Jacksons chameleon too skinny?

Chameleon Info:

  • Your Chameleon - Jacksons chamelon, male, about 11 months and has been in my care for 4 months
  • Handling - maybe once a week, he likes to come out on my hand and i put him on a fake tree next to a window
  • Feeding - Dubias, large crickets, and superworms at the moment. 2 crickets/2 large dubias, and a super worm every other day, i provide extra in case but he usually eats that much. Gutloading with carrots, mustard greens, and apples
  • Supplements - calcium WITHOUT d3 twice a week, calcium WITH d3 once a month, multiviamin once a month
  • Watering - dripper system that runs all day as well as an automatic mister that goes off every 3 hours for a minute. I rarely see him drink in person.
  • Fecal Description - dark brown feces with white urates, dont usually see the urates but every now and then ill find a dry white one on the plant leaves and i find fecal droppings every day at the bottom of the cage. has not been tested for parasites.
  • History - not much history, adopted from a small glass petco enclosure.
Cage Info:

  • Cage Type - screen enclosure, plastic shower curtain on one side to keep in humidity. approximately 30”x18”x60” (LxWxH)
  • Lighting - heat dome with basking bulb, t5 HO Uvb, on and off for 12 hours on an automatic timer
  • Temperature - basking temp 83 degrees, with a gradient towards the bottom of 75, lowest overnight is around 60 degrees. temp gun and a digital thermometer/hygrometer, as well as just regular ones at the bottom of the cage.
  • Humidity - humidity is around 60% at the top and gets higher towards the bottom, automatic mister and dripper with plastic shower curtains to maintain, digital hygrometer to measure.
  • Plants - large dracaena plant, 2 pothos plants, swiss cheese plant, as well as small fake vines for coverage.
  • Placement - cage is located in a walled off area of my room, he basically has his own room. no air vents, not near a window. cage is about 2 feet off the ground and almost touches the ceiling.
  • Location - Valley area, California (its extremely hot nearing 100-110 degrees outside right now)
Sometimes my jacksons looks skinnier to me, when my roomate goes to refill his mister occasionally while i work she mentions that he looks thinner. I recently changed his feeding schedule in fear that i was over feeding him, and he eats around 2-4 bugs every other day now. these photos were taken the same day as well, in one of them he looks so skinny and the other he just looks plump, any advice based on info i provided is greatly appreciated
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Chameleons have a behavior of puffing up and being skinny. Your chameleon looks very healthy, chameleons are also naturally slimmer than they are plump.
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Here’s a somewhat okay example of one of my chameleons doing it.
 
His tail is plump and his cask or top of his head is domed. He is not skinny. If anything he’s about one cricket away from fat.
He should have some definition in his tail without seeing all of the ligaments and the top of his head should only be slightly rounded.
Ive been trying to monitor his weight, he was SUPER overweight when i got him from petco, so i started restricting his diet slowly over the months, but now i know how to tell if hes still too fat thank you!
 
When his tail is curled it looks fat but he does have reasonable definition when it is extended. I would say you are right on track with his diet and you have done very well for him overall. The only thing I would adjust is letting his day time humidity drop below 50% and try to get the night time higher if you haven’t already. Longer misting at dawn and before lights out and a dripper or shorter misting mid day might do it.
 
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