how much to feed

[dudleycrow]

I have a veiled cham around 5 or 6 mon of age.how many times do youall feed,how much? he looks real good and fat haha. THANK,S DUDLEY CROW.

 

[Karch51]

Hey dudley,
You should feed your cham as much as it could eat. Every cham is different, so I would test out your chams appetite by putting in a a few crickets at a time. Keep doing this until it stops eating. I would feed it at least every other day if not every day. Just remember, if you can't see any food in its cage then it's probably feeding time.

Jason

 

[Eric Adrignola]

It's very difficult to gauge how much they should be eating at that age. When they are growing, it's good to feed more, obviously. When they start to plataue, you want to reduce food to only a few insects per day. I woudl definatly not feed them as much as they can eat, as they will certainly eat much more than they should eat - sorta like people. If you eat at golden corral, every day, as much as you want, you're going to have to have your gall bladder removed before long.

An adult veield chameleon will eat dozens of crickets a day if allowed. This is far more than they need, and will result in them becoming obese, and dying much younger. Too many people think a fat chameleon is a healthy chameleon. Reptiles respond very poorly to being overweight. You can easily halve their life expectancy by keeping them fat.

 

[lele]

Ditto

to what Eric says. There are several keepers who feed adult chams every other or even every few days. Since your guy is still growing he will be eating more, but it is time to start thinking of cutting back on food and supplements. How much has he been eating? Well gutloaded? What are you supplementing with and how often? It is recommended that adults get Calcium/d3 once/week and multi-vit once/month

 

[Prism Chameleons]

I have to concur with Eric here. Baby chameleons need a lot of food and I am very generous with the fruit flies, pinhead crickets, etc., and pretty much let them eat as much they need to. But, as your chameleon gets older, you need to regulate the amount of food given per day.

In panther chameleons, I feed my juveniles daily about 5-7 crickets a day (depending on cricket size), and then give them a treat once or twice a week of superworms, silkworms, hornworms, or whatever the treat of the week may be. They are still growing and need daily feeding. Adult panthers however, I feed the same amount and even let them fast a day because actually... they do this on their own! I noticed that feeding adult males every day end up with excess crickets jumping around their cage . Their bodies aren't growing anymore and don't need as much for their nutrition, and frankly, just aren't hungry every day of the week.

Careful of overfeeding .

 

[Eric Adrignola]

A BIG problem with calyptratus is overfeeding - and I'm talking of babies, not adults. When they are in their first 2 months, their growth rate is set. And despite what many believe (including many breeders), their growth rate WILL change depending on food supply. Unlike other chameleons (every other kind I've heard of), they do not have two growth rates: Normal and slow (slow growth from not enough food). Veileds have a very variable fgrowth rate.

IF they are fed a little, they grow slow, and coudl be stunted. If they are fed more, they grow "normally'. If fed a lot, they grow very fast. If fed CONSTANTLY, as much as they can eat, every moment of their lives, they can and will grow so fast, their risk of MBD is increased exponentially. In fact, in many of these cases, it's aboslutly inevitable. I have had babies come in from other breeders that developed FATAL mbd within 2 months of arrival, despite UVB lighting, sunlight, and some supplemental D3.

The Kammers have told me that they have witnessed babies(not theirs, of course) grown in full, unfiltered, natural sunlight develop MBD, despite a good, balanced diet.

I have NEVER heard of other chameleons have this problem, only veileds.

At 5-6 months of age, this is less of an issue. Still, you don't want to have a fat chameleon.

 

[Pennychameleon]

Hi I got a baby Cham from pet shop which looks just over a month old! It eats mini crickets perhaps around 4 per day is this too much?

 

[kinyonga]

No....it's not enough....for now feed it as much as it will eat in a couple of minutes and then leave a couple of crickets in it's cage so it can have a snack later.

 

[Kritter]

A BIG problem with calyptratus is overfeeding - and I'm talking of babies, not adults. When they are in their first 2 months, their growth rate is set. And despite what many believe (including many breeders), their growth rate WILL change depending on food supply. Unlike other chameleons (every other kind I've heard of), they do not have two growth rates: Normal and slow (slow growth from not enough food). Veileds have a very variable fgrowth rate.

IF they are fed a little, they grow slow, and coudl be stunted. If they are fed more, they grow "normally'. If fed a lot, they grow very fast. If fed CONSTANTLY, as much as they can eat, every moment of their lives, they can and will grow so fast, their risk of MBD is increased exponentially. In fact, in many of these cases, it's aboslutly inevitable. I have had babies come in from other breeders that developed FATAL mbd within 2 months of arrival, despite UVB lighting, sunlight, and some supplemental D3.

The Kammers have told me that they have witnessed babies(not theirs, of course) grown in full, unfiltered, natural sunlight develop MBD, despite a good, balanced diet.

I have NEVER heard of other chameleons have this problem, only veileds.

At 5-6 months of age, this is less of an issue. Still, you don't want to have a fat chameleon.

The Kammers are a great and unbelievably amazing source of information!