How much is too much?

[Silkyslim]

So some of you may be aware, I recently received my 1st female chameleon. She is a 4 month old Ambanja. I have been reading blogs, internet sites and articles all about the egg laying process and when to start offering laying bins, visual cues to be aware of concerning her current cycle state, ability to control when your female cycles etc. etc.

All of those say that close temperature and food regulation can cause the ladies to scale back on the size of the egg clutches and the size of the eggs themselves. I know the temps are to be in the low 80s for this but I can't find much about how much to feed or how many feedings per week. Other than "Feed as much as she will eat in a few mins plus an extra feeder or two for the day." Is that an accurate sentence to follow? I don't want to over feed her and lose her before her time due to egg laying issues in some form.

She is so small, she had the tiniest poop today lol. She ate up 4 cal w/o d3 dusted crickets plus a silk worm all of appropriate size of course. I am guessing I would like to keep some sort of constant feeding schedule until after she lays her first clutch, then offer a bit more for a few days after to recover quick then revert back to the constant schedule. What has worked for you in the past?

I keep my feeders gut loaded very well and offer cricket crack on top of it to them. Would it be necessary to supplement every feeding with a 4 mo. old female? I supplement my year old male lightly every feeding but I feed him every other day now (thinking of making it every other two because the pigs getting fat!)

Thanks!!

 

[kinyonga]

Although I feel that for panther chameleons the clutch size can be controlled somewhat the size of the eggs is not controlled. Infertile eggs are slightly smaller than fertile ones though. Keeping the temperature for the females slightly lower than for the males is to slow the metabolism so the female is not so hungry while she is on the "diet".

You said regarding feeding the females, all you can find is "Feed as much as she will eat in a few mins plus an extra feeder or two for the day." This is what I do for very young ones. At about 3 months of age I start to feed them every second day and once they are sexually mature, start to control the diet even more.

You said..."She is so small"...can you post a picture please?

You said..."She ate up 4 cal w/o d3 dusted crickets plus a silk worm all of appropriate size of course"...that doesn't sound like she is overeating...but if she is small, that might not be enough.

You said..."I am guessing I would like to keep some sort of constant feeding schedule until after she lays her first clutch, then offer a bit more for a few days after to recover quick then revert back to the constant schedule"..that is the general idea. You want to feed her enough to keep her healthy without starving her or overfeeding her. Feeding her for a couple of days helps her to recover from the egglaying. The idea of cutting her back after that is in the hopes that she will produce fewer eggs in the next clutch by limiting the number of follicles that will ovulate. I have had good success controlling veiled chameleon reproduction, but have not been able to stop it in panthers.

You said..."I keep my feeders gut loaded very well and offer cricket crack on top of it to them. Would it be necessary to supplement every feeding with a 4 mo. old female?"...I dust with phos.-free calcium at every feeding, D3 twice a month and vitamins twice a month even though I gutload.

Hope this helps.

 

[Silkyslim]

Very much so thank you thank you thank you. This was the reassurance I was looking for

I'll get some more pics up too, it's not that she is unproportionatly small for her age. The breeder actually told me she was the biggest female in the group. It's just she is soooooo small compared to me lol

 

[Silkyslim]

Here is a few I just snapped. She seems to be favoring that twisted branch in back, she seems so very shy I didn't want to keep the camera with her for long. Anyways, enjoy.

 

[Silkyslim]

You said regarding feeding the females, all you can find is "Feed as much as she will eat in a few mins plus an extra feeder or two for the day." This is what I do for very young ones. At about 3 months of age I start to feed them every second day and once they are sexually mature, start to control the diet even more.

Could you please elaborate a touch more on this? How controlled is it once they hit sexual maturity? How do you control her?

My guess would be that I have a few months before she lays her 1st clutch but will be offering a bin in about 6 weeks. I have a little scale I plan on using to weigh her once a week and keep a running log like I am doing with Samson. I figure I will weigh her 1st at the beginning of next week because I want her to get used to her new home.