Fat chameleon?

asongforyou

asongforyou

Member
Does anyone have pictures of an overweight chameleon? All of my chams are still growing but when they're adults I want to know what their ideal weight should be. I'm aware that each Cham varies in size. A chart would be good too... like a skinny, normal, obese ones you see of dogs and cats.
 
asongforyou said:
Does anyone have pictures of an overweight chameleon? All of my chams are still growing but when they're adults I want to know what their ideal weight should be. I'm aware that each Cham varies in size. A chart would be good too... like a skinny, normal, obese ones you see of dogs and cats.
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Lizards store their fat at the hips and forhead (some of them). I just go my hips, if you can see hips you are good, if you can start to see lines in the tail you need to feed more, if you dont seen any bone structure then you have a fat lizard.
 
ferretinmyshoes said:
What an awesome publication! My high school French at least helps pick out bits and pieces. Man I wish there was an English version! Thanks for link.
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I didn't take French in high school, so I couldn't make any of that out. I took Latin, like a fool! haha :)

That looks fascinating! I wish I knew what it said!
 
With my veiled and panthers, I look at the hips, tail, and casque/head. If the tail and hips are not overly plump and the casque/head/cheeks are not overly plump/bulbous then I am okay with their weight. If the casque/cheeks, tail, or hips look very boney and sunken, they are probably too thin.
 
My vet told me to look at the base of the tail as it connects to the body. That portion should be thick, but not puffy or bulging. Bulging would indicate a 'too heavy' weight problem, and if the tail is concave at this section, this would indicate a 'too light' weight problem.
 
ChameleonMom said:
My vet told me to look at the base of the tail as it connects to the body. That portion should be thick, but not puffy or bulging. Bulging would indicate a 'too heavy' weight problem, and if the tail is concave at this section, this would indicate a 'too light' weight problem.
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That is true of a lot of lizards, but not really for chameleons. Iguanas, monitors and some others store fat in their tails, but chameleons store fad in the pads over the head and in fat pads in the abdomen primarily. The best way to evaluate obesity is look at their head pads - they should be slightly convex but not bulging. If they're sunken or flat you may need to feed a little more. If you can see the arm and leg bones then your cham is very thin. The tail may appear thinner in a very thin animal because of muscle loss that comes with malnutrition/anorexia/starvation. But in obese chams you don't really see much change in the tail. With obesity your cham may look chubby overall (fat neck, fat arms, etc).
 
ferretinmyshoes said:
That is true of a lot of lizards, but not really for chameleons. Iguanas, monitors and some others store fat in their tails, but chameleons store fad in the pads over the head and in fat pads in the abdomen primarily. The best way to evaluate obesity is look at their head pads - they should be slightly convex but not bulging. If they're sunken or flat you may need to feed a little more. If you can see the arm and leg bones then your cham is very thin. The tail may appear thinner in a very thin animal because of muscle loss that comes with malnutrition/anorexia/starvation. But in obese chams you don't really see much change in the tail. With obesity your cham may look chubby overall (fat neck, fat arms, etc).
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Thanks for clearing that up ferret - its funny (in a not so funny sort of way) all of the conflicting information out there, even between veterinarians! I DO trust my vet (he's very accredited in reptile medicine in my area and is involved in the local reptile club and with reptile rescue) but I generally follow the information I read on this forum. I figure the info I read here can't be far off, especially coming from people solely dedicated to the chameleon.

So, looking at my Camo's face, I'd say he's got a weight issue. He's got very defined fat pads on his face, and below his jaw (not to be mistaken with gular edema, btw). I just weighed him and he's 219g's which is up from 211g's from October 19th. Thats an 8g weight gain in 2 weeks :eek:
 
There are a lot of subtle differences between chameleons and other species, even ones they're closely related to. With reptiles you learn generalities because it would impossible to learn all the minute details of every species! Then you take those generalities and tweak them the more you learn about the specifics of species. If you've never really been exposed to a species then you still apply the generalities until proven otherwise. Owning a particular species is the best way to learn about their eccentricities! I'm sure I will assume a generality about a species I'm not familiar with in the future too until I learn more about it. It's part of the learning process. :)
 
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