Cham eating in morning

[jimsta]

My 5 month old Panther has an awake time from about 7:30 in the morning to about 8:30 at night.

Lately I have been waking up at 9:00. And I leave about 10 crickets in a feeding bowl all day for him, and whatever is leftover stays the night. So when I wake up in the morning there are usually 1-2 crickets still in there. I can see every possible place in the cage, and the crickets are no where to be found

Is it possible that he eats 8 crickets in the 1.5 hours before I wake up, or do you think something else is going on.

Oh yeah, and when I replenish the crickets in the morning he does not touch them all day.

Everything else about him seems normal, he drinks readily and is active.

 

[FaunaBgirl]

My cham seems to want to eat and drink first thing in the morning. If it's not provided for him... he loses interest and won't eat as much.
Can your crickets in any way, get out? Otherwise... I think your cham wakes up and eats, like mine does.

 

[Tygerr]

If the crickets are staying uneaten in the cage the whole night, and then the cham only eats them the next morning, are you leaving food in the cage to gutload the crickets?

Because if you aren't, then I can pretty much guarantee that all the gutload they had in them prior to being placed in the cage will be pooped out of them by the next morning.

Also, if you are dusting any supplements onto them, the supplements will have been mostly shaken off of them by the next morning, and won't be getting to your cham.

Any insects that are left uneaten for more than a few hours will generally have lost most of their gutload and supplementation.

I presume the crickets can't get out of the feeding bowl you leave them in? Because if they can roam around the cage, it is really not recommended to leave them in the cage overnight. Crickets have been known to nibble on chams when they are sleeping - I've seen it with my own eyes. And chams are very sound sleepers, so they are not disturbed by the crickets. But in young chams like yours, this can be quite damaging to the cham.

 

[jimsta]

Yes I gave them some shreds of carrots for moisture and some cricket gutload. No they were not dusted with anything. I only dust twice a week. They can't get out of the tupperware thats in there.

Thanks for all of the info....I think I will get up early and watch him tomorrow.

 

[Jerambis]

My 6 month old can eat 8 crickets in about 10 minutes.

 

[Sal]

My panther crawls down his big ficus tree early every morning to eat out of his bowl (usually 7:30am to 8:00am)... That is usually the only time he comes down to eat.. So never any sleeping-in at Sal's - at least not until I have been up and taken care of all the critters..

 

[royden]

Is it bad that I've never once seen my cham ignore a cricket? What I put in there, he eats it. Like instantly. Like..seconds between each.

Should he be eating till he's full and ignores? I assume he could over eat.

 

[saemin]

hi

That happened to me before, But its not something big to worry about. As long as you gutload the crickets and have it there for him, It should be fine. Althought You do not want to leave the uneaten crickets in the cage with him because it can cause him a lot of stress. I have a 5months old veild female chameleon and I check up on her in the morning and come bak from work at night and check up on her. kinda same situation as u have . But make sure to check how many he eats average daily then just feed him just that amount or maybe 1 or 2 more. Shouldnt have uneaten food running around in his cage...and try some calcium drops. It works very well.. and chameleons love it. It boost their eatin habits as well.

 

[Jordan]

I would stop feeding for a day and try to get your chameleon back into a schedule of eating everything you offer in a timely fashion.