Cham eating tons

[Michaela_pett]

I have a 3-4 month veiled chameleon and I know you’re supposed to feed them basically as much as they can eat but my little girl eats around 15 crickets a day and she still seems to want more! I am pretty sure this is normal but I just want to make sure. Is it?

 

[nightanole]

"Girl" is the key world. Feed her as much as she likes (enough that there is a few left over after an hour, so you know she got her fill). But since she is a girl, it is possible to over feed her to the point she has eggs way too soon. To avoid that, simply feed her every other or every 3rd day. If you want to think outside the box, just feed monday wednesday friday. This is 6 feedings in 2 weeks, vs every other day which is 7 feedings.

 

[Michaela_pett]

"Girl" is the key world. Feed her as much as she likes (enough that there is a few left over after an hour, so you know she got her fill). But since she is a girl, it is possible to over feed her to the point she has eggs way too soon. To avoid that, simply feed her every other or every 3rd day. If you want to think outside the box, just feed monday wednesday friday. This is 6 feedings in 2 weeks, vs every other day which is 7 feedings.

Wait so I shouldn’t be feeding her everyday? Right now I feed her morning and in the evening. Should I do one big feeding every other day?

 

[nightanole]

Wait so I shouldn’t be feeding her everyday? Right now I feed her morning and in the evening. Should I do one big feeding every other day?

Life of a female veiled:

Crawl out of dirt with 20 of your brothers and sisters, at the same time
eat like a horse to grow as fast as possible
The winner will lay 2 clutches before the dry season starts
Eggs hatch 6 months later
Winning at life and be one of the 1% that get to see the babies hatch



If you feed a female as much as she is willing to eat, she will have eggs waaaaaay before she is adult size, and you will/may end up with problems with the first clutch. Its better to limit food after 4 months of age, so that the first clutch starts when she is "full size" around 9-10 months old.

 

[kinyonga]

She shouldn't lay eggs until at least a month after she gets her adult/mature colors....but by then it can be that she will already be on the way to a huge clutch and reproductive issues if you've been overfeeding her constantly.

The dilemma is to give her enough that she can build herself a healthy strong body but not feed her so much that she produces a huge clutch....but... we don't really know when to cut back until it's almost too late sometimes. Especially true for first time female owners.

 

[Michaela_pett]

Thank you guys so much for the information I’ll most likely be back on here in the next couple weeks!

 

[NashansCamos]

I have a 3-4 month veiled chameleon and I know you’re supposed to feed them basically as much as they can eat but my little girl eats around 15 crickets a day and she still seems to want more! I am pretty sure this is normal but I just want to make sure. Is it?

As my female veiled grew up she would eat loads. I was feeding her like 10 a day for some time.

 

[Michaela_pett]

As my female veiled grew up she would eat loads. I was feeding her like 10 a day for some time.

That’s really nice to know! Did she ever grow up to have problems with the clutches that she produced?

 

[NashansCamos]

That’s really nice to know! Did she ever grow up to have problems with the clutches that she produced?

no she would just dig for a long time then lay. But before she laid she didnt eat much or at all. she just laid her 4th clutch a few weeks ago