Cannibalism

I came across this youtube video and was wondering how common this behavior was. I cant ever remembering hearing anything like this before, even though I know most species have/will eat their own. Anyone have any experiences?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9c3O4QZwqY

sometimes adults will eat their young or other small lizards.. not common, but not unusual.

I watched this video the other day, I thought they were going to fight but she just went and ate him.

it is more common than we would like to think of i imagine, and the big reason with live bearing chams such as the jacksons that it is recomended to immediatly sepperate the newly bron babies from the parents.

BoopDoop said:

I watched this video the other day, I thought they were going to fight but she just went and ate him.

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as i was watching it i was trying to figure out what the lil guy was trying to do... i guess the big guy said "hey dude, i gave you till the count of 3, now your gonna get it!" kinda sad , poor lil dude

Ahhhh mother nature. Policing all creatures. Pretty sad to see a little guy go like that but it happens in the wild.

I have nothing to back this up but I would imagine desert creatures would be more apt to this behavior due to the scarcity of other prey. Just a theory.

ecoreef said:

I have nothing to back this up but I would imagine desert creatures would be more apt to this behavior due to the scarcity of other prey. Just a theory.

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That's a pretty good point... I'm sure they have some sand bugs to dine on but this guy looked like he was asking for it.

Just being a greedy female is reason enough! I showed Monty to Amy the other day (Monty is a tiny 12g baby Jackson and Amy is a 3 year old Veiled girl), and what did she do? Oh yeah, she took aim at him thinking he was food! I have no doubt that she would have eaten him given half the chance! My friend's female Veiled has also taken aim at her babies!

HA! i think he was committing suicide. chams may have all the personality in the the world but when it comes to actual intelligence.....

and sadly i have had an experience with cannibalism, i had one panther escape and eat nearly all of a sibling clutch that had recently hatched out. i suppose thats what i get for keeping all of my newly hatched clutches housed in large tupperware containers. i then named him johnathan swift.

i think that is the ONLY time i have ever wanted to snap a chameleons neck, but it was my fault.

Hoj said:

it is more common than we would like to think of i imagine, and the big reason with live bearing chams such as the jacksons that it is recomended to immediatly sepperate the newly bron babies from the parents.

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and yes thats the exact reason im freaking out about my female jacksons giving birth. im hoping she starts fasting and keeps it that way till i can rescue her babies.

I watch that video on Discovery.. I was pretty shocked!

yowsers! that little one looked like he was asking for it and then bam! i can't believe it was messing w/ the big one like that. i guess it got what was coming to him...

Little guy had moxie! Had...


Gosh that makes me nervous about having younger chams. I have no reason to be nervous because obviously i would never let anything with that size difference near each other but damn.

Ah that vid really sucks to watch I love my baby Cham if she got eaten I'd kill the eater lol I saw a vid on YouTube of this dude feeding his panther anoles I had no idea they would eat eachother


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.940451,-74.185375

Most of nature does this. Lions even eat their owns cubs, but I can def tell you insects are the worst. Its sad, but its mother nature

Dancing with death. The size difference is immense!

Almost

Hello everyone, today I had a bad morning, I have one sub adult chameleon and today I bought a baby chameleon. When the baby one arrive I put it in the sub adult cage. My larger chameleon almost ate it. He got the head but I separate them and the baby is alive, he almost died, he didn't move for like 2 minutes. He is now ok but im not sure, what can i do?

This thread is very old, so you should start a new one and fill out the help form. They need to be kept in separate cages and should not be able to see each other (there should be a visual barrier between the cages).

Does the baby have wounds? Can you post a picture of him (in the new thread)? If his head was chewed on by the other cham he most likely has injuries and you will need to take him to the vet to prevent infections, assuming the damage is not too serious.

Sorry you had to experience this, but you can get a lot of good advice on these forums. Almost all species of chameleons need to be kept entirely separate.

Sherlinwed said:

Most of nature does this. Lions even eat their owns cubs, but I can def tell you insects are the worst. Its sad, but its mother nature

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Generally it is the males that eat the cubs in order to force the females into estrus so they can mate with them. I have a colony of dubias which had been neglected for several months and they cannibalized their tank mates to survive. Nature is rough and often sucks!

I did not and won't watch the video and won't watch nature shows on NatGeo or discovery for that reason. I know the weaker animals become prey, I just don't have (or need) to watch it. Don't mean to sound sanctimonious I just don't like to see things die. It is one of the reasons I don't keep snakes and I do feel bad for the bugs but they are just bugs and don't really know what is coming!