Cham eating me out of house and home

[meleondollars]

I have a ~4-5 month old female Veiled. She is eating me out of house and home. She has been consuming approximately 35 crickets a day. I have tried to give her superworms and wax worms but she wont even touch them. Crickets being fed are 1/2". My next order of 500 will be 3/4" so they last me more than 2.5 weeks.
Question is should I be feeding her this many? She eats 95% of them within 5 minuets and they never last more than 2 hours in the enclosure. I feed about 20 in the am and then 15 or so around 5.
P.S. I refuse to have roaches in my house so that's not an option.
Any input?
Pic for reference, she was slightly annoyed with me.

 

[camimom]

Shes looking nice and round. that is an excessive amount of crickets!
Try reducing that number to 20, or try bigger crickets.

 

[heartben]

haha that is a rounded cham! mine is almost 4 months old and he eats like 20 a day, i dont usually offer him more than 25 or so, mine are around 1/2 inch.

i would guess bigger crickets and fewer of them should help

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Quit overfeeding. That can be just as detrimental as underfeeding. She should be getting 10-12 crickets max a day. Make sure they are proprly gut loaded with a good dry gutload and veggies and fruits mixed in. You are putting her at risk when she becomes sexually mature by overfeeding. It can cause females to produce outlandishly large clutches. And it doesnt matter if they are fertile eggs or not its the size of these clutches that can cause females problems. If you get her on a good feeding schedule and keep her temps from getting too warm you may be able to pevent her from even forming eggs. But if you keep feeding her that much your not doing her any favors and your putting her long term health at risk.

Also you need to start feeding other feeders: hornworms, silkworms, superworms, blue bottle flies, moths, grasshoppers, & yes roaches all make great additions to a chams diet. You dont want her to burn out on crickets. You wouldnt want a tuna sandwich every day of your life would you? Same thing for a chameleon, they are used to eatting a variety of insects.

Oh yeah, you should be buying 1/2" crickets for a cham that size. So 4wks is the approp age for your feeders. After she hits the 8-9 month mark you can cut her back to 10-12 feeders every other day.

 

[hallenhe]

Female veileds are greedy little critters, and will happily keep chowing down as long as you offer, and will beg for more when you don't. But, as the others say, there is a disjunct between the quantity they are capable of eating and the quantity they should be eating. I give my adult female veiled an average of 3-5 crickets daily (usually ~ 8 one day, and 0-3 the next). Yours is still growing and e=is eating smaller prey, but 35 is definitely excessive. Mine will take worms but isn't quite as excited about them as crickets, you might try ordering some silk-, horn- or butterworms (though the silk and hornworms will both grow very big, very fast). Bluebottles might be another idea; things that fly catch their attention.

 

[sandrachameleon]

I have a ~4-5 month old female Veiled. She is eating me out of house and home. She has been consuming approximately 35 crickets a day. I have tried to give her superworms and wax worms but she wont even touch them. Crickets being fed are 1/2". My next order of 500 will be 3/4" so they last me more than 2.5 weeks.
Question is should I be feeding her this many? She eats 95% of them within 5 minuets and they never last more than 2 hours in the enclosure. I feed about 20 in the am and then 15 or so around 5.

Hi
They sure like to eat, eh!? She looks healthy, if a bit round. Despite her wanting to eat you out of house and home, and the speed with which she is eating, you may like to cut back to about 15-20 max a day (fewer if you go with the larger size), and at 6 months down to 10 a day. At adulthood, 1-3 bugs per day (around 12 a week) is sufficient if you dont want to breed her.

Instead of some of the crickets, try smaller superworms (I see you have a screen cage, and supers placed on the side screen walls will usually climb the screen well and attract attention), terrestrial isopods, silkworms, butterworms, grasshoppers/locust, cultured blue bottle flies, indian walking sticks and even the occassional mealworm. Refrain from offering waxworms or too many superworms and other fatty things, as she doesnt appear to need extra fat. More info re feeders: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html

Monitor temps too, too warm with too much food can result in infertile clutches of too many eggs.

 

[JohnnyD]

She's not fat, she's big boned. lol

 

[meleondollars]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the advice. I am going to cut that back some and try some variety.

Tex panther man: No I would not like Tuna every day, makes me not hungry even thinking about it. The crickets are gut loaded properly, so I was not overly concerned.

Hallenhe: Yes you are right. She eats just about every time I offer. Like it won’t be there later.

sandrachameleon: That is a good trick and I will have to try it. Thanks.

I will try some of the new foods, it just sucks for selection around here, and I do not want to order some and be stuck with a large quantity that she won’t eat. Oh well, guess I need to suck it up and bite the bullet.


JohnnyD: Your right she is just big boned!

 

[kinyonga]

What is the basking temperature?

Overfeeding constantly can cause reproductive issues, prolapses, constipation and even push her towards MBD. I would feed her as much as she can eat in a minute or so....not 5 minutes....every second day.

Veileds can also eat greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, zucchini, sweet red pepper, etc.) and a small amount of fruit (apple, melon, pear, berries, etc.).

Once she's sexually mature, you should make sure she has a place to dig in the cage to show you when she needs to lay eggs. They can produce eggs even without being mated.

 

[meleondollars]

Basking temp has been running between 87 and 92. I know that is the high end, but she seeks higher hotter ground if I allow her to so I figured where it is is legit.

 

[camimom]

Basking temp has been running between 87 and 92. I know that is the high end, but she seeks higher hotter ground if I allow her to so I figured where it is is legit.

Chams seek higher ground bc they are arboreal species. that is too hotm, lower temps are better, esp for females. closer to 82 is better, and might even be lower than that for females.

 

[meleondollars]

I understand that they seek high places. There are higher places in the enclosure that are not in the basking light and she does not climb them. She likes to climb where the light is. I will adjust lighting tomorrow to try and cool it a few more degrees.

 

[meleondollars]

sandrachameleon - Holy crap that worked almost instantly. I put 2 in her cup and nothing. I set one on the screen and she ate it within 10 seconds. nice tip, thanks.

 

[PascalsMama]

Have you thought about breeding crickets? You will likely have extra, but maybe you could list them on craigslist or give them to a friend...?

 

[Silkyslim]

Have you thought about breeding crickets? You will likely have extra, but maybe you could list them on craigslist or give them to a friend...?

Sup fellow Wisconsinite! I tried breeding crickets, it was a messy, stinky hassle. The constant care and cleaning I needed to do for them left me feeling like I paid way more attention to the feeders than the chameleons. It's not terrible but wasn't what I was interested in.

I bought a few adult dubia roaches and a colony of smaller ones and have been loving my roach colony since. They can't fly, can't climb and only breed when it's fairly hot. They eat any fruits/veggies I toss their way. The care is way less, there is NO stink or chirping. Should look into breeding Dubias before diving into breeding crickets.

 

[meleondollars]

I have read up on and researched some regarding breeding crickets. I have thought aout it. Not sure if I want to though. Seems like I need to limit diet a bit so we will see what my actual cricket needs are. Seems like a lot of stinky work, but I guess I wont really know for myself unless I try it.
Roaches, blah. Some people fear snakes, some spiders, I can not stand roaches. Makes my skin crawl thinking about it. Sorry, just not an option at this point in my life.

 

[sandrachameleon]

sandrachameleon - Holy crap that worked almost instantly. I put 2 in her cup and nothing. I set one on the screen and she ate it within 10 seconds. nice tip, thanks.

You're welcome. You may find she starts to be interested in them in a cup now that she recognizes them as food. Remember they are high in fat and should not form a large part of her diet.

Basking temp has been running between 87 and 92. I know that is the high end, but she seeks higher hotter ground if I allow her to so I figured where it is is legit.

That's too hot for a female. 80F is a good basking site temp. And yes, she will seek out heat like she seeks out food - which is natural, but not desirable if you are not breeding her.

 

[erika723]

My 8 month old male veiled would do the same thing if I let him. He is ALWAYS hungry. He even goes after my shiny rings or necklaces if he can get there fast enough. It kind of worries me... I guess he is just greedy. I would bet he still eats about 10 crickets a day and if I kept offering he would eat the entire container, no doubt. and those are LARGE ones. I am going to wean him down a little and do 7 a day for a week and then go every other day. He acts like he is starving, always.

Good luck with yours... just wanted you to know I have the same thing going on here and mine is technically not a baby anymore!

 

[camimom]

My 8 month old male veiled would do the same thing if I let him. He is ALWAYS hungry. He even goes after my shiny rings or necklaces if he can get there fast enough. It kind of worries me... I guess he is just greedy. I would bet he still eats about 10 crickets a day and if I kept offering he would eat the entire container, no doubt. and those are LARGE ones. I am going to wean him down a little and do 7 a day for a week and then go every other day. He acts like he is starving, always.

Good luck with yours... just wanted you to know I have the same thing going on here and mine is technically not a baby anymore!

THey are always babies. whether they are neonates or they are 5 years old, still our babies!

 

[meleondollars]

OK question about lighting then.... could be its own thread I guess. My house has AC set at 77F. With the light on and raised 6 inches it is around 85-86. So should I not use a basking light then and just use UVB? Is a few degrees low better than a few high?