I think i got a fatty.

B

benpaul

New Member
Well heres the deal i feed my 6 month old panther roughly 15 3/8" crickets daily. He destroys them all in like a half hour(seriously he hunts like a puma or something sooooo fast)and then just searches for more food for so long. I dont wanna overfeed him but i also dont want him to go hungry. Is it wrong to feed my guy so much? I never see anyone else feed that much.


EDIT im from wisconsin so maybe hes trying to blend in to the locals by getting fat. :)
 
Haha I'm in WI too and looking to get a cham in the next 2 weeks, I hope mine doesn't try this "fitting in with the local thing" We got some big people in this state, he could eat me out of house and home :p
 
He might be still growing but it's hard to tell without any pics so...Post some pics so we can tell if he's that fat or not...but it sounds to me that he's just healthy..but as I said hard to tell without pictures
 
You didn't get a fatty, you're making a fatty. Chameleons will consume whatever you give them. Learn what is the right amount and don't overfeed.
 
I seriously was afraid to look at this. If you overfeed, you will create problems for your chameleon.
 
ok

^^^ Exactly why i made this post. i dont want to overfeed him. i got a fat cat we adopted so im used to dieting my animals hehe.


well how much is too much? is 15 3/8" too much? I got him from screameleons and the owners manual sez 8-15 1/4-1/2" crickets daily. He eats his pothos plant too and i read panthers dont really eat veg. I think hes just a hungry lil feller. Ill post pix tomorrow as he will be sleepin when i get home from work. Although he does look fat when he sleeps but sleek during the day so maybe ill take a night pic.
 
1/4 to 1/2 inch crickets are kinda small...correct me if I'm wrong..but I can understand why he's eating so many at one time.
 
hmm

hes only 6 months old. hes still pretty small. following the "eye 2 eye" rule im not certain even 1/2" crickets are safe for him to eat. Honestly i just got the 3/8" for the first time this time and i was terrified he would choke.

also is it normal for him to still be black and white? like no color. at 6 months old. when he gets pissed black bars appear on him but only his neck flappy thing is red in the creases and at night he looks pinkish. ill post a pic when i get home.
 
At six months he's still pretty young and I would think he should be able to eat as many crix as he wants until he's about a year old. I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong....
 
ok

thats what i thought. i just wanna make sure everything is perfect for him. i always see people feed there chams much less than me.
 
I think it all depends on the cham. If your cham looks fat then you definitely need to cut back but if he doesn't then why fix it if it isn't broken?
 
I started giving my panther 3/4th crickets when he was about that old and he's never had any problems chewing them up and swallowing. Trust that your guy knows how to chew without choking himself - I don't know why we don't trust them to know what to do :) The cricket size you're giving him is small, but without a photo we can't really judge what the proportion is compared to him. So I think that with that size, 15 crickets is probably fine.

But with photos of him on your hand, for size comparison, we can probably help you way more.

Edit - here's a size chart, just for reference, since not everyone knows cricket sizes by heart:

cricketchart.jpg
 
hmmm

ok well i ahve owned a Uromastic that could deflate his body to thinner than paper and puff it up to the point he looked like a total chubber. My cham is similar. at night he looks fat as hell as long as he is sleeping horizontally. when he is awake or sleeping vertically he looks too thin to me.


But with photos of him on your hand, for size comparison, we can probably help you way more.

there is no effin way i can get him on my hand. i would lose fingers. he HATES people. The one time i got him on my hand he lept from the top of his cage and BARELY saved himself bottom of cage impact by grabbing his temp gauge wire. I am terrified of him jumping even if i used gloves.
 
benpaul said:
ok well i ahve owned a Uromastic that could deflate his body to thinner than paper and puff it up to the point he looked like a total chubber. My cham is similar. at night he looks fat as hell as long as he is sleeping horizontally. when he is awake or sleeping vertically he looks too thin to me.
Click to expand...

It's amazing how they can stretch themselves out so they look so thin isn't it?? I wish I could do that lol!!! It just sounds like your guy is healthy and eating well. If you're really worried post some pics when you have a chance but the fact is that he's eating and seems healthy
 
yeah

i buy my crickets from ghanns ive seen that chart. Ill just hold my hand near him o yeah and when hes pissed he looks WWWAAAAAYYYY fatter hehe. If my hand is near him the odds of him being pissed are high. lately hes been a lil more chill but i gave up on trying ot handle him since the jumping so he knows i wont do anything to him.
 
as

as for the choking id rather be safe than sorry. when i FIRST got him he was under 3 months and i fed him baby crickets from the pet shop and after ordering 1/4" from ghanns they were HUGE in comparison. so i know he can prolly eat bigger but id be DEVASTATED is he choked.
 
Olimpia said:
I started giving my panther 3/4th crickets when he was about that old and he's never had any problems chewing them up and swallowing. Trust that your guy knows how to chew without choking himself - I don't know why we don't trust them to know what to do :) The cricket size you're giving him is small, but without a photo we can't really judge what the proportion is compared to him. So I think that with that size, 15 crickets is probably fine.

But with photos of him on your hand, for size comparison, we can probably help you way more.

Edit - here's a size chart, just for reference, since not everyone knows cricket sizes by heart:

cricketchart.jpg
Click to expand...

Olimpia..awesome chart..thanks!
 
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