Am I underfeeding?

[tipposan]

I know this is kind of question is very vague and is affected by many different factors but I thought that I would ask as there doesn't seem to be much improvements since we got him.

I noticed that we are able to see his ribs the majority of times, especially in the morning.


pascaaalliieee by closhusan, on Flickr

When we got him, we were feeding him about 3 crickets a day. Since he is still pretty small (body about 3"), we went with a smaller cricket. I didn't think he could handle bigger.

Today, I put 6 crikets in (just to finsh them), and he took one just as it came out of the bag.

Am I underfeeding him or do I need to get larger crickets?

 

[ChameleonNerd]

his body is 3 inches from nose to.. vent?

and how large are these crickets?

 

[tipposan]

his body is 3 inches from nose to.. vent?

and how large are these crickets?

Yep, from nose to vent, about 3 inches.

Crickets are about 1/2 inch or smaller.

 

[ChameleonNerd]

i would say those are appropriate sized crickets if he is not having any trouble getting them down. whether you are truly underfeeding, i do not know, but he looks incredibly healthy, but it would be good if he gained a little bit of weight.. healthy either way. what is your basking temperature, does he bask a lot, and how often does he poop?

 

[BugCatcher]

How long have you had thus cham for? Looks just a bit skinny, otherwise looks good. I'd say 3 a day is too little. I'd up that to at the very least double, or even more really. How old is he? At 3" I'd say 4 months or so...

 

[tipposan]

How long have you had thus cham for? Looks just a bit skinny, otherwise looks good. I'd say 3 a day is too little. I'd up that to at the very least double, or even more really. How old is he? At 3" I'd say 4 months or so...

Not sure of the age.

Only had him since Christmas.

I thought I would try some larger crickets (these are about 3/4 - 1") and some vitamins.

Gave him 3 dusted with a multivitamin. Only saw him eat one then he went to bed.

I gave him the smaller of the lots cause I was concerned about it being too big for him. Now that I see he can take them, I will keep with this size.

Also looking into gutloading the crickets before using them.

 

[ChameleonNerd]

do you leave crickets in his cage to freely roam overnight? ...if so, major no-no

 

[pssh]

Definitely gutload. It's incredibly important as is supplementing properly.

The cheeks look a little sunken in. It might just be the angle, but in my experience, if the cheeks are sunken in it needs to be fed more.

Seeing ribs is not a good method of indication as they often have them showing because of the way they are built.

I'll let others chime in.

 

[Elizadolots]

You can see the ribs in a healthy chameleon...we're used to mammals where there's a fat layer over the ribs, but that's not the case with a healthy chameleon.

He's really pretty and that's a great picture.

 

[kinyonga]

Its tail is round so its not likely being underfed.

 

[Cainschams]

Its tail is round so its not likely being underfed.

That is what I thought.

It is more than likely a WC so you will want to get a fecal done and treat for possible parasites.

Not all chameleons are heavy bodied so not all will look like most of the panthers and some other chams on here. Not to mention there are a lot of overfed chams on here so be leery of which animals you are basing looks from. IMO its best to have a slightly underfed cham than an obese one!! I think your cham looks pretty good.

As for other husbandry, if you could fill the "how to ask for help" form in the health clinic it would help others see if everything is in order

 

[sirenianlove]

I have 2 veiled chameleons that I got for Christmas and they're probably close to 4 months old. I've been feeding them every night atleast 20 (10 each) or more crickets and they'll gobble all of them up! The crickets are 1/4" - anything larger and they seem to have a harder time and they'll not even attempt to eat them. Maybe I'm overfeeding but I read when they're younger to feed as much as they'll eat in a 15-30 min timespan. I too can still see the ribs of my chameleons sometimes but I don't believe I'm underfeeding. They seem to change their size alot - one minute they're all puffed up and another they'll stretch out and look really skinny. These are my first chameleons so I'm still learning. I've got tons of other reptiles/amphibians, but venturing into chameleons now

 

[Samsonsfrogs]

I would recommend to feed during the day, not the night. Also, chameleons are slender. They puff up to warn off predators, and to absorb as much uvb, heat from their light source.

 

[sirenianlove]

I know I should feed them earlier than what I do but I work from 9am-8pm almost every day of the week (2 jobs!).. but I try to feed as soon as I can each day.

 

[ryanra22]

So how exactly do you know how much to feed? I've read that you should feed juvenile chams about 10 crickets per day and that once they get older you can start offering some other things like silkworms, dubias, etc.

So I would just follow that format, but how are you supposed to really gauge how much is enough/not enough when they get older?

p.s. in case anyone is worried I'm killing my cham I don't have one yet! Just reading through the forums and doing some serious research before I take the plunge

 

[BocaJan]

My 4 month old veileds get 5 3/4 or adult size crickets in the morning when I get up. It doesn't take any time at all to give them some water, toss in some gut loaded crickets that are dusted and go to work. 5 or 6 minutes is all it takes. They will have them eaten in just a few minutes. Think of the meat! yummmmmm my chams turn up their noses at the little crickets. It's not worth the effort it takes to eat them unless they are starvin Marvin.

Try a few and you will see how much they love them. Nothing terrible will happen, promise. You should see my chams eat roaches! I give them a bowl with a choice of sizes and they ALWAYS pick the largest one in the bowl, shoot at the head and munch it. It may take awhile but those little teeth are sharp and they chew and chew and chew. Sometimes they even have to rub the roach against a branch or something but they don't give it up. They are happy, I'm happy and their belly is happy. LOL

 

[whereswaldo]

my guys about 5 months now almost. hell eat easy 15 to 20 crix and 6 or 7 pheonixi try split that up thru the day some butterworms with an occasional wax or meal worm i know hes sort of a pig though but hes showing no over feeding signs and ive had a fecal done coming up clean vet said healthy pretty boy.

can you maybe look up on youtub the milk carton feeder its a great way to contain the crix you can even put a little dry gut lod so they got something to munch on throw 10 or 15 in at 9 eary is so much beter then late i can understand the hrs thing but its really important for diagestion for him to get lots of uvb to help process foods.(12 hrs on 12 hrs off) (if yo havent invested in a timer there 9 bucks at walmart makes life easier too) to help process foods. take out left over crix at night i got mine on a hook incase of this but never had a incident where it was needed. the cup was scary for my guy he would hunt in his cage and he will eat out the feeder but still hasnt cared for the cup, the thing about thos feeders ifs the crix move up and down freely so there more appitising sexier to your guy. hope that helps. helped me a ton. ill try to see if i can find the video i used was super easy to make.
Also dustings important but u must stick with the schedule he can get sick from over supplementing.
calcium without d3 everyfeeding, calcium with d3 2 times a month and the multivite 2 times a month. to make life easier i switched to the repashy all in one calcium plus suplement and its worked great. but i gut load and try to give high cal feeders.

go to youtube and cut and paste couldnt get the url to work right... Custom Made cup feeder for your reptiles/chameleon

 

[tipposan]

Wow...

There is so much variance out there that I am both a bit worried and confused....

So we have had our cham for about 3 months and assuming that it was at least 2 months old when we bought it, let's use 5 months as his age.

Some say the cham look fine, not under fed....other are saying that they feed him 15-20 crickets a day so here is what I am doing and it seems to be working.

IF they are large, adult crickets about 1 inch or so, he gets 3 or 4 a day (depending on their size). IF they are all gone when I get home for work, I throw one in for the night. I do a multivitamin dusting on the crickets twice a week (actual days vary just for variety). Crickets are gut fed prior to feeding. About 95% of the time all the crickets are gone by the morning. The other 5% of the time, the cricket is hiding up by the top of the tank where he can't get them. I just chase them out and pop in the next days feeding.

IF they are smaller crickets, I dump about 5-8 in there. He doesn't usually eat all of them and I adjust the amount for the next day and so on. I don't take the leftovers out.

This seems to be working as he is still alive and as far as I can tell...fine.
After some inital concerns about pooping, he is pooping fine....sometimes 2-3 times a week (or at least that's when we notice). He has shed three times since we got him with a complete shed within 2 days.

No we are working on getting him to eat from our hands.....yeah I know...good luck...but the kids want to try.

 

[Dynasty]

First off let me say that your chameleon is BEAUTIFUL. It's obvious you take good care of him. For the feeding, I personally own a female Jackson who's fully grown, I feed her about 5 a day and that seems to be the appropriate amount. Seriously though, such a wonderfully vivid color, i'm jealous