Furcifer verrucosus weight graphic

morpheon

New Member
For quite some time, i have been weighing my three chameleons on a weekly basis. The graphic is not perfect, nor was the method used to weight them all. However, it gives a small idea of how their weight fluctuated over a 4 months period. I guess it has been long enough to show some data and hypthesis, and maybe some other breeders will chime in and show their datas as well! :)


Methodology:
Amongst the general methodology used to get these datas, the chameleons were fed and offered water in the morning, while the weighing procedure was executed in the late afternoon, often between 3 and 5pm every friday (except last week due to the Christmas holiday when my girlfriend and I were away from home for a few days). Every chameleons were put on a digital scale bought at Wal-mart for a few dollars, and every numbers have been rounded up by the digital scale itself.

It is important to know that Delko, my Furcifer pardalis sambava was a 15 months old at the begginning of this experiment, while Tim and Calleigh's age were estimated at 7 and 3 months old respectively. Both Tim and Calleigh are Furcifer verrucosus verrucosus, are wild caught, and were living in my appartment for a month before weighing them on a weekly basis. The goal was to let them acclimatize to their new environment.

Another important matter is that none of the chameleon is suspected to be parasited, including the two wild caught verrucosus. They have been tested by a specialized veterinarian, and their weight gain also supports this hypothesis. It may also be important to state that their enclosures are over 2 feet deep by 3 feet high by 4 feet long. This means that they have access to a very large environment, not to say that Calleigh often wanders on my free-range area. Tim, as a timid guy, isn't taken out of his enclosure for now.


Every measurements are in grams. I forgot to add it on the graphic! :S

sweight.jpg


Weight gains
Means:

Delko: 1.53 grams
Tim: 7.12 grams
Calleigh: 1.53 grams


Standard deviation:

Delko: 5.69 grams
Tim: 8.62 grams
Calleigh: 1.91 grams



Conclusions:
At the exception of the november 12 2010, most week were associated to a weight gain for the three chameleons. Delko, as sambavas are usually known, has been gaining weight up to a year and a half, which is at the same time than the winter started. He is expected to gain more weight once the winter is over, since some sambava can keep gaining weight up to two years old.

Tim, on his side, was slowly gaining weight during the first two months. However, as soon as he got used to his new habitat, he gained on a weekly basis over 10 grams per week, even if after a month his food income has been purposely reduced. This has led me to believe that he was really in a growing period.

Calleigh, even if she has been VERY active (she wanders from 4 to 12 meters a day, if not more sometimes --- and yes i measured it), has not been gaining much weight. I do not know if this is normal since she is my first verrucosus.


Limits:
Not exclusively, you can notice the slight change in the weighing procedure on november 12. The digital scale is also of poor quality, and numbers have been rounded up when past 0.6 . Also, some small weight loss have been presumed to be linked to either a chameleon refusing food for a day or two, which happens from time to time, but also to a chameleon defecation right before the weighing procedure.

One limit that can be related to Calleigh's relatively small weight gain is her tendancy to refuse different kinds of food. In other words, when we got her, she was eating barely anything (crickets, superworms, silkworms, and hornworms). Then, she refused crickets for two months, while still eating the other feeders. Lately, she has been refusing superworms, but eating everything else. Therefore, not being able to give her her favorite type of food may be making her not gain as much weight as she should be.

Opening:
Based on these datas, it would be interesting to compare them to other Furcifer verrucosus verrucosus of the same age. Another interesting information to find is if the weight of an almost fully grown Furcifer pardalis sambava (between a year and two years old) fluctuate as much as Delko's weight did.

It would also be interesting to do the same experiment with the same species and subspecies at the same age. This should be attempted as soon as i get some babies hatching (no ETA available and Calleigh doesn't seem receptive yet)



If you have any comment, question, suggestion, hypothesis or complaints, please feel free to post them! The goal is this post is to promote more research on chameleons, and without further discussion this research might die from itself! ;)

Of course, i will keep doing the same thing for the next year or so. However, if you have any idea of variables that could easily be measured, please tell me as i would like to push this research to another level! :)
 
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i think you have done some awsome and thorough observations here man. i hope other verrucosus owners can and will find this data helpful.

p.s. i love how everything on the chart is english then you have septembre, octobre, decembre and janvier with your french symbols haha. lol cheers
 
I must admit that i was a bit lazy, especially since my Excel skills haven't been used for quite a while, and that i spent like an hour trying to make the graphic look like this! :p I'm more used to SPSS now! ;) Anyway, i thought you guys would be smart enough to understand that " 2 décembre 2010" means "December 2nd, 2010" :p Sorry if i was wrong! :)
 
I am also time after time recording weight and length my chams.
But I am checking only young ones, older animals tend to overeating and getting fat (especially in winter).
I have a lot of records with the conclusion that there are different optimal BMIs for different species.

Moreover, the speed of chameleon's growing depends on the part of the year and temperature.

Something for comparison. My male has 43cm and 160-170g, I believe he is neither slim nor fat.
 
Nerd.

I'm not sure you know this but I've been tracking the weights of my goetzei on a weekly basis since Feb 2008. It's really interesting to see the weight fluctuations according to season particularly with the females. The males, once reaching adulthood, tend to remain fairly stable. Keep tracking your critters, and revisit this thread in another 9 months or so. Be neat to see how their weights change over the course of a year and if breeding or any other behaviours correspond with it.

Neat stuff.
 
HAHA! Call me what you want, I'm just thrilled that someone actually reads my posts and learns a little something.

I'm also proud to admit that I've never seen an episode of Star Trek. In any of it's various incarnations. Star Wars on the other hand...
 
HAHA! Call me what you want, I'm just thrilled that someone actually reads my posts and learns a little something.

I'm also proud to admit that I've never seen an episode of Star Trek. In any of it's various incarnations. Star Wars on the other hand...

I guess I could call names and label you two nerd and nerdette. I guess I am just jealous, I weight mine once a month and am happy to get that accomplished!

The chart showing your kids weights is cool Marc. It looks like Tim is taking off - no wait I mean he is really putting it on.:) I like looking at this kind of info even if I am too lazy to do it.:( Keep it coming.
 
oh gosh, I wonder what you people would call me if Laurie would repeat some of the scientific mombo jombo that I sometimes bombard her with before she even has her first cup of coffee. Laurie has so much understanding of us nerds that she is a saint. she really never gets the credit she deserves.

morpheon, you just keep doing what you are and enjoy your hobby the way you want to. after all, it's because of people like you who go the extra mile that people like me learn so much on this forum. thank you.

Harry
 
Tracey; have you at least seen the last Star Trek movie????

Laurie; I know that you take care of all your chameleons, and this is the most important to me! :) And you do your extra work by taking care of several chameleon owners! This is definately something big that you can be proud of! :)

Harry; I really appreciate your words, especially from someone who knows a lot like you! :) I just try to give back a little part of what the communauty has given me in the past two years or so! :)
 
Tracey; have you at least seen the last Star Trek movie????

Laurie; I know that you take care of all your chameleons, and this is the most important to me! :) And you do your extra work by taking care of several chameleon owners! This is definately something big that you can be proud of! :)

Harry; I really appreciate your words, especially from someone who knows a lot like you! :) I just try to give back a little part of what the communauty has given me in the past two years or so! :)

Ok first we get the stupid bickering, now we get the too sweet stuff! You guys just have to straighten up, I get so confused.:confused::confused::confused:
 
I apologize Laurie for trying to be nice! :( I guess i'll stick with swears and personal attacks! :)

PS: I thought moderators were supposed to PUNISH bad words and personal attacks, and not to promote them by complaining when nice things are being said or by calling me a nerd (like another moderator who's name starts by TRA and finishes by CEY)!! I guess i'll have to complain AGAIN about you two to Brad!! ;)
 
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