Gaining wieght

My 7-8 month old female is great, she eats crickets, wax worms, and silk worms.....The dilema is she stays skiny and lanky, she 10-11 inches but not at all fat.....Does anyone have suggestions as to getting her a little bigger....
 
You didnt mention the species, but I think you only have panthers? So I'll assume so.

A few things to look at:
Skinny and Lanky, but not sickly or emaciated, correct?
Does she show fat stores on her head?
Does she appear stressed in any way?
Could she contain parasties? have a fecal sample test done.

At only 7-8 months old, you still have some months before you could be overfeeding her. You can increase the food intake a bit.
 
You do not want a fat chameleon. If you do, you need to rethink what you want!

As long as her body is in good condition, and she's not emaciated, that's fine. Fat chameleons lives are short - sometimes less than half the normal life expectancy. With females, it will be even more drastic. They lay much larger clutches of eggs, which stresses their bodies a lot. In veileds, it can mean they do not live past 2-3 clutches.

A healthy chameleon is always hungry, and almost never full. Especially without the burdens of parasites, hunting and normal wild behaviours.
 
Eric Adrignola said:
You do not want a fat chameleon. If you do, you need to rethink what you want!

As long as her body is in good condition, and she's not emaciated, that's fine. Fat chameleons lives are short - sometimes less than half the normal life expectancy. With females, it will be even more drastic. They lay much larger clutches of eggs, which stresses their bodies a lot. In veileds, it can mean they do not live past 2-3 clutches.

A healthy chameleon is always hungry, and almost never full. Especially without the burdens of parasites, hunting and normal wild behaviours.
i want to make sure she is ready to breed, fattening her up should make it easier when she becomes eggbound...but thank you for that peice of info
 
Will Hayward said:
You didnt mention the species, but I think you only have panthers? So I'll assume so.

A few things to look at:
Skinny and Lanky, but not sickly or emaciated, correct?
Does she show fat stores on her head?
Does she appear stressed in any way?
Could she contain parasties? have a fecal sample test done.

At only 7-8 months old, you still have some months before you could be overfeeding her. You can increase the food intake a bit.

she is a panther female.
not sickly or emaciated
not much in the fat stores
not stressed unless handeled
she shouldnt contain parasites, she came strait from screameleons only months ago, so i dont think she has parasites..

i will try increasing her diet...thank you
 
Let her grow out before breeding her. Just because she can breed doesn't mean she should. Also, I personally cut back on food when breeding, I keep my ladies producing in between 20-25 eggs. No more. Sure I suppliment more, but less food is given.

Eric is correct. All of Erics chameleons live long and heathly lives, and look to be great weights and sizes too.
 
People instinctivly try to feed them more when they ar ebeing conditioned for breeding, to give them more resources for the egg production. This sounds like common sense, but it has a catch.

Chameleons will develop more eggs if they are fed more. They live longer if they lay fewer eggs, and shorter if they lay more - it's a natural way of balancing things out. In good years, with plenty of food, they lay more eggs, taking advantage of the food, while straining themselves a bit.

In captivity, this is much more pronounced, as food is in an abundance not likely encountered in wild situations. Fat chameleons lay more eggs, and in turn, have a greater strain on their bodies. This is fine if you want to have lots of babies, and don't care so much for the individual female...but most hobbyists are not geared that way!

Keep your female healthy, but not fat,a nd she will lay good clutches of eggs. SMaller, but just as healthy - if not more so. The strain on her will be lessened, despite her getting fewer quantities of food.

What you do is keep them on a limited diet after they reach breeding age - to keep them from getting fat, and developing huge clutches (more of an issue wiht veields, but it pertains to most species ot some degree). AFTER mating, increase feedings - the # of eggs is already determined, so you don't have to worry about that. A healthy female should be able to develop eggs at a natural rate, without a drastic change in diet or supplementation.
 
westcoastchameleons said:
i want to make sure she is ready to breed, fattening her up should make it easier when she becomes eggbound...but thank you for that peice of info

Fattening her up will do the exact opposite of what you want. As Eric said, she will have more energy to expend while producing eggs and her clutches will be larger becuase of it. Egg binding (not a refusal to lay, but actual binding) is the direct result of this.

Because of your chameleons age, I wouldn't be too worried yet, but once she reaches maturity I'd limit her diet to try and maintain a healthy body tone.
 
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