too Chubby?

[BillGTI]

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shes about 4 months old, lately shes been getting more chunky and i don't know if i should worry about it. Her diet consists of 9 crickets a day and 9 meal worms in her bowl, she usually polishes off her bowl and the crickets she eats only if they come her way and the occasional waxworm.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Ha!
Ask Kinyonga....she's the portion control queen for female chams.
Seriously....you want her opinion.
It may be time to cut back.

-Brad

 

[lele]

She does look a tad chubby in the pics. I agree, K is the woman to ask!

Do you have a scale? I highly recommend it (great for when she becomes gravid). You can get a decent digital kitchen or scale for about $25 be sure it measures in GRAMS!!! Best if it has a tray to set cham in. I had a stick that luna would go on to. I knew it weighed 16g so I just subtracted that from the total weight. Cyrus will sit long enough for me to get a reading.

scale and temp-gun. Two must haves for lizard keeping

 

[kinyonga]

Do you have a place (container) for her to dig in in the cage in case she needs to lay eggs? If you don't provide her with an appropriate place to dig and she needs to lay eggs, she could become eggbound and die.

If you overfeed veileds they can lay bigger clutches than they should IMHO, and it can lead to problems.

To begin with, I grow my veiled chameleons a little slower than most people seem to....and I probably keep the temperatures slightly lower in general too.

By controlling the diet and to some degree, the temperature of the females, I have been able to stop them from producing eggs at all. You don't want to starve her, but you don't want to overfeed her either. (Veiled females that I have controlled the diet of in this way can still be cycled later in life when you want them to produce eggs.)

The clutch size seems to be controlled by the diet too. Its hard to explain how to start this off (for the very first clutch), but when a veiled female lays eggs I feed her well for the next couple of days. I then cut the diet back. Once I mate her and I'm sure she is producing eggs I start to feed her more so that she will be able to produce good healthy eggs. This seems to result in the clutches being around 20 to 24 eggs. I have close to 100% hatch rate of fertile eggs and a very good survival rate at the end of three months.

Keeping them the way I do, most of my veiled females live to be over 6 years old...some over 7....and the males even older.

I'm sure that the other things I do in their husbandry are playing a part in it too....so here's what I do in the way of supplementing and gutloading the insects....
I dust the insects at most feedings with a phosphorous-free calcium powder to make up for the poor ratio of calcium to phos. in most of the insects that I feed them.

I dust twice a month with a vitamin powder that has a beta carotene source of vitamin A. Preformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system but beta carotene sources can't. There is controversy about whether chameleons can convert beta carotene into preformed vitamin A or not though....so some people give them a little preformed once in a while. Excess preformed vitamin A can prevent the D3 from doing its job and lead to MBD...so caution is advised.

I also dust with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder twice a month because my chameleons get little exposure/no exposure to sunlight. D3 from supplements can build up in the system too...so caution is advised. Exposure to UVB allows the chameleon to produce D3 which allows it to use the calcium in its diet. Neither sunlight nor UVB from tube lights should pass through glass or plastic.

Appropriate basking temperature is important for proper digestion...thus plays a part in nutrient absorption.

I feed any insects a nutritious diet all the time. The crickets are gutloaded with greens (dandelion, kale, collards, endive, escarole, ROMAINE lettuce, etc.) and veggies (carrot, zucchini, squash, sweet red pepper, sweet potato, etc.).

 

[BillGTI]

I don't thing being gravid is the issue. I have had her since she was 3 months old and she hasn't been with any males since i got her. Her basking Spot gets to 93 degrees at max and i leave the light on for 12 hours a day.

 

[Cherron]

Female veiled chameleons can become gravid and lay eggs even if they have never so much as been in the same room as male in their whole life. They will produce and lay unfertile eggs. If they are not provided with a proper laying container, they won't lay their eggs and will eventually die. This is a must have for a female cham