Trying to fatten up Guac!

[tayguac]

Hello! I'm trying to, in essence, fatten up my juvenile veiled chameleon. (He is approx. 4 mo, they did not tell me how old he was). He was in bad shape when I got him, completely blind in both eyes and skinny as a twig. He's now able to see almost perfectly in both eyes and has started hand feeding and hunting on his own. I currently feed him ~ 6 large crickets, gut loaded (I feed the crickets spinach and strawberries, they also have those Orange water cubes), as well as 1-2 supers a day.
He is still not gaining enough weight to be considered completely healthy, and I would really love to see his legs thicken more as they are very slim. What insect is best for relatively quick weight gain, and are there specific ways to feed these to him?
Thank you for any and all advice!!!

 

[kinyonga]

Welcome to the forum!
Sounds like you are helping this poor chameleon well so far!

Please post a recent photo of him.

Spinach is not a good food for the insects. Better choices are greens and veggies such as dandelion greens, kale, coll,ards, endive, escarole, carrots, squash, zucchini, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, etc and a bit of fruit such as berries, apple, pear, melon. The orange cubes are not something I use and most people don't.

You said how much you fed him each day...is that all he will eat or just all you offer him?
Do you dust the insects with a phosphorous-free calcium powder just before you feed them to him?
What temperature is the basking area at? Does he have a UVB light?

 

[tayguac]

Welcome to the forum!
Sounds like you are helping this poor chameleon well so far!

Please post a recent photo of him.

Spinach is not a good food for the insects. Better choices are greens and veggies such as dandelion greens, kale, coll,ards, endive, escarole, carrots, squash, zucchini, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, etc and a bit of fruit such as berries, apple, pear, melon. The orange cubes are not something I use and most people don't.

You said how much you fed him each day...is that all he will eat or just all you offer him?
Do you dust the insects with a phosphorous-free calcium powder just before you feed them to him?
What temperature is the basking area at? Does he have a UVB light?

Thank you so much for replying! I will stop feeding my crickets spinach and switch to a few of those vegetables!
What I feed him is all he will eat, I drop 10-12 crickets & usually 2 supers in there a day and sometimes he will eat all of them, other times he will not. I guess I forgot to mention that I do dust them with Rep-Cal (if this is a bad choice please let me know)
His basking area is usually 85, and I have a 5.0 UVB strip light.
This was him the other day just before a vet check-up! He is comfortable climbing on me, just does not like the camera. As you can tell his legs are so so skinny...

[/IMG]

 

[Jared910]

Thank you so much for replying! I will stop feeding my crickets spinach and switch to a few of those vegetables!
What I feed him is all he will eat, I drop 10-12 crickets & usually 2 supers in there a day and sometimes he will eat all of them, other times he will not. I guess I forgot to mention that I do dust them with Rep-Cal (if this is a bad choice please let me know)
His basking area is usually 85, and I have a 5.0 UVB strip light.
This was him the other day just before a vet check-up! He is comfortable climbing on me, just does not like the camera. As you can tell his legs are so so skinny...

[/IMG]

Don't worry too much, he looks good. Just keep feeding and that's all you can do.

 

[kinyonga]

The photo is a little dark...but he looks pretty good!
I use Rep-cal calcium...so I know it's not a problem.
The rest of what you tol d me is good too.
Keep up the good work!

 

[Andee]

I agree he looks a healthy weight for his age in my opinion. At around 8 months his legs will likely start to gain muscle but their legs aren't a chunky part of their body and usually when it is you have to worry more about if it's swelling or something.

 

[tayguac]

Phew!! Thank you so much to all 3 of you, that makes me feel so much better. He is my first cham and I've been pretty paranoid about doing everything properly.
Really appreciate the feedback