Curious about size...

[lslcronk]

So I am going to show my inexperience here for a moment lol Claude is going to be a year old on 12/30/11 (very exciting) and I am wondering where he is on size/weight.

He is 7 inches snout to vent and 92 grams. From what I have read unless they have huge growth spurts past a year old, he seems kinda small. Not that I care, we all know "size doesn't matter" Thanks guys!

 

[jannb]

92 grams is kind of small for a year old male panther but they never stop growing and he should continue to fill out. What are are you feeding him? Silkworms and horns should put some weight on him.

 

[lslcronk]

Hi Jann!! See that is what I was thinking, I was trying really hard to get him on dubia but he was refusing to eat them, so he would go a day or 2 and not eat at all or just a few crickets. I have given in and got him on crickets, hornworms (which he loves) and I am trying silks again but he wont touch those either (this is the second go on them) and I got some butterworms as well. He just seems really picky about his food! I know one of the guys was saying if they wont eat something it is the keeper's fault but I think he would starve to death before he would eat a roach or a silk worm! lol

 

[Ace]

my Zulu turned a year in june this year and around that time i took him to to the vets and weighed him, from what i recall he was 125-130 grams, hope this helps

i here ya my guy is already 1.5 years and i think he is 150 grams max lol, hearing sambavas being 200-250 makes me think my guy must be on the small size lol

 

[lslcronk]

Ace...that does help, so he is a bit lite! What got me thinking about it was all these babies (Chuck's ambanjas and there is a sambava baby on the Kammer's site) that I think are as big as Claude and they are only 3 months... I know they aren't, but it got me thinking!

I am hoping he is just behind due to the last couple months of trying to get him to eat dubia and it is winter here so we cant get out for some real sunshine...

 

[Sticktongue]

I have one of chucks Ambanjas. He is a monster it seems like. nearly 30 grams.

On the other hand, My last ambilobe didnt hit the 100 gram mark till he was about 10 months old. I felt he was on the small side as well.

What really helped him on gaining weight, was silk worms. He grew a lot when i added those into his diet, and fed them quite often.

 

[pssh]

Well, assuming he is healthy, he can go more than two days without food. Healthy adults can go more than a month without food sometimes. He might not know he likes silkworms or dubia if he hasn't tried any yet. To try dubias, I find that my reluctant chameleons change their mind when they see a white freshly molted bug. I've never had one refuse a white roach. I've also just popped a freshly killed worm or roach into their mouth while they chew on something else.

I had a very petite guy who was only 115 or so grams by 24 months old. Several vet visits (with several different vets to be sure) confirmed that the vets couldn't find anything wrong with him, he was just a little guy. I fed him as much as he wanted on the very best insects fed the very best food too. I'm talking like serious gutloading with at least a good 80 or so different things being used regularly. He made up for his size with his color though!

 

[lslcronk]

Thanks Pssh!! lol He has tried the dubia for sure, he even took one once, bit it and then spit it out! lol He has eaten a few and then it slowly got to where he wouldn't touch them. I will keep trying as I dont have anything else to feed my colony of about 2000 to other than 1 little crested gecko! I will definately try the white ones!! I see them running around in there all the time! Great idea!! I like hearing that some are just smaller though, cuz he seems great otherwise!

 

[Draco1702]

I have been interesting in learning more about weight-for-age.... Based on my personal experiece, I agree that 92g is a somewhat low weight. Around 1 year of age my male ambilobe was 132g. He is 19 months now and weights 206 grams. Hope this helps.

 

[Olimpia]

My two panthers males are "small" then, according to these weights. Daedalus, who the vet has said looks fat, is at about 120g. So his healthy weight might be closer to 100-110g. My other male is exactly at 100g, and they're both close to 2 years old, so they won't get any bigger. But size wise I feel like they're perfectly typical, they're not huge but not tiny either. Not really smaller than other panthers I see in person.

 

[carol5208]

holy crap! My Romeo is around 250 grams or so!! He does not eat that much and his fat pads are not crazy inflated or anything. Maybe it is just that he is a Sambava? I guess he is just "big boned". Like they say for us women, we are not fat, just big boned!

 

[jannb]

I have four male panthers. The youngest is Hendershot, two years old and he weights 142 grams. He's a Nosey Be and since I've had him, all he'll eat is superworms but I do gutload them very well. Occasionally I can get him to eat a hornworm. Sid three years, weighs 232, Jr three years, 224 grams and Mufasa 5 years and 165 grams. These last three are Ambilobes.

 

[lslcronk]

Oh man! I got some feeding to do! LOL maybe he is just the wimpy kid...Claude and Olimpias babies must be on the chess club and Carol has the bully and jann, well you have the whole football team!

I will just keep up with my gutload and keep adding worms and keep my fingers crossed! If he doesn't start picking up weight we may make our first vet trip just to be safe!

 

[pssh]

I love how Carol and I have sambavas on the opposite ends of the spectrum! The guy I was talking about was a sambava. If Carol's Romeo ever decided to be a bully, he would have squished my guy like a cricket!

Like Olympia, mine didn't look particularly smaller than some others that I've seen. He just didn't weigh as much. He felt like a rock when I held him though. Maybe my hands/arms are lame, but he felt like he was the same weight as another on of my chameleons that was 170 grams or so.