Can a Cham over eat?

[LennyandLilly]

My new one year old female, that may be preganant, eats everything in site....Can chams over eat? Also do every female Cham in gravid show gravid colors? She seems to be getting bigger but I dont know the gravid timeline. She hooked up with a male 23 days ago.

 

[Scottsquatch]

Is she by chance a veiled chameleon? They are known to be very opportunistic feeders, and will overeat when given the chance. Peter Necas was talking about the issue of overweight chameleons on the Chameleons USA Facebook group, and overweight chams do seem to be a somewhat common issue with many captive chams.

 

[Brodybreaux25]

Yes and no.

No they will not overeat in a single feeding session. In my experience no matter how many grasshoppers I put I’m their viv they will stop eating once they are full.

However when I comes to females yes, they can overeat. Not in the sense that they will get fat, but that if they are consistently over fed they will have abnormally large clutch sizes. Large clutch sizes are very taxing on their bodies and shorten their lifespan.

Always keep the lay bin in her enclosure no matter what part of her cycle she is in, then you don’t have to worry about the timing.

 

[Brodybreaux25]

Is she by chance a veiled chameleon? They are known to be very opportunistic feeders, and will overeat when given the chance. Peter Necas was talking about the issue of overweight chameleons on the Chameleons USA Facebook group, and overweight chams do seem to be a somewhat common issue with many captive chams.

Again this is my experience, if Peter Necas says they will, then they will! Guess mine are oddballs...

 

[Scottsquatch]

Again this is my experience, if Peter Necas says they will, then they will! Guess mine are oddballs...

I don't know that all veiled do this, so yours probably are not "odd" per say. I just remembered the discussion as it was very interesting to me that it can be a problem for chams as well as us humans!

 

[LennyandLilly]

Yes and no.

No they will not overeat in a single feeding session. In my experience no matter how many grasshoppers I put I’m their viv they will stop eating once they are full.

However when I comes to females yes, they can overeat. Not in the sense that they will get fat, but that if they are consistently over fed they will have abnormally large clutch sizes. Large clutch sizes are very taxing on their bodies and shorten their lifespan.

Always keep the lay bin in her enclosure no matter what part of her cycle she is in, then you don’t have to worry about the timing.

Thank you for your reply....She is a panther chameleon. She has been eating like crazy every other day. Is that ok? Being pregnant, can she only eat every other day? Then on the feeding day eat like a piglet. She's a funny one!!

 

[Brodybreaux25]

Thank you for your reply....She is a panther chameleon. She has been eating like crazy every other day. Is that ok? Being pregnant, can she only eat every other day? Then on the feeding day eat like a piglet. She's a funny one!!

During that time period between mating and laying I’d say it’s probably ok for her to eat as much as she wants and even into the week after to get her strength back up. But after that defanitly go back to her every other day schedule.