Is he eating enough?

[leolover]

I have a 6 1/2 month old panther chameleon. I was just wondering how much I should be feeding him? I know that I needed to cut back his food so I took it down to about 15 crickets everyother day... the problem is that he is always looking for food and I feel like I am starving him. I gave him 15 crickets day before yesterday and 20 crickets about 2 hours ago and there are only like 2 crickets left!!! Should I be feeding him more? I am supplementing but I dont have any specific schedule. He is weird with his supplement and they end up coming out of his nose so I have to give it to him at random times. He is really healthy otherwise, very active and alert.... Just worried that he is hungry

 

[sharkey]

6 1/2 months seems very young to 'regulate' feeding. if your cham is actively looking for food then it is hungry. why are you trying to get your cham on a schedule?

i let my animals eat until they are full. i wouldn't want to be hungry all the time wondering when my next meal would show up. rarely are there time where animals over eat (we humans are one of the few exceptions).

 

[sharkey]

you don't say what size the crix are. perhaps you are feeding crix that are too small - a 6 1/2 old is still growing - so until you max out on large crix you will need to buy larger and larger crix to feed it.

 

[leolover]

Well I have to regulate feeding him becuase if I feed him too much then he is going to grow too fast and cause MBD and I dont want that to happen.... You should read up on this.. The crickets that I am feeding him are large and he eats them fine. I know that he is still growing and that is part of the reason that I am trying to regulate his food intake... anyone else have any suggestions??

 

[Vibrant Chameleons]

15 large crickets is more then enough per day. He definitely isn't starving lol.

 

[jannb]

I would feed him every day at that age and 15 a day would not be to many. Do you give him anything besides crickets? When my veiled was that age he ate a good 15 crickets a day and either a couple of super meal worms or silkworms everyother day along with the crickets. It's sounds as tho you maybe over supplementing to me if it's coming out of his nose. Do you have a picture that shows his nose?

 

[leolover]

Yeah I was over supplementing but I had him on the Kammers schedule.. He is a special little guy and likes it the way that I do it.. which is no special way... just random and he seems to be doing good with it. He hasnt had anything out of his nose since I stopped with the Kammers schedule. I have some flies in there every once in awhile.. but he doesnt really seem to be interested. I tried a tiny pinky this weekend and he showed some interest but I think that it was just too big for him so I will try that again in a few months. Thanks for the advice, I dont want to over feed him but I dont want him starving.. I have been at this schedule for the past 2 weeks and he seems to still be pretty active so I suppose that should be my re-assurance.. Thanks again!