Eating Late Question

[browncofan]

I have a 3.5 month old Nosy Be Panther Male, He has been mine for a little over three weeks and has settled in nicely. He had a well baby check and given a clean bill of health on Friday. No Parasites and weighs 30g.

I know it is not good for his digestion to eat late in the evening. I put his worms and dubia in his cup at 10 am every day after he is heavily misted and then I go to work. I come home around 930 pm and his food is usually gone or nearly gone. He is always tucked into his sleeping spot I check on him and it is lights off at 10.

My concern is this past weekend and tonight I was home and noticed that he didn't touch his food till about 7 pm. Then by 8ish he is in bed. The food has been there all day. Why is he waiting till so late to eat. I am not sure how to fix this. Any suggestions???

 

[juice28]

That is a good question and im anxious to see the replies. You cant really tell your cham when to eat lol. Maybe the heavy mistings are keeping him cooler then by the time he heats up enough, its late

 

[junglefries]

If you are really concerned, you can remove the heavier shelled insects in the afternoon. maybe leave silkworms, hornworms, or freshly molted (white ones) superworms for later in the day.

 

[fluxlizard]

It really doesn't matter so much IMO. It's a kindly thought but-

Wild chameleons eat when they get the chance, they don't check their clocks to see what time it is.

They are cold blooded- everything slows down at night when they sleep and cool down, including digestion. Things just speed up again and continue the next day when they wake up.

I feed mine all sorts of hours and it has never been a problem.

In fact, in the past when I had to force feed sick recent imports that were undergoing treatment, I always did it at night just before or immediately after so they would sleep the stress off and forget the treatment and have a stress free day the next day until they had to be fed again. They always did really well with this schedule and digested just fine. I took a group of several melleri once that the importer gave me for almost nothing because they were described as "the bottom of the barrel and probably won't make it" and some of them nearly doubled in weight in less than 2 weeks (they were severely dehydrated and starved, sick and parasitized). All made significant weight gains and improvements. I didn't loose one from the group. I'm a big believer in using this time of day trick to reduce stress of medication and force feeding when such tragic measures are necessary.

So personally, I wouldn't worry about it too much. If your cham is still working on digesting something, it will wait until the next day. It isn't going to rot in there overnight or anything- would take much longer than that. It seems like chameleons are pretty good lizards at digesting in suboptimal temperatures anyway to begin with...

 

[fluxlizard]

Oh- forgot to add- but if it really bothers you, simply remove the food in the evening and only offer in the morning. When he goes to bed without supper, he may decide he's hungry for breakfast.

 

[carol5208]

Flux, I agree with you totally. There have been days when I have gotten home late and I have fed my chameleons toward early evening. They were fine as far as digestion and you are right in the wild they probably would not pass on a prey item if they were hungry and it was getting late in the day!

 

[Saldarya]

I will go ahead and chime in as well. 2-3 days of the week that I feed it is with only a few hours left before days end.

Never an issue.

I also believe mixing it up has some intangible benefit. On the weekends when I am home they get offered food first thing in the AM. During the weekdays when I travel, my wife does not get them fed until a few hours before dark.

Again, no issues.

 

[ridgebax1]

I work and live on a night schedule and feed when I get home in the mornings around 0730-0800; lights go on at 0730; On my days off I go to bed around 0400-0600 and feeding time is whenever I get up. I have never had any issues related to this. Most of the time the feeding is 0730-0800 and I put the food in a cup or dish so he can decide when to eat; usually it is within 15-20 minutes of being placed in the cage; the mister goes off right after lights on then the dripper is going all day, so he pretty much eats and drinks when he is ready.

 

[browncofan]

Thanks

Thank you everyone. I will continue to let him eat when he wants. I work all day and can't come home so no way to take the food out till 930pm when I get home.

He may also be eating in the morning and just eating again at night. My next days off I will try to watch and see what he does. I usually just put the food in and walk away, he won't eat if I stand and watch him.

Thanks

 

[Shaunny]

I agree also Trevor gets fed when I have time i.e. morning or night. Depending I work. Sometimes he won't eat mornings but will at night or vis-versa

 

[Psychobunny]

I dont feed my guys any later then 5pm, usually, earlier.
They seem to do best if they can bask at least 1 hour after eating and before lights out, at 6:30pm.
Changing season, gets dark here now early.

 

[Yak]

I do the same