new female cham!! how many crickets should i feed?

[alex arango]

hey everyone,
so i just bought a female veiled from a pet store so i can breed her with my male, i asked for details about her but all they could tell me is shes about a year and 2 months old, they said someone came in and told them they didnt want her anymore for no operant reason and did not know much about her but that shes about a year n 2 months old and that shes a female, so i dont know how much or what she was being fed. to me she looks healthy doesn't look over weight or poorly feed so I'm guessing she wasn't miss treated and was feed like she supposed to. like i said i do not know what she was being feed or how much, whats a good amount of crickets i should feed her? my male is about the same age about 4 months older, should i feed the same amount of crickets I'm feeding my male? i mainly feed them crickets but every now and then i get meal worms and roaches but thats not an everyday thing.

 

[kinyonga]

How many do you feed the male?

 

[alex arango]

i put 15 per day but he hardy ever eats all of them be for its time to re feed. i just found a thread about feeding and someone said for females 10 per day and skip a day every now and then?

 

[kinyonga]

If you feed her only 10 or so every second day she might not reproduce/cycle. If you constantly overfeed her it can lead to reproductive issues, constipation, impaction and even MBD. If you want her to reproduce without over eating I can only speculate that somewhere in the range of 12 to 14 every second day might be enough to make her reproduce but not get too fat. It depends on the individual chameleon to some extent.

 

[alex arango]

12-14 everyday? i feed my male 15 crickets once every day is that fine?

 

[kinyonga]

Sorry...corrected it.

 

[alex arango]

Ok. you said "It depends on the individual chameleon to some extent" what should my chameleon look like or how much is she suppose to weigh ? this is the first time weighing my chams and i dont have a gram scale yet but i am going to buy one asap

 

[kinyonga]

Can you post a photo of her please?

 

[sebikun]

OH man! I feed mine like 30 meal worms a day.. like at first I did like 10 every other day but like i could see its ribs when it was like 5 months old.. and now she is about 1 year and to me it looks thin so i started feeding her more crickets and meal worms... like 10 every day... she started hanging around the food area more often like waiting for food and she would stare... so i gave her 20 a day... and now i do about 25 to 30 a day... combination of small crickets and small meal worms.

 

[kinyonga]

Sebikun...IMHO its not good to feed a chameleon so many mealworms. There are lots of other insects that you could use. Also....overfeeding a female veiled that is sexually mature will likely make her produce large clutches and could lead to MBD, constipation and prolapsing if its done all the time.

 

[sebikun]

Sebikun...IMHO its not good to feed a chameleon so many mealworms. There are lots of other insects that you could use. Also....overfeeding a female veiled that is sexually mature will likely make her produce large clutches and could lead to MBD, constipation and prolapsing if its done all the time.

I read here http://www.chameleonsonline.com/feeding.php that its perfectly normal if they are in a growing period.. mine is about a year old now... and t has grown a lot these past 4 months.. and like I said she looks thin despite the feedings... thats what she looks forward to every day lol food.

 

[kinyonga]

"Crickets are more nutritious for a chameleon than a mealworm is and I don't recommend using regular mealworms at all for any chameleon. They can cause constipation and are harder to digest, making it hard for a chameleon to get any nutrients out of them."...
http://www.bluebeastreptile.com/panthercaresheet.htm

As for overfeeding...its different than feeding enough.