What time(s) do you feed your cham?

[Rayzilla]

Just wondering when you all feed your chams. I leave for work very early in the morning (about 6:30am). I understand that chams should be fed during the day when the lights will be on to help with their digestion. So it would not be good to feed them too late in the day.

So if you could share your feeding times, what and how many of them, and the lighting times, it would help with my planning. And anything else I should know or consider.

Thanks.

 

[Damicofam6]

I feed mine anywhere between 10:00 am and 1:00 pm. My lights are on a 8am to 8pm cycle.

 

[brownie64]

I try to feed mine around eleven if I try to feed them too early they don't seem hungry, but anything later I'm afraid they won't be able to digest it properly.

 

[shomegirl]

I feed mine on my lunch hour 1-2pm lights are on 8:30-8:30. Yesterday I couldn't come home for my lunch. So I put 5-6 crickets in the screen before I left for work at 6:30. He found them when he got up

 

[jannb]

I feed my chameleons 3 days a week in the mornings. Morning are good. The lights will be on shortly after you leave. I feed early in the morning but the lights are already on and chams are awake. You might consider having your lights come on earlier.

 

[Rayzilla]

Thanks for everyones comments so far. Keep them coming.

I feed my chameleons 3 days a week in the mornings. Morning are good. The lights will be on shortly after you leave. I feed early in the morning but the lights are already on and chams are awake. You might consider having your lights come on earlier.

Are you only referring to the weekdays, meaing 5 days? If so, on the other two days do you not feed them at all? I have read that chams 'can' go days without eating so I guess that shouldn't be a problem.

Do you think feeding them at 6am is too early? That means the lights would have to come on at 5:30 am'ish and I guess that means that the lights would have to go off around 5:30 pm'ish too? Alternatively, after some time, I can show my helper how to feed them. (It is quite common to have helpers here in Hong Kong.) I have already showed her pictures and YouTube of chameleons and she said that she would not be scared of them but I will have to see how she feels about handling bugs. So that is another possibility.

It appears that everyone only feeds their chams one time each day. I guess it would be too late for me to feed a small bit at 5pm when I get home?

 

[jannb]

My adult healthy chameleons eat 3 days a week. They don't need to eat everyday. Another thing you could do is put feeders in a feeding cup for them before you leave for work and they can eat them anytime they want.

 

[absolutbill]

Yes, 5PM would be too late in the day. I would just get a cup that the feeders can't escape and then place the feeders in there for the chameleon to eat when he wakes up with the lights. I adjust my lights based upon the time of year since my reptile room has a window that I leave the blinds open. Currently my lights are on at 6AM and off at 7PM, and either my husband or I feed at some point between 7 and 9AM (we work in hospitality, so our hours vary a bit as do our days off). I feed my 2 adult chams every other day, sometimes stretching it to every 3 days if they haven't been too hungry.

 

[Rayzilla]

Yes, 5PM would be too late in the day. I would just get a cup that the feeders can't escape and then place the feeders in there for the chameleon to eat when he wakes up with the lights. I adjust my lights based upon the time of year since my reptile room has a window that I leave the blinds open. Currently my lights are on at 6AM and off at 7PM, and either my husband or I feed at some point between 7 and 9AM (we work in hospitality, so our hours vary a bit as do our days off). I feed my 2 adult chams every other day, sometimes stretching it to every 3 days if they haven't been too hungry.

Thanks for you comments.

That's unfortunate. I guess the only time that I will get to personally feed him will be on weekends and school holidays (now that I am a teacher. If I had planned it better, I would have gotten one at the beginning of the summer break so that I would be able to give it a lot of my time). So the cup feeder idea will probably be the most appropriate plan at the start. I just hope he will go for it since I've heard about some not accepting cup feeding but I suppose those are rare cases.

I guess it is debatable which is best, to match the lights to the local sunrise and sunset times or to stay at a constant time all year round. Because of the cold winter nights here, I was thinking about making a blanket cover for when the lights go out so that there is almost total darkness for the cham. I got the idea from @Lathis in my thread here [URL="https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/reptibreeze-led-good-or-just-a-gimmick.151691/#post-1287230"]Reptibreeze LED - Good or just a gimmick?[/URL].

Since I plan to get a cham that is between 3-4 months old, it is best that I feed him every day. At least until he becomes a full adult.