morpheon
New Member
For quite some time, i have been weighing my three chameleons on a weekly basis. The graphic is not perfect, nor was the method used to weight them all. However, it gives a small idea of how their weight fluctuated over a 4 months period. I guess it has been long enough to show some data and hypthesis, and maybe some other breeders will chime in and show their datas as well! 
Methodology:
Amongst the general methodology used to get these datas, the chameleons were fed and offered water in the morning, while the weighing procedure was executed in the late afternoon, often between 3 and 5pm every friday (except last week due to the Christmas holiday when my girlfriend and I were away from home for a few days). Every chameleons were put on a digital scale bought at Wal-mart for a few dollars, and every numbers have been rounded up by the digital scale itself.
It is important to know that Delko, my Furcifer pardalis sambava was a 15 months old at the begginning of this experiment, while Tim and Calleigh's age were estimated at 7 and 3 months old respectively. Both Tim and Calleigh are Furcifer verrucosus verrucosus, are wild caught, and were living in my appartment for a month before weighing them on a weekly basis. The goal was to let them acclimatize to their new environment.
Another important matter is that none of the chameleon is suspected to be parasited, including the two wild caught verrucosus. They have been tested by a specialized veterinarian, and their weight gain also supports this hypothesis. It may also be important to state that their enclosures are over 2 feet deep by 3 feet high by 4 feet long. This means that they have access to a very large environment, not to say that Calleigh often wanders on my free-range area. Tim, as a timid guy, isn't taken out of his enclosure for now.
Every measurements are in grams. I forgot to add it on the graphic! :S
Weight gains
Means:
Delko: 1.53 grams
Tim: 7.12 grams
Calleigh: 1.53 grams
Standard deviation:
Delko: 5.69 grams
Tim: 8.62 grams
Calleigh: 1.91 grams
Conclusions:
At the exception of the november 12 2010, most week were associated to a weight gain for the three chameleons. Delko, as sambavas are usually known, has been gaining weight up to a year and a half, which is at the same time than the winter started. He is expected to gain more weight once the winter is over, since some sambava can keep gaining weight up to two years old.
Tim, on his side, was slowly gaining weight during the first two months. However, as soon as he got used to his new habitat, he gained on a weekly basis over 10 grams per week, even if after a month his food income has been purposely reduced. This has led me to believe that he was really in a growing period.
Calleigh, even if she has been VERY active (she wanders from 4 to 12 meters a day, if not more sometimes --- and yes i measured it), has not been gaining much weight. I do not know if this is normal since she is my first verrucosus.
Limits:
Not exclusively, you can notice the slight change in the weighing procedure on november 12. The digital scale is also of poor quality, and numbers have been rounded up when past 0.6 . Also, some small weight loss have been presumed to be linked to either a chameleon refusing food for a day or two, which happens from time to time, but also to a chameleon defecation right before the weighing procedure.
One limit that can be related to Calleigh's relatively small weight gain is her tendancy to refuse different kinds of food. In other words, when we got her, she was eating barely anything (crickets, superworms, silkworms, and hornworms). Then, she refused crickets for two months, while still eating the other feeders. Lately, she has been refusing superworms, but eating everything else. Therefore, not being able to give her her favorite type of food may be making her not gain as much weight as she should be.
Opening:
Based on these datas, it would be interesting to compare them to other Furcifer verrucosus verrucosus of the same age. Another interesting information to find is if the weight of an almost fully grown Furcifer pardalis sambava (between a year and two years old) fluctuate as much as Delko's weight did.
It would also be interesting to do the same experiment with the same species and subspecies at the same age. This should be attempted as soon as i get some babies hatching (no ETA available and Calleigh doesn't seem receptive yet)
If you have any comment, question, suggestion, hypothesis or complaints, please feel free to post them! The goal is this post is to promote more research on chameleons, and without further discussion this research might die from itself!
Of course, i will keep doing the same thing for the next year or so. However, if you have any idea of variables that could easily be measured, please tell me as i would like to push this research to another level!
Methodology:
Amongst the general methodology used to get these datas, the chameleons were fed and offered water in the morning, while the weighing procedure was executed in the late afternoon, often between 3 and 5pm every friday (except last week due to the Christmas holiday when my girlfriend and I were away from home for a few days). Every chameleons were put on a digital scale bought at Wal-mart for a few dollars, and every numbers have been rounded up by the digital scale itself.
It is important to know that Delko, my Furcifer pardalis sambava was a 15 months old at the begginning of this experiment, while Tim and Calleigh's age were estimated at 7 and 3 months old respectively. Both Tim and Calleigh are Furcifer verrucosus verrucosus, are wild caught, and were living in my appartment for a month before weighing them on a weekly basis. The goal was to let them acclimatize to their new environment.
Another important matter is that none of the chameleon is suspected to be parasited, including the two wild caught verrucosus. They have been tested by a specialized veterinarian, and their weight gain also supports this hypothesis. It may also be important to state that their enclosures are over 2 feet deep by 3 feet high by 4 feet long. This means that they have access to a very large environment, not to say that Calleigh often wanders on my free-range area. Tim, as a timid guy, isn't taken out of his enclosure for now.
Every measurements are in grams. I forgot to add it on the graphic! :S
Weight gains
Means:
Delko: 1.53 grams
Tim: 7.12 grams
Calleigh: 1.53 grams
Standard deviation:
Delko: 5.69 grams
Tim: 8.62 grams
Calleigh: 1.91 grams
Conclusions:
At the exception of the november 12 2010, most week were associated to a weight gain for the three chameleons. Delko, as sambavas are usually known, has been gaining weight up to a year and a half, which is at the same time than the winter started. He is expected to gain more weight once the winter is over, since some sambava can keep gaining weight up to two years old.
Tim, on his side, was slowly gaining weight during the first two months. However, as soon as he got used to his new habitat, he gained on a weekly basis over 10 grams per week, even if after a month his food income has been purposely reduced. This has led me to believe that he was really in a growing period.
Calleigh, even if she has been VERY active (she wanders from 4 to 12 meters a day, if not more sometimes --- and yes i measured it), has not been gaining much weight. I do not know if this is normal since she is my first verrucosus.
Limits:
Not exclusively, you can notice the slight change in the weighing procedure on november 12. The digital scale is also of poor quality, and numbers have been rounded up when past 0.6 . Also, some small weight loss have been presumed to be linked to either a chameleon refusing food for a day or two, which happens from time to time, but also to a chameleon defecation right before the weighing procedure.
One limit that can be related to Calleigh's relatively small weight gain is her tendancy to refuse different kinds of food. In other words, when we got her, she was eating barely anything (crickets, superworms, silkworms, and hornworms). Then, she refused crickets for two months, while still eating the other feeders. Lately, she has been refusing superworms, but eating everything else. Therefore, not being able to give her her favorite type of food may be making her not gain as much weight as she should be.
Opening:
Based on these datas, it would be interesting to compare them to other Furcifer verrucosus verrucosus of the same age. Another interesting information to find is if the weight of an almost fully grown Furcifer pardalis sambava (between a year and two years old) fluctuate as much as Delko's weight did.
It would also be interesting to do the same experiment with the same species and subspecies at the same age. This should be attempted as soon as i get some babies hatching (no ETA available and Calleigh doesn't seem receptive yet)
If you have any comment, question, suggestion, hypothesis or complaints, please feel free to post them! The goal is this post is to promote more research on chameleons, and without further discussion this research might die from itself!
Of course, i will keep doing the same thing for the next year or so. However, if you have any idea of variables that could easily be measured, please tell me as i would like to push this research to another level!
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