how often to feed cham?

[siennas]

Hi,

My chameleon is four and a half years old and I am not sure how much a week to feed him now that he is an old man.

He has an incredible food drive (always sticking his tongue out at everything) but is also pretty skinny with ribs showing & skinny arms and casque. I feed him twice a week and read somewhere that old veileds do not need that many calories so this is sufficient, but his drive for food tells me otherwise.

Any help is appreciated!!

 

[Beman]

Post pics of him currently so body tone can be determined. Also how much and what are you feeding twice a week?

 

[siennas]

Here are pics.


When I feed him, I use 4-5 1/2in roaches plus a medium superworm since I have other lizards that cannot eat anything larger than that.

 

[Beman]

So since your last post essentially you cut one of the feeding days. Going from 3 days down to 2 days. How fast did he reduce weight? He now is looking too thin and very frail with not much muscle tone. Did you monitor his weight using a gram scale like I recommended? If so how much does he weigh now?

Concern here is would this be due to the cut back or is there an underlying parasite issue going on. Some parasites can cause them to get quite thin like this even when they are eating enough to support muscle tone. I would get a fecal test run to rule out a parasite issue.

I would also take him back to 3 days a week feedings with 4-5 insects. If he does have a parasite issue going on you want him eating so that the medication to treat it does not make him more frail. Make sure your insects are gutloaded correctly as well. He need healthy nourished insects so he can get everything good out of them.

Reducing weight in chams is something you really have to watch because you really want to monitor weight loss and find the sweet spot where they stay the stable weight they need to support health without getting too fat or too thin.

 

[siennas]

So since your last post essentially you cut one of the feeding days. Going from 3 days down to 2 days. How fast did he reduce weight? He now is looking too thin and very frail with not much muscle tone. Did you monitor his weight using a gram scale like I recommended? If so how much does he weigh now?

Concern here is would this be due to the cut back or is there an underlying parasite issue going on. Some parasites can cause them to get quite thin like this even when they are eating enough to support muscle tone. I would get a fecal test run to rule out a parasite issue.

I would also take him back to 3 days a week feedings with 4-5 insects. If he does have a parasite issue going on you want him eating so that the medication to treat it does not make him more frail. Make sure your insects are gutloaded correctly as well. He need healthy nourished insects so he can get everything good out of them.

Reducing weight in chams is something you really have to watch because you really want to monitor weight loss and find the sweet spot where they stay the stable weight they need to support health without getting too fat or too thin.

I did not use the gram weigher. He lost the weight in a span of 9 months or so since I went to college & my parents fed him whenever they remembered. I'm back home for a few months now and trying to make up for lost time.

I tested him for a parasites a few years ago and came back clean. I do not believe he has them because I keep his environment clean and the roaches are from dubia.com. I gutload insects properly with fresh veggies and fruit.

I will start monitoring his weight (he just weighed in at 98g) and feeding him more. Thanks!

 

[Beman]

I did not use the gram weigher. He lost the weight in a span of 9 months or so since I went to college & my parents fed him whenever they remembered. I'm back home for a few months now and trying to make up for lost time.

I tested him for a parasites a few years ago and came back clean. I do not believe he has them because I keep his environment clean and the roaches are from dubia.com. I gutload insects properly with fresh veggies and fruit.

I will start monitoring his weight (he just weighed in at 98g) and feeding him more. Thanks!

So you said your parents fed him whenever they remembered... This is kinda a red flag.... This tells me that they could have been forgetting. Which means there also would have been reduced supplementation and possible issues of gutloading properly.

So my recommendation is to try to get him back to weight... He is roughly about 15-20 grams too thin right now. BUT watch his weight gain... You want to find the sweet spot so he does not get fat. Looking for muscle tone in the limbs and body. Not a fat casque this is showing too much weight like before. Note... If you going to school and him not having the proper husbandry while your gone is an issue you might want to consider trying to find a friend or someone else that is into chameleons to take him.

 

[siennas]

So you said your parents fed him whenever they remembered... This is kinda a red flag.... This tells me that they could have been forgetting. Which means there also would have been reduced supplementation and possible issues of gutloading properly.

So my recommendation is to try to get him back to weight... He is roughly about 15-20 grams too thin right now. BUT watch his weight gain... You want to find the sweet spot so he does not get fat. Looking for muscle tone in the limbs and body. Not a fat casque this is showing too much weight like before. Note... If you going to school and him not having the proper husbandry while your gone is an issue you might want to consider trying to find a friend or someone else that is into chameleons to take him.

I did tell them to cut down feeding after my last post because he was getting fat.. but I think that schedule stuck for the time I was in college which was my mistake.

Don't worry, I make sure they do gutloading properly and a good rotation between multivitamins and calcium w/ d3. I will just have to tell them to add more roaches for every feeding, which are limited to twice a week because that is all my parents can manage. I will talk to them about forgetting. I will also get 3/4in roaches to make it easier.

Do you think his strong appetite is a concern? He genuinely acts like a dog and climbs all over me when he sees I'm coming near because he knows I may feed him.

 

[Beman]

I did tell them to cut down feeding after my last post because he was getting fat.. but I think that schedule stuck for the time I was in college which was my mistake.

Don't worry, I make sure they do gutloading properly and a good rotation between multivitamins and calcium w/ d3. I will just have to tell them to add more roaches for every feeding, which are limited to twice a week because that is all my parents can manage. I will talk to them about forgetting. I will also get 3/4in roaches to make it easier.

Do you think his strong appetite is a concern? He genuinely acts like a dog and climbs all over me when he sees I'm coming near because he knows I may feed him.

Dont go with larger insects... Bigger is not better. They can have an issue taking the insects down when they are bigger. They can also get mouth injuries from bigger insects.

Strong appetite is normal with any Veiled... They would eat 24/7 and be beached whales if we let them.

While you are home feed 3 times a week. You will need to monitor and see where he is at weight wise before you leave again to make sure he is getting the correct amount when they take over.