Parsonii getting bigger- slowly

Hi Felix- Thank you so much for those dates and weights- I'm going to write them down and keep them, really helpful and I'm pleased to see 20g+ is looking good.
I weighed the female today - first time since sept16 when she was 460g - guess what she weighed?
560g I have a horrid feeling she's gravid- she's huge so I'm going to be mega stressed when that all kicks off!:eek:
Thanks again for the help :),

Know problem glad I could help..
By the way your female probably not gravid she just enjoying the fruits of your labor..Lol..:ROFLMAO:
 
Know problem glad I could help..
By the way your female probably not gravid she just enjoying the fruits of your labor..Lol..:ROFLMAO:
Crikey- too many silkworm pies and locust biscuits then :ROFLMAO:.
I don't know what the average weight for a female is. She was 435g when I got her at the same time as the boy so she's bulked up a bit:oops::LOL:
Your boy was adorable when he was little- and looking absolutely spectacular now, congratulations!
 
Hi Actionjackson, Thanks for taking a look at her- This is her about 30 minutes ago having her morning shower,


Don't think this picture is of any help and as you can see she didnt either.


And this is her back in August last year- 1.5 months after I got her. ( chunky thighs!)
 
She's huge :) She's CBB right? She looks likes she gets plenty of food. At that size I would say she could be gravid but she would be a bit off schedule if CBB.
 
Actionjackson, when is the egg laying season in the wild for these then, when are they likely to lay in captivity if she's CBB. I found a site I hadn't found before earlier called planetparsonii and he had some at 500 g .
I certainly tried to let her brumate, how well I did I don't know, she was less active but kind of let her dictate what she wanted, I offered food and thought she might drop her interest but in general she kept eating, I did offer fewer meals but she didn't reject anything which I have to admit I was pleased about as I thought she might stop eating altogether.
 
Actionjackson, when is the egg laying season in the wild for these then, when are they likely to lay in captivity if she's CBB. I found a site I hadn't found before earlier called planetparsonii and he had some at 500 g .
I certainly tried to let her brumate, how well I did I don't know, she was less active but kind of let her dictate what she wanted, I offered food and thought she might drop her interest but in general she kept eating, I did offer fewer meals but she didn't reject anything which I have to admit I was pleased about as I thought she might stop eating altogether.

I know of the person that has that website. I believe all of his are young (around 1 yr old) and aren't 500g. In fact he has two for the babies I produced. I sold him the first one around the beginning of last year.

If your female truly brumated she would not have eaten during that time IMO. 500g is a great weight for a female OE. WC females mate in Madagascar summer and lay generally around May. CBB or acclimated WC's mate in our Summer and generally lay in our Winter, Nov-Feb.
 
So does that mean she may or may not be CBB? Idk where you got her @Twitchet so just wondering... but if I remember correctly (with out paging back XD) she was rather small when you got her?
 
Hi there, actionjackson thank you very much for that info, very helpful, gives me more insight into what she might be doing.
Andee yes she's definitely CBB, the previous owner got her at a few months, she's now nearly 5, and I got her at 4, although the the boy was small, I have their paper work, with her CB parents names and numbers and the boy came from the same breeder so it's really nice to know their parentage. She's very chilled out, easy to handle, she still goes chequerboard pattern on me but she steps up onto your hand when it's time to go back indoors and her back feet move around looking for a finger to grasp onto, she's very good at hand feeding too.
Thank you so much to all for all help given (y)
 
Yes tell me about it- when winter came and she didnt eat one day I though that's it- she's not going to eat and become thin and die- all in the space of about 5 seconds, :LOL:anyway- both she and I plodded along and all was well, Thats why I like to offer food pretty much every day, then at least if there's a day or two not eating it's not much of a gap- its not like offering every three or four days and then when they miss one it's days into a week, I worry too much about them already :Dso i like to know they all have something even if it's small everyday.
 
Well yeah, and I have realized giant species like meller's and parsons are less likely to over eat from what I have read on the forums. Even the females. And you girl with all the extra weight (she doesn't even look fat, just healthy, I mean she has definite fat stores in her casque and stuff but I have seen so much worse, she actually has less fat in her casque then when you got her which I think she is at a healthier amount right now, not too much but just enough) she could safely brumate and you wouldn't have to worry about weight loss, or if she got sick or went on a hunger strike in my opinion she could go a lot longer without force feeding or you breaking and it would be ok. She is rather round in the belly and since she is carrying the extra grams I am wondering how much of it is the extra weight from maybe being gravid? It might be worth tracking her weight every week to see how much she is putting on and see if it's drastic enough to consider the possibility of eggs <3
 
Yes, certainly I try my best to give her a varied and healthy range of foods, Ultimately it's down to her if she wants to eat or not, certainly can't make her but I consider myself lucky and also pleased that hopefully I'm doing o.k that she and the boy have not dropped their eating habits and eat well since I had them, just a month at the beginning when the boy who was incredibly shy took some time to settle, She came out the box and ate a roach straight away :p:eek:
I handle her daily now so weighing won't be a trouble so i'll start doing that.
Thanks(y)
 
I guess one needs to ask themselves "is a fat chameleon a healthy chameleon?" Parson's like most chameleons can over eat and I wouldn't be surprised if an overweight female Parson's might have trouble laying eggs. Parson's have fat pads by their hind quarters and if these get too big it could have an impact on egg laying I suspect. I can't pretty much guarantee that females or males don't get fat in the wild. If you look at pictures of Parson's on some of the FB pages you will see a lot of overweight Parson's. There seems to be a lot of people that are trying to grow the biggest Parson's, to each their own but I'm not sure that is a health thing to try and do.

As far as whether or not your female is gravid, if you suspect she is and at that size I would, you should have an X-ray done. It's not always easy to tell unless they are really far along. You could try to feel for eggs. Another sigh is if she goes off her food.

I gave up worrying about my Parson's when they stop eating (I'm not talking about gravid females here) Parson's can go months with out eating with almost no weight loss, 5-6 months no problem.
 
I didn't even know Parson's have fatpads near their hind quarters. Very glad I join these threads, it's always nice to learn more about a new species. Especially if I ever get to keep Parsons like I want ^^
 
:( Thanks for the info - I appreciate all advice-
I 'm a bit sad :(:unsure::) as I thought I was doing well with her- I always try to reassess what I do but I feel I annoyed at myself for not being more aware- I feed her regularly and she eats regularly- having said that if she takes food she never eats again that day so it's always just one item and that's it,
I am annoyed at myself for not reducing her intake- I will feed 3 days a week now then maybe reduce a little more- As a new owner I was paranoid about having an animal ( parsons or any other species as Jacksjill says) that people say can potentially go off food, has hunger strikes, won't take certain foods, needs variety so I was always trying to make sure she ate but now I see I am probably blessed with an easy going fairly easy feeding animal and that means I can relax and go a bit less on food.
Thanks again, It's thrown some interesting pieces of info here and it all adds.:)
 
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