Morning I was wondering is it possible to over feed a chameleon. I have to books on them and never read about it. But recently I ran into some sites that say you should feed your cham. every other day 6-8 crickets. Which seems like a little for me. My female eats at least 12 a day. She goes when she needs to drinks and all. Thank YOU
Its a veiled Cham. and she's an adult about 1 1/2 to 2 years old. She eats great she eats what i give her and looks and acts healthy. She laid eggs about 2 months ago, but they were infertile, due to lack of male. I believe thats her second clutch now. she had about 18 of them.
At that age, 6-8 crickets/insects every other day is plenty. If you reduce the amount of food you are giving her, she will slow down on the egg production, and her life will be extended. Feeding a chameleon as much as it can eat every day could cause problems with some chameleons, but not all. Some chameleons will eat to gluttony.. some won't. Fat on a chameleon isn't good for it, just like fat on a human isn't.
So then they she can over eat I'll cut down on her food. I don't like skipping feeding so, is just give her 3-5 every day ok. Which is almost the same as 6-8 everyother day.
I think that would work alright. One of the things you should really try to aim for is reducing her feed enough that she doesn't lay eggs every three months. Egg laying is a drain on a female's system, and it can be at least partially controlled by diet. Since she is a pet and not a breeder, your goal should be a long, healthy life. It is my opinion that offering a small number of well gutloaded insects every day or every other day will do that.
Yeah I tried the skipping every day and it didn't work to well. She was out and about looking for food this morning. So i gave her 4 , and she was happy with that, which makes me happy as well. I have dragons and they well eat till they are full, i didn't know chams were different till the other day. But this should work great.
I forgot something So if I ever intended to breed a cham. Then would it be ok to feed them more often ( females). For future Knowledge the book I have didn't say anything about feeding everyother day or not.
If you plan to breed the chameleon, you still want to keep the food intake fairly low. Otherwise, veileds in particular will drop HUGE clutches, which is not good for them at all. Basically, keep the food low.. breed.. then increase the food so her body can develop those fertilized eggs. Once she lays her eggs, drop her back down again. Weight is very important for a breeding chameleon.. basically, an overfed chameleon will have a variety of problems. The females will develop larger clutches on a frequent basis, and will have a hard time laying them because of the weight.
Ok Got it. I did the math last night. On how much she took in this week on my little care sheet that I have. She consumed 60 crickets and that with having cut down on the last 3 days of the week. Once I added it all up yeah it seemed like alot. So I'll cut her down to 3-4 everyday and drop her consumtion down by half.
