Picky eater!

[Murrdox]

I have a 9 month old Panther who's been doing great overall. Lately he's had a couple minor setbacks though, but I still think he's doing very well.

First of all, I burned him a couple of weeks ago. This was my fault, I replaced his bulb and lamp with a higher wattage, but farther from the cage. However, while I measured the ambient temperature of his enclosure and everything was good, I failed to measure his basking spot. He got a small burn on the ridge of his back and on one knee. I feel awful about it.

Fortunately, after a hunger strike that lasted a day, he seems to have recovered, and is doing well. He's on his first shed after the burn, so I'm hoping the marks will fade with time.

Secondly, he's developing into a picky eater.

First, he would eat anything I put in his feeding cup or hand-fed him.

A month or two ago, he decided he didn't like crickets which weren't dusted. He would gobble down a dozen dusted crickets, but he wouldn't TOUCH non-dusted ones. He would still eat hand-fed non-dusted crickets, but they didn't interest him nearly as much. Every morning, he would be down next to his feeding cup, waiting to be fed.

Now, he doesn't like his feeding cup at all anymore. He doesn't sit by it anymore. He won't go for dusted crickets or non-dusted unless he's being hand-fed.

He's suddenly decided that he loves super-worms. He's always VERY interested in them when presented with them, but again, he won't touch them if they're in his cup.

This morning, figuring maybe he just hates cup-feeding now... I put a few crickets in his cage allowing them to free-roam. Sure enough, he hunted down the 2 or 3 of them who started climbing up the screen towards him.

I'm thinking I need to replace his feeding cup with something else, I don't know why he's suddenly decided he doesn't like it. He's also a little under-weight I believe, so I'm trying to fatten him up, and his picky eating isn't helping lately. I wish I had a scale that could weigh him, but I don't. I'm just going by the fact that the base of his tail isn't as fat as I'd like it, and the ridge on his back looks thin. He's very hydrated though, and very active. I just need to bulk him up.

 

[dodolah]

just wondering, how many adult crickets total you normally feed him a day (assuming that he is not in his picky mood)?

 

[Murrdox]

Anywhere from 8 - 12. The crickets range in size from .5" to .75" usually. The pet store I've been getting his crickets from isn't good about having a consistent size of crickets. I'd prefer feeding him 6-8 large ones.

 

[GooglezNvincent]

Have you tried mealworms, Silkworms, Roaches, or any other type of insect? usually ones a cham gets picky if you change his whole diet hell eat again, and then you can switch back and hell still be interested.

 

[Murrdox]

Yeah, that's what I'm planning on doing. I'm going to change his whole diet for awhile.

He loves the super-worms so I'm getting some more of those, and I was thinking of getting some hornworms as well.

I don't know if I have the space in my apartment to breed a roach colony at the moment.

I want to get him a bunch of wax worms as well to help him gain some weight. Don't want to over-feed him on those though. Unfortunately the last batch I got from the pet-store were bad.

 

[GooglezNvincent]

i am not very knowledgible but i would want to warn you that i have recently read super are very fatty so be careful about that, and i also read something in the natur that you need topierce the skin of horned worms to ease digestion for your cham, look further into it though because as i said i am not completely knowlegible on those issuse, i have only recently read those fact i need to read up on them more.

 

[Jason4045]

Butterworms are good for putting on some size for an underweight cham aswell. I am going through the same senario as you are with the picky eating from my male panther. He ate crickets just fine now doesnt show any interest in them. I have him on silkies and butters/horns as treats. He didnt care much for mealworms though. Mealworms to me are kind of a disapointing food, as they have that hard exoskeleton and not much of a meaty/juicy inside like a silkie,butter,horn,wax...etc I get my butters from Mulberry Farms. I want to try the whole "roach colony" after I get rid of some these worms. I hear they kinda "blow up" if kept in the correct climate. I am known to go overboard with the bugs, as I order way more then I need and soon find myself knee deep in crawling critters. I guess I just like to try them all to see what they like.

-Jay

 

[GooglezNvincent]

Butterworms are good for putting on some size for an underweight cham aswell. I am going through the same senario as you are with the picky eating from my male panther. He ate crickets just fine now doesnt show any interest in them. I have him on silkies and butters/horns as treats. He didnt care much for mealworms though. Mealworms to me are kind of a disapointing food, as they have that hard exoskeleton and not much of a meaty/juicy inside like a silkie,butter,horn,wax...etc I get my butters from Mulberry Farms. I want to try the whole "roach colony" after I get rid of some these worms. I hear they kinda "blow up" if kept in the correct climate. I am known to go overboard with the bugs, as I order way more then I need and soon find myself knee deep in crawling critters. I guess I just like to try them all to see what they like.
-Jay

LOL same here bro!

 

[dodolah]

Actually, 8 - 12 crix/ daily for a 9 month old panther is quite a feast.
Your panther is about to enter the age where he can be fed once every other day. That will ensure his appetite.

Why do you feel he is under weight?

Perhaps, can we see a pic of your chameleon?

 

[GooglezNvincent]

Actually, 8 - 12 crix/ daily for a 9 month old panther is quite a feast.
Your panther is about to enter the age where he can be fed once every other day. That will ensure his appetite.

Why do you feel he is under weight?

Perhaps, can we see a pic of your chameleon?

Why is it that chameleons do that? the older they get the slower their metabolism because they arent growing or is it another reason?

 

[dodolah]

Why is it that chameleons do that? the older they get the slower their metabolism because they arent growing or is it another reason?

I always thought one of the reason is due to the fact they no longer need to grow exponentially like before. To be technically correct, chameleons never stop growing. Only difference between a baby and an adult is their growth rate.

Hence, I believe not to overfeed juvenile chameleon to avoid him growing too fast too soon messing with his bone density.

 

[GooglezNvincent]

I always thought one of the reason is due to the fact they no longer need to grow exponentially like before. To be technically correct, chameleons never stop growing. Only difference between a baby and an adult is their growth rate.

Hence, I believe not to overfeed juvenile chameleon to avoid him growing too fast too soon messing with his bone density.

AH I C! ok thanks for the info

 

[Murrdox]

Why do you feel he is under weight?

Perhaps, can we see a pic of your chameleon?

I took some pictures of him when I got home from work. I also picked him up some GOOD waxworms from another petstore nearby I hadn't been to before. He ate 5 of those. Hopefully I'll be able to get him bulked up.

Let me know what you think.

First is just a front pic... hopefully you'll agree his eyes are nice and googly, and he looks hydrated, but I don't like how I can make out his shoulder and spine. Keep in mind I'm holding him, so he's a little puffed out.

Second you can see his leg, back and tail, and see his burn. It's healing. There used to be some white in there, but it's getting smaller. He's starting to shed, so I'm hoping that will improve. You can see that his tail has a bulge in it, instead of being uniformly round. Sometimes when he crawls around his cage and he's stretched out, I can distinctly see the top, middle, and bottom "layers" of his tail.

I enclosed a picture of his enclosure just for the heck of it.

Finally I took a picture of him after I put him back in his enclosure. He's not so puffed out. You can see a little better how you can see the outline of his spine. This is how he looks most of the time.

I dunno maybe I'm imagining things, he just looks a little underweight to me.

 

[Murrdox]

Here's another picture I found which I took over the weekend when cleaning his cage. You can sort of see what I was talking about earlier.

 

[dodolah]

he does not look skinny to me.
his fat pad could be a bit more plump..
but other than that he looked ok.
Perhaps, other experienced member can agree or disagree?

 

[Murrdox]

Well, that's a relief I suppose. Maybe I'm just imagining things. He's my first Nosy be, and I'm just a bit paranoid about taking good care of him... especially after my mistake left him with a burn.

He's been gobbling down waxworms and superworms... he won't even look at crickets right now! It's like he got tired of McDonalds.

 

[Rocky]

well i'd say the supers are more like mc donalds

 

[Murrdox]

Are they? I was under the impression waxworms had a higher fat content and less real nutrition than supers.

 

[BocaJan]

I found with cup feeding that if you put too many crix into a cup and they are all bunched in a pile your cham has trouble distinguishing the one he wants so he gets confused and won't eat any. I increased the size of my container and he is now happy feeding crix. Also, you could put less into your cup and feed him 2x/day. I am also wondering since he is 9 mos old, if he's not switching to his adult way of eating less. Try giving him 6 crix every other day and I bet he snarfs them out of the cup. 6 is plenty. If you aren't happy with that then try 4/day.

 

[Fireball]

I wouldnt worry about his weight his fat pads look a little small to me but nothing to worry about but it could just be the pictures and if you are feeding him nothing but worms he will put on some weight because they are higher in fat vs crickets.

Try feeding him small amounts of crickets twice a day(2-3) morning and a couple hours before he goes to bed. This has worked on my cham when he goes on a cricket strike and wants nothing but worms. He might eat a little less than what you are normally feeding him but thats because you might have been feeding him to much and now that he is getting older he will eat less and less because he is not growing as fast.

In your picture of your enclosure to me it looks like a regular light bulb and that is the only concern i have with the pictures you took.

If it is a regular bulb you need to change it or add a bulb that gives off UVB rays(repsun 5.0 or a MV light bulb ect) because they need it. Also with your cham eating nothing but high fat worms he will be absorbing less calcium and if thats a regular bulb MBD could become a problem.