$ month panther, CAN HE OVER-EAT?

[anaconda jiu jitsu]

Hello everyone, he's 4 months old. today, he ate 6 crickets, 5 dubia's, and 2 large superworms. will they over eat, or stop when they are full?

 

[nightanole]

Nope cant over eat at that age. However try too keep the supers to 1 per meal, or every other meal. They are fatty and are more or less a treat. Its pretty amazing how much the males can pack down. My oust's has eaten 800-900 crickets a month since june. I just keep increasing the size and the amount of dubia/ black solder flys on the side.

Once they stop with the massive growth spurts they will naturally start eating every other day, and a lot less during feeding days.

Take my beardy, he was eating 2k crickets a month during the teenage time. Now im lucky if he eats 2 dozen a week.

 

[anaconda jiu jitsu]

Thanks!!! i was afraid he was going to "pop" he was eating so much!!

 

[Lathelia]

Nope cant over eat at that age. However try too keep the supers to 1 per meal, or every other meal. They are fatty and are more or less a treat. Its pretty amazing how much the males can pack down. My oust's has eaten 800-900 crickets a month since june. I just keep increasing the size and the amount of dubia/ black solder flys on the side.

Once they stop with the massive growth spurts they will naturally start eating every other day, and a lot less during feeding days.

Take my beardy, he was eating 2k crickets a month during the teenage time. Now im lucky if he eats 2 dozen a week.

I'm not an expert, but I think you CAN overfeed them. Chams kept in captivity are more often overweight then underweight. Most will eat more then they need. That's what they do in the wild, they eat as much as they can catch, cause they might not have opportunity to feed in the next couple of days.

Hello everyone, he's 4 months old. today, he ate 6 crickets, 5 dubia's, and 2 large superworms. will they over eat, or stop when they are full?

I think around 10 feeders per day is ok, but I would cut on the supers. I would sugest not more than two per week for a young cham.

Again, I'm not an expert, but that's what I would do.

 

[Mmcbain1]

I honestly would be curious to find out more information about whether or not it is possible to over feed. I have always been told its not possible. Anybody have any more information or cases involving an over fed cham?

 

[WayneL333]

This is great info. Thank you. I was a bit concerned about my 3 month old male panther who eats considerably less than my 4 month old female who eats like a pig! I'm lucky to see my male eat 6-8 small crickets a day. But my female easily eats a dozen with about 4 small Nubias' too. Even though theyre about a month apart, the female is at least 1.5 times larger too.

I shouldn't be concerned with the male right?

 

[maxttu]

My 4 1/2 month old ambi/banja/nosy be plows thru 20-30 crix per day and my 4 month old banja hasn't eaten nearly that much until last week. He had been eating around 10 crix. One day last week he gobbled 3 horns, a silk and a couple of crix! I thought he was going to pop! He has hit a serious growth spurt!

 

[Lathelia]

This is great info. Thank you. I was a bit concerned about my 3 month old male panther who eats considerably less than my 4 month old female who eats like a pig! I'm lucky to see my male eat 6-8 small crickets a day. But my female easily eats a dozen with about 4 small Nubias' too. Even though theyre about a month apart, the female is at least 1.5 times larger too.

I shouldn't be concerned with the male right?

They grow at different pace. I would feed the male as much as he wants and watch the female not to get too chubby. She is still young, but if you over feed a female, she can start developing eggs.

 

[carol5208]

I have always wondered this too. When my chameleon was young he could eat 30 small crickets a day no problem. I guess there are no limits in the wild right? I guess it is probably harder for them to find 30 feeders that are sitting right in front of their face though!

 

[WayneL333]

They grow at different pace. I would feed the male as much as he wants and watch the female not to get too chubby. She is still young, but if you over feed a female, she can start developing eggs.

Again, awesome info! Many thanks!!!

 

[Alexl]

Of course you can overfeed a chameleon - and lots of chameleon in captivity are definitely overfed.

In nature you will have days, weeks and even months without any food. As soon as an chameleon sees an insect, he will try to catch it. There is no safety he will find tomorrow same amount of food, so this chameleon will eat as much as he can. Chameleons aren't domesticated pets, so they will show same behaviour in captivity.

People don't remember this at home. We don't imitate longer periods without food or shaded days without a really sunny place to warm up and fasten metabolism, lots of people even don't provide a lower temperatured winter rest. Our chameleons can't climb and walk a hundred feet to look after females or feeders, they sit in a small cage. And remember, reptiles do not use 70% of their energy to keep their temperature, they just walk to a sunny place and that's it. They need a lot less food than we as mammals or our dogs and cats do. And they take more time to digest food even in a warm place (humans need some hours to digest food, some reptiles need three or four days). Of cause, feeding is fun for us to watch and an employment for our bored animals at home. But the result of feeding too much will be fat livers, renal diseases, gout and females laying 80 eggs and decrasing life time (although they could lay only 20 restrictively fed, too). All those things aren't that seldom at the vet's.

This poor guy here is one of those, he died from fat liver. I've tried to paint his helmet size and this of a healthy Chamaeleo calyptratus. I'm sure you'll see the big difference. :/