Food for thought
- Thread starter Courtney
- Start date
justjumpit621
New Member
Well typically you would feed enough so that they wont lose weight or gain weight unless they are still growing. It also depends on the nutritional value of the foods. I would use the scale to weigh your chams, but not to weigh the food you feed them.
SpinyFranky
New Member
Well, consider this.
Say a human eats a watermelon, thats pretty heavy.
Now say a human eats the equivalent of a watermelon's weight in cookies.
The weight of the food is not as important as the nutritional content of it. People are afraid of feeding their animals to many calories, that will not be used and sent instead as fat reserves. Chameleons carry fat around their internal organs ( or so Ive been told ) which means while they will not get the love handles we do, they are put at higher health risks.
At the same time underfeeding leaves the cham with no source of calories to be used ( unless of course their is fat reserve), and because of this the animal takes it from muscles. Eventually this makes the animal very weak.
Hope this clears stuff up,
S.F
yes think of it this way....there are crix that dont eat as much as others..i keep thousands at a time...i only feed the fat ones off im not saying the giant adults i have thoes too for my gravid veiled.....sometimes stores dont have the size you need but larger or smalleryou can very eaisly find yourself over feeding under feeding because of size difference...i dont follow feeding amount regimines...they are wild and i re create their habitat i have found if you dont limit food intake a cham will eat till its full out of your hand faster and will have its own way of leting you know its hungry....which is adult wings and all crix i have 2 sub adult veilds they get between 6-10 the gravid veild who is 2-3 times their size gets 10+ crix every day and 3 supers every other day injected with watered down gatoraid pedialyte cause she will not drink from a dripper or misting at all shes a rescue and did not plan on her getink knocked up..the last 2 days though i have caught her drinking off of the plant pot so at least shes coming around...she use to just sit where ever you put her but turn her back to you she would sit for days broke my heart... 2 sub adult panthers get 8-15 a day...some days less depends on the weather and how much sun they got....and smetimes they just arent hungry...my old cham hated misting and if i turned his dripper on every day he wouldnt drink from it he would jerk the yube out of it i got tired of cleaning up lots of water i set it up left it off for 2 days he went and sat under it i turned it on he drank for 10 mins he walked away i turned it off after awhile of doing this she would just ask for it...miss that girl she was very inteligent responded when she was spoken too loved being just righ where ever i was
SpinyFranky
New Member
Right,
I feed my chams in a similar way. I think every animal is different, so if one of them finishes their food very quickly I will offer more until they refuse. I think doing this prevents the cham from feeling starved, which will over all reduce stress. It also prevents binge eating on the rare occasion they get access to a large food source.
With the weighing thing,
say you weigh your crickets... what weight are you going to be looking for?
and how will this indicate the nutritional value of the cricket? you could be weighing fat, not nutrients. In fact you probably are.
Crickets are also fairly vicious to each other, if there is food they will all fight to eat it. As long as you are gut loading properly, then I don't really see an issue with feeding your chameleons that way.
But the weighing thing may be a tad out of line. Its unrealistic to consider weighing each feeder before you feed it. Especially considering each animal will consume each day.
I feed my chams in a similar way. I think every animal is different, so if one of them finishes their food very quickly I will offer more until they refuse. I think doing this prevents the cham from feeling starved, which will over all reduce stress. It also prevents binge eating on the rare occasion they get access to a large food source.
With the weighing thing,
say you weigh your crickets... what weight are you going to be looking for?
and how will this indicate the nutritional value of the cricket? you could be weighing fat, not nutrients. In fact you probably are.
Crickets are also fairly vicious to each other, if there is food they will all fight to eat it. As long as you are gut loading properly, then I don't really see an issue with feeding your chameleons that way.
But the weighing thing may be a tad out of line. Its unrealistic to consider weighing each feeder before you feed it. Especially considering each animal will consume each day.
justjumpit621
New Member
Were you feeding the gravid female veiled 10+ crix every day and few super worms BEFORE she became gravid? You do know even though she has eggs it doesn't mean she is necessarily "knocked-up" right? They do produce infertile eggs unless put on a strict diet and lower temps? The extra food while she is gravid is good but I would definitely lower it to maybe 5 crix every other day a week or so after laying.
sandrachameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
I weight my chameleons on a semi-regular basis. I dont weigh their food. I do think about quantity in terms of food volume, meaning a large silkworm counts like two or three crickets worth.
before she was gravid...and im 75% sure they will be fertile i opened eckos cage to feed the day after i caught him in the tree he literally jumped out to my head and to her tree it was either allow nature take its course or hurt a cham or get hurt, bushy ficus. she is now in a large cage as i ahve down sized and have a spare smaller cage for ecko... nel doesnt like being in a cage im not sure she realizes she is in one. shes not acting depressed as she did before
justjumpit621
New Member
Once she has layed, give her all the food she wants for a few days, and then lower the amount to about 6 crickets every other day and a superworm or two. Also, keep her temps down to about 75 at her basking spot. I would also try using pedialyte instead of gatorade, gatorade is full of sugars.
