Stunted growth

[maggie311]

Hi everyone!

Karma has settled in and is growing! I rescued him June 15th and he weighted 34 grams. Today he weighed in at 48 grams! I was told that his previous owner got him last August, so he's got to be at least a year old. My question is, can I expect him to catch up to an average size or will he always stay smaller than normal?

 

[MissSkittles]

Unfortunately he’ll likely always stay small.

 

[maggie311]

Unfortunately he’ll likely always stay small.

I was afraid of that. It's so hard to know how much to feed him since technically he's the size of a juvenile. He gobbles up anything I put in front of him. Currently, I'm feeding him daily - 2 small/med silkworms and 4 or 5 small Discoids. I don't want to overfeed him but he has a lot of making up to do

 

[MissSkittles]

He’s quite thin, so I think you don’t have to worry too much right now about overfeeding. My male veiled has had some issues (he was wild caught) and I’ve been feeding him very well. I’m starting to see the base of his casque just barely starting to look puffy, so I’m now reducing him. You want the casque to not be concave or puffed out, but I think of it as a nice healthy full but flatter line. All of my other chams are of a good size, so I feed them the equivalent of 3-4 feeders, 3 days a week plus treats. I prefer to give smaller feeders so they don’t risk struggling to choke them down and I can give more feeders/more variety per feeding.