About how much does a gravid jackson chameleon weigh
- Thread starter jackNjill
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xanthoman
Avid Member
the importance of a scale
kind of hard to give a specific answer to that question. it would depend largely on the non gravid size and starting weight of the cham in question, and the length of time she has been gravid, and also the # of young that she is carrying. a female that started out as 60g before being gravid, is likely to weigh significantly less than one that started out at 90g (assuming all else was equal), but a smaller one that was carrying an unusually high #of young (say 35) could probably end up weighing more at full term than one that started at 90g and was carrying an unusually low #of young (say 10). one thing is for certain, a healthy gravid female, carrying a healthy clutch, will gain a significant weight each week, which will increase expotentially each week as her term progresses. it is pretty much the norm for a healthy gravid female (carrying a healthy clutch) to gain at least a couple of grams a week during late term (probably several). i have never weighed any during the last two weeks of their term, because its not good to stress or disturb them during that time, but i have had late term gravid females that weighed from 90-150g. one of the better ways of determining the progression of a clutch would be to know the starting weight and then do weekly weighings. if a female known to be gravid was gaining weight on a regular basis, and then suddenly stopped gaining weight mid term, that would be a likely indicator of a problem with the clutch. this is not only true of gravid females, but chameleons in general. often times, unusual weight gain or loss for no appearent reason, is a sign of things to come. often times a chameleon will display unexplained changes in weight, before other health problems become evident, so, imo, knowing your chams weight and weekly or at least bi-weekly weighings are just a part of good husbandry practice, whether dealing with a gravid female or not. jmo
kind of hard to give a specific answer to that question. it would depend largely on the non gravid size and starting weight of the cham in question, and the length of time she has been gravid, and also the # of young that she is carrying. a female that started out as 60g before being gravid, is likely to weigh significantly less than one that started out at 90g (assuming all else was equal), but a smaller one that was carrying an unusually high #of young (say 35) could probably end up weighing more at full term than one that started at 90g and was carrying an unusually low #of young (say 10). one thing is for certain, a healthy gravid female, carrying a healthy clutch, will gain a significant weight each week, which will increase expotentially each week as her term progresses. it is pretty much the norm for a healthy gravid female (carrying a healthy clutch) to gain at least a couple of grams a week during late term (probably several). i have never weighed any during the last two weeks of their term, because its not good to stress or disturb them during that time, but i have had late term gravid females that weighed from 90-150g. one of the better ways of determining the progression of a clutch would be to know the starting weight and then do weekly weighings. if a female known to be gravid was gaining weight on a regular basis, and then suddenly stopped gaining weight mid term, that would be a likely indicator of a problem with the clutch. this is not only true of gravid females, but chameleons in general. often times, unusual weight gain or loss for no appearent reason, is a sign of things to come. often times a chameleon will display unexplained changes in weight, before other health problems become evident, so, imo, knowing your chams weight and weekly or at least bi-weekly weighings are just a part of good husbandry practice, whether dealing with a gravid female or not. jmo
