Cobalt (and Cerberus) are not growing as they should be

Olimpia

Biologist & Ecologist
Let me fill this out for Cobalt, because everything is exactly the same with Cerberus except his cage size. He's in a 24" x 24" x 48" screen cage.

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - Cobalt, A male Nose be panther, 5 months old. I have had him since he was 11-12 weeks old.
Handling - Never.
Feeding - I feed him crickets, superworms, phoenix worms, and dubia roaches. I will throw different things in every day. Depending on the size of the insect, I'm giving him (as an example) around 10 smallish crickets every day, and he'll eat them all. My insects are gut-loaded with dark leafy greens, holistic dog food, and other veggies I have on hand (carrots, potatoes...)
Supplements - Rapashy Calcium without D3 nearly every meal, so about 5 days a week. Then another brand of calcium with D3 lightly twice a month, and vitamins very lightly twice a month (one week D3, one week vitamin... I alternate)
Watering - I have a Mist King, and he gets a 15 minute shower at 8am, 3 minute mistings at 11am and 2pm, and a final 15 minute shower at 5pm. Yes, he drinks.
Fecal Description - Consistency of stool is perfectly normal. Good urates. He was tested for parasites last week, but the results said he was negative for anything.
History - none.

Cage Info:

Cage Type - Screen cage, 24" H x 24" L x 14" W
Lighting - I have a plant bulb as a heat spot and a reptisun 5.0 for UV. Lights come on at 7:15ish am and are off at 7:15ish pm.
Temperature - At the top it is between 80-84*F and it goes down to 70*F at the floor. I have a temperature gun to measure this with, as well as a thermometer with a probe in the cage at all times. We try not to let the temps go below 65*F at night.
Humidity - No current humidity readings. We have a crappy little meter but it's faulty, so I'm waiting on a new one to get accurate readings now that I have the Mist King. But it's probably very high.
Plants - Yes. One small palm-looking plant, two umbrella plants, and a couple fake leafy branches.
Placement - In bedroom, a typically low-traffic room. He's at about 6' or a little over from the ground on his favorite perch. There is a fan near him, but that's the only way the room doesn't overheat during the day.
Location - Melbourne, Florida.

The Problem:

This is the same problem I've been having with my other panther and it's bizaar. Both of them are just not growing! Peoples Panthers are typically huge by the time they reach 6 months- they're weighing in at more than 30 grams or so. But both of mine, including Cerberus who is now at 7 months old, are way behind. Cerberus has his beautiful colors, but he's only 17 grams and is only about 4 inches from snout to vent. I haven't weighed Cobalt in a while, but he's tiny still. Barely bigger than he was at 3 months old.

I feed both of them as many insects as they'll eat, all insects are well gut-loaded, and both are negative for parasites. Both eat between 10-15 crickets sometimes! But they aren't gaining size like they're supposed to. I figured Cerberus was probably just small by chance, but two unrelated males from two completely different breeders both being equally behind? Seems like I'm doing something wrong, but what?

Both look and act perfectly healthy, bright, and alert. Except they're small.
 
I couldn't tell you off the bat, but I looked it up this morning and I found "Betacarotene - 5.0 mg/kg." My roaches get a lot of protein-rich food but only because they're on a break right now as feeders. We were using too many and my colony was diminishing, so for the past month I haven't been using roaches, where as before I was. And before I start using them again I will cut out the great majority of the protein in their diet as well. And my crickets get only a little bit, as ~95% of their diet is dark greens, carrots, potatoes, etc. Including some weeks where they only get veggies.

The same insects feed our beardies and geckos, and they've all grown exactly as they should, with no problems. And so has our Jackson's, he's grown quite a bit since I got him. So I don't know?

Do you think it's gutloading related?
 
Well, my panther wouldn't grow either. Granted, I wasn't feeding him as much for a month or so because I just thought he was a small girl. However, when I started to feed him as much as he would eat he didn't grow either. In a month he only gained 2 grams, but soon after that he took off. He was 18 grams at the end of that month, but now (2 monthslater) he is 61 grams and eating the equivalent of 8-12 large crickets a day. I also raised his basking temp from 80-82 to 85-88.

I just say give it time, but make sure they're actually gaining weight and not loosing any. I was told some just take longer to grow. Mine is now supposedly 10 months old.
 
My best advise to you is to take a chill pill. I think that as long as your chameleons are eating, drinking, pooping normally you have nothing to worry about. Some chameleons take a while to get going and growing slow is not a bad thing... You have to also realize we just came out of winter and reptiles always slow down in the winter unless you are giving them un natural amounts of light and heat. I bet by the end of the summer that they will be much bigger.

See ya,

Todd
 
I have a female who just recently reached 55grams and she is approximately 2 years old. I received her when she was already a year an a half old, I know this because I knew the person who produced the clutch she came from and she weighed 40 grams at a year and a half. She is so hard to get to gain weight it is ridiculous. I now refuse to breed her and keep her strictly as a pet as I know genetically she got the short end of the straw and I don't want to be producing tiny little chameleons that never grow. She is a wonderful pet though and has zero health issues. She has laid two infertile clutches, one was 13 giant eggs and the other was 10 eggs equally as large. Sometimes you just get runts. I see nothing off horribly that would cause their growth to stun. Do the have alot of stressors? They, like todd stated will most likely hit giant growth sputs in the summer sun. Just expose them to as much natural sunlight as possible in the coming warm months.


Justin
 
I'm not stressing out about it or anything, but it just seemed strange. When I just had Cerberus it was like, ok I just got a small cham. But now that I had two, I thought maybe it was me.

The winter point is a very good one, that's probably it. I've got them nice and warm all the time anyway, but animals can sense that kind of thing.
 
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