Uhhh omg!!
- Thread starter Meleon
- Start date
chameleon guy
New Member
I have had the same thing happen to me. Once in a while my female veiled pooped out the cricket still intact, it didn't look digested. never found out why.
yea its so messed it still looks like the food he ate is he maybe vomiting it back up could he have swalloed something i have drive way stones around the bottom of my live pothos did he mabye injest a stone although the stones are kind of large and if he swallowed a stone im pretty sure he'd be dead by now
anyway any body know whats going on
anyway any body know whats going on
summoner12
Avid Member
What kind of temps? if your cham isn't warming up it can't digest the food properly.
jojackson
New Member
Spot on summoner,
assuming the animal is healthy then either:
1. your basking tempis too low, it cant raise its metabolism sufficiently for efficient digestion
2. your feeding/and its willing to eat, more than it needs.
I breifly mentioned this a day or two ago to another member.
Reptiles (ectotherms) are extremely energy efficient creatures, even lizards. They require only about one tenth (roughly) the food needed by warm blooded creatures (endotherms) because they can process it so efficiently and because the bulk of their energy requirements come from the sun (basking) they are solor powered.
Reptiles dont use energy from food to maintain internal body temp, like us, so a small nutritous meal goes a long way. Much better 'miles-per-gallon'
Anything excess to its immediate needs will be excreted as waste.
Feeding your reptile more than it can digest before the next meal, or before its stomach contents can deal with the last meal, is like trying to put 3 gallons of gas in a two gallon
drum that already contains a gallon. Simply, it overflows.
Ensure your basking temp is adequate and further that your lizard is behaving as expected and using it normally. (ie) thermoregulating. warms up, then moves away, goes back later to warm some more etc. If its constantly basking, its likely trying hard to digest all that food.
If this behaviour seems normal, then slow down the feeding, feed less/less often.
Always keep up the hydration though.
Best wishes
assuming the animal is healthy then either:
1. your basking tempis too low, it cant raise its metabolism sufficiently for efficient digestion
2. your feeding/and its willing to eat, more than it needs.
I breifly mentioned this a day or two ago to another member.
Reptiles (ectotherms) are extremely energy efficient creatures, even lizards. They require only about one tenth (roughly) the food needed by warm blooded creatures (endotherms) because they can process it so efficiently and because the bulk of their energy requirements come from the sun (basking) they are solor powered.
Reptiles dont use energy from food to maintain internal body temp, like us, so a small nutritous meal goes a long way. Much better 'miles-per-gallon'
Anything excess to its immediate needs will be excreted as waste.
Feeding your reptile more than it can digest before the next meal, or before its stomach contents can deal with the last meal, is like trying to put 3 gallons of gas in a two gallon
drum that already contains a gallon. Simply, it overflows.
Ensure your basking temp is adequate and further that your lizard is behaving as expected and using it normally. (ie) thermoregulating. warms up, then moves away, goes back later to warm some more etc. If its constantly basking, its likely trying hard to digest all that food.
If this behaviour seems normal, then slow down the feeding, feed less/less often.
Always keep up the hydration though.
Best wishes
jojackson
New Member
err, but guys, the undigested bug (eaten at night) would be at the top of the pipe, so to speak. whats excreted in the morning would be from the end of the pipe.
basking the next morning would still aid in digesting it.
I think its very likely commonly seen in captive herps, most folk still keep food coming everyday,
especially lizards, I think its that folk still subconciously expect reptiles to eat daily like mammal pets.
If I tell people I only feed most of my lizards every other day or so, they seem to think im mistreating them! (hatchlings are an exception due growth rate).
Most folk treat lizards like a production line, with a conveyer belt of endless food pumping into them, and ofcourse most herps being opportunistic, they eat it! Not surprising then that undigested food is seen so often, and that fat sluggish lizards and snakes are considered healthy
...until they die early.
basking the next morning would still aid in digesting it.
I think its very likely commonly seen in captive herps, most folk still keep food coming everyday,
especially lizards, I think its that folk still subconciously expect reptiles to eat daily like mammal pets.
If I tell people I only feed most of my lizards every other day or so, they seem to think im mistreating them! (hatchlings are an exception due growth rate).
Most folk treat lizards like a production line, with a conveyer belt of endless food pumping into them, and ofcourse most herps being opportunistic, they eat it! Not surprising then that undigested food is seen so often, and that fat sluggish lizards and snakes are considered healthy
...until they die early.
sandrachameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
I too think its probably a case of over feeding. They can only have so much digestive juice in their little stomaches. I've never understood why people would feed 10+ insects at once, rather than spread out the meals (small meals) throughout the day.
Eric Adrignola
Avid Member
usually it is vomit, not feces. IF there is no urates nearby, that's a good sign. puked bugs look like feces in shape, but not substance.
jojackson
New Member
If your lizard is regurtitating food, 9/10 its temp related. Regurtitation is not healthy,
digestive acids can damage.
regurtitated food can generally be easily distinguished by lack of surrounding fecael matter, but the presence of urates or rather, lack of it with feces can occure anyway.
Eating more than the stomach can handle, and/or being handled after such can result in regurtitation.
Again, lizards dont find cupfuls of insects in the wild so the opportunity for such behaviour is limited to non-existant.
digestive acids can damage.
regurtitated food can generally be easily distinguished by lack of surrounding fecael matter, but the presence of urates or rather, lack of it with feces can occure anyway.
Eating more than the stomach can handle, and/or being handled after such can result in regurtitation.
Again, lizards dont find cupfuls of insects in the wild so the opportunity for such behaviour is limited to non-existant.
