over feeding?

[No Limit]

how do i tell if im over feeding my 4 month old male panther? every morning i put around 10-15 small/med. small crickets and i have a little bowl of meel worms hanging for him to eat when ever, do Chams only eat when they are hungry or do they eat every chance they can? if so, how do they get over fed if they only eat when they want it?

or am i underfeeding him? i've looked around on this part of the forum but i can't seem to find a rough answer or it might be that im not looking hard enough this is the first time i've came to a forum and actually tried my best to find answers to my questions 1.) i don't want to be annoying 2.) i want to do whats best for my cham, so thats why i have to ask since i can't find the answers


the best rough i've gotten was someone said they feed 15 3/4 inch crickets to thier cham, i believe it as a 6 month vield

 

[Treetop Chameleons]

you can find some helpful info on the kammers page.

 

[ChromaChameleons]

Keep in mind Veileds and Panthers have different appetites. 15 3/4 crix for a 6 month old panther sounds excessive.

 

[fishfreak]

just to add to your post, im feeding my panther 6-10 large crickets and a couple of super worms a day and that seems to be good ............I know they do get overfed in captivity.oh and this is a 1 1/2yr wc
panther(guessing age).

so how bout it guys, feeding for a grown panther compared to a 4 month old????:
what are good amounts for both ages

thnx

 

[reptileguy]

how about a veiled, how many should they be eating a day? It seems the 1st day I got him he ate about 6, and yesterday he ate 2, today...nothing......should I be worried?? I left 4 in there in a dish that they cannot jump out of but he can get to them, and I thought he would get to them, I know he sees them, he is right above and around them, but nothing.

 

[Dankmeleon]

a lot of people on this site feed their chams ALOT

it is my personal belief that they are trying to get them bigger, faster.

i'm not saying to do this....

but this would certainly give you an idea of what to feed, your cham, given that he is young and growing, and his demand for food will probably go up for a period of time as he develops before it plateaus and declines slowing into his adulthood.

but on a "sunny day" or if you house your cham indoors, you can fill his cage up with crix, no more than 15 small ones of course for an avg size cham, (seen freaks of nature that need to be fed more tho...gotta love mothernature), and watch him hunt, don't try this the first day you move him into a new cage, let him adapt first to hunting a smaller number. and count how many he tears down in a reasonable amount of time.

It would then be a fair thing to say you should give him a little less as an average meal than he can eat, which will keep him well nourished and allow him to stay lean.



or you can just feed the heck out of them and pick up all the poop and gaze at your huge fat chameleon in awe its all preference

just my personal experience

 

[SuperRad]

how do i tell if im over feeding my 4 month old male panther? every morning i put around 10-15 small/med. small crickets and i have a little bowl of meel worms hanging for him to eat when ever, do Chams only eat when they are hungry or do they eat every chance they can? if so, how do they get over fed if they only eat when they want it?

or am i underfeeding him? i've looked around on this part of the forum but i can't seem to find a rough answer or it might be that im not looking hard enough this is the first time i've came to a forum and actually tried my best to find answers to my questions 1.) i don't want to be annoying 2.) i want to do whats best for my cham, so thats why i have to ask since i can't find the answers


the best rough i've gotten was someone said they feed 15 3/4 inch crickets to thier cham, i believe it as a 6 month vield

Meal worms aren't generally good for chameleons. They can cause impaction. I avoid them completely.

 

[AFH]

I feed juvenile and female veileds and panthers about the same, maybe a little extra for my full grown male veiled.

12-15 crickets (the size of the space between the cham's eyes) up to 6 months. Then 5-6 from there on out.

I was told to control their growth rate after 6 months because overfeeding can bring on MBD because they grow too fast. After a year, they're pretty much full grown and they naturally slow down.

Also, you want to change up their diet with other feeders to give them some variety. I switch up with superworms and silkworms. I count the large silkworms as 2-3 large crickets. A superworm is about the same as a large cricket.

 

[ken2414]

i feed my baby male veiled 10-15 a day and he eats them all but i dont feed much more because of the bloating. everytime i feed him i look at the fifteen crickets and wonder where he puts all of them in his tiny belly.

 

[CammieNLeno]

Are you cup feeding or free range? I cup feed because it is easier to monitor for me. Right now he eats what he wants out of about 10 at a time- he will usually stop at around 4-5, and I put the rest back in the keeper to re-gutload.

With that said, I have seen plenty of pictures of obese chams, which cant be good either.

 

[reptileguy]

yea i cup feed, b/c the crix get behind the false wall that is in there and i can't keep track if he is eating them or they are finding a way out......but he seems to not be interested in them very much....he is about 15 months old, like i said the 1st day he ate about 6, the second about 3 and it goes down....yesterday he didn't eat at all