to the ground or on the ground choosing to deposit the young there. Once born, the young climb their way up into the branches of the enclosure. They are more uniform in shades of brown, blending into the branches, than their parents taking about a month to begin developing their colors, which increase with age. I have had litters ranging in size from 1 to 7 currently, with the average being 5, and have heard a record of 11 babies in one litter. The larger the litter and the size of the female, as with most reptiles, determines the size of the babies born. Regardless they are tiny when born.