Food Consumption at 6 months

[Miss Lily]

Over the last few weeks Amy's appetite has decreased by quite a lot. This week she has eaten: 1 cricket, 2 waxworms and a freshly moulted meal worm.

Her adult colours are also starting to show this week and she is quite restless at times, and when she is just sitting still her colours are all over the place! Is it normal for a 6 month old female's appetite to decrease this much? I know I shouldn't compare her to Lily, but at this age when I got her, Lily was a right little piggy and eating far more than Amy does! Should I be worried or not?

Edit - I gutload crix, locust and supers as well as the mealies (which are ocassional treats, and only the freshly moulted ones). I can't get silkworms at the moment, the supplier is out of stock!

 

[jannb]

What temp. do you keep her at? I'm sure you know they stop eating and become quite restless before laying eggs. At this age Camille was a pig with her eating and this is about the age I cut her to everyother day feedings.

 

[Miss Lily]

I am very aware of the egg laying (since Lily was the eggspert, lol)! Amy is just over 6 months old and her colours have been coming in this week and she's basking more and wandering too. I think her hormones are kicking in! She usually spends her time sitting in the plants, but not any more!

Cage temps range from 76 degrees up to 90 degrees in the basking spot. I am well aware that this is too hot and I will be buying a lower wattage bulb as soon as possible. I have a lower wattage household spot bulb which actually increases the temps in the cage as I tried them with Lily. Don't quite know what's up with that, so I will have to buy a lower wattage reptile specific bulb - they seem to emit a more 'even' heat. I will add that she has only just started basking at the hottest point over the last few days. I have never seen her gape while basking.

Don't know about the US, but the UK only last week stopped selling the normal old fashioned bayonet fitting light bulbs so all we can buy now are the low energy/environmentally friendly coiled ones which I will NOT buy for Amy. You can still buy the halogen bulbs for desk lamps, which I will give a try for now.

 

[jannb]

Tiff at that temp. and 6 months old she could very well be cooking up some eggs. I have never used a basking light with Camille I got her when she was 5 months old. I keep her hottest temp at 80 to 81. I follow the Raising Kitty the female veiled. Here's the part about the temps and basking light:

I have double fluorescent hoods over the cages. Each hood houses a tube/linear Repti-sun 5.0 and a regular white fluorescent tube light. This maintains the temperature in the low 80's at the warmest end of the cage. You can see the setup in my article in the e-zine: A Babies first weeks. The shelves can be moved forward more than is shown in the pictures in the article to allow for more of a gradient in temperatures and more air flow as well.
Most of what is in this article is still current but I have made a couple of changes.

I maintain the same lighting and temperature range when the females are moved to their adult cages. I do not use a basking light, but continue with a double fluorescent hood keeping temperatures in the low eighties. The cages are of various sizes, but the smallest is 24" tall x 24" wide x 18" deep.

 

[Miss Lily]

Thanks for your help, Jann! I have turned off the basking light and will leave it off and see how things go. I will check temps again later. I really don't want a repeat performance like Lily. Don't they need warmer temps to digest their food? I feel like a newbie again right now! Do you think that her becoming a 'teenager' would cause her to reduce food intake? Just another question ... do they show receptive colouring as a prelude to adult colouring, or will she become receptive sometime in the future? Haven't had such a youngster before - it's all still so new to me! Here's a couple of pics that I took yesterday. She's been developing these colours gradually since the weekend.

 

[jannb]

80 is warm enought for them to digest their food. Those colors do not look receptive to me. The only time Camille stopped eatting was right before eggs. Maybe Amy just doesn't feel like eatting. Try skipping a day without food and then see if she'll eat.

 

[Miss Lily]

Ok thanks! I have just taken another temp reading and the hottest place is now reading 83.5 degrees. That is just with the UV lighting (no heat bulb at all). The exo terra hoods have space for 2 UV tubes - both are Repti Glo - one is a 10.0 and the other is a 2.0. The mesh on the top of the cage is quite dense.

 

[WelshOneEmma]

Hi tiff,

I know he is a boy, but if you recall I had similar worries about Hugo at that aga as i noticed his appetite had decreased drastically! It was about then that we decided to start feeding him every other day. Even now he might go two days without eating (very rare) but then he has days where he will eat his plants, so i may throw an extra locust or two in there.

 

[jojackson]

Confusing. Lets have another peek at those hind feet Lil? Im still wondering what sex it actually is.

 

[Miss Lily]

Confusing. Lets have another peek at those hind feet Lil? Im still wondering what sex it actually is.

Are you serious?!? Don't say things like that! What makes you think that - anything in particular? Amy has female colouring coming through more each day, but has bony feet too. She just wants to be different, lol! Here's a couple of feet pics taken on the 8th, not that it will help much! The breeder is still adamant that she is a female, and I am pretty sure she is - she has the blue and brown spots just like Lily had.

And here's a general body pic. She appears yellow/green with dark spots most of the time and she's got her 'watermelon' eyes now too!

 

[Opiehowe73]

She is a cutey

 

[HairyScaryMark]

Don't know about the US, but the UK only last week stopped selling the normal old fashioned bayonet fitting light bulbs so all we can buy now are the low energy/environmentally friendly coiled ones which I will NOT buy for Amy. You can still buy the halogen bulbs for desk lamps, which I will give a try for now.

I'm a bit confused by these new laws. There is apparnently a 'phasing out'. I've bought 7 of these standard type bulbs this week and as far as I understand it seems mainly targetted at 100W bulbs and 'frosted bulbs' (which i don't think we use for chameleons).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8229476.stm


You may have gathered from my other thread but my guy has gone off black crickets at 6 months and seems to enthusiasticly eat locusts, brown crickets and wax worms (sometimes, at least). Black crickets I think is like eating brussel sprouts for him now, he'll do it every so often but would rather eat most other things. I even bought small black crickets thinking the lack of wings would encourage him to eat them) and he's not convinced by them either. I might actually give them away to my friend who has a bearded dragon if it's going to be like this. I guess in the end it's probably good for them to eat a bit less (especially for the female as it causes her to produce less or no eggs).

 

[Miss Lily]

I'm a bit confused by these new laws. There is apparnently a 'phasing out'. I've bought 7 of these standard type bulbs this week and as far as I understand it seems mainly targetted at 100W bulbs and 'frosted bulbs' (which i don't think we use for chameleons).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8229476.stm


You may have gathered from my other thread but my guy has gone off black crickets at 6 months and seems to enthusiasticly eat locusts, brown crickets and wax worms (sometimes, at least). Black crickets I think is like eating brussel sprouts for him now, he'll do it every so often but would rather eat most other things. I even bought small black crickets thinking the lack of wings would encourage him to eat them) and he's not convinced by them either. I might actually give them away to my friend who has a bearded dragon if it's going to be like this. I guess in the end it's probably good for them to eat a bit less (especially for the female as it causes her to produce less or no eggs).

When I got my first cham I was advised by the shop to feed her 'silent' crickets rather than the black ones. I think it had something to do with the black ones tasting bitter to the chams, but I can't quite remember! Have you tried giving him silkworms, butterworms , small superworms (morio worms), roaches or Phoenix worms? The only sort of 'worm' that we can't get in the UK are Hornworms.

 

[gary1621]

The black ones bite more than the brown ones too!

Peanut has gone off her food, it was about the same time she was trying on her adult colours. I was really worried about reducing her feeding , but she seems to be taking that in her own hands... yay