Warning about overfeeding young melleri

Since there are a lot of young melleri out there at the moment I thought it prudent to share this account of my friend's CB melleri that suffered a prolapse due to overfeeding.

The keeper of this melleri had been feeding it very liberally from when she got it at 4 months old. Everything went great until at 10 months old when the poor thing suffered an intestinal prolapse.
The keeper, who did her research before getting a melleri, took it to Dr. Stahl who remarked that such prolapses are usually caused by overfeeding.

She has been feeding a varied diet of crickets, roaches, silkworms and mealworms and was providing all other proper care.
The one thing that might have been a warning sign is that this melleri was growing very fast, passing the 100 gram mark 3 months earlier than any of mine.
This is not to say that all fast growth is bad, but it's also not something to strife for.

As for treatment; Dr. Stahl was able to surgically fix the prolapse and prescribed antibiotics and a strict diet. The melleri is currently recovering.

The moral of the story is just because melleri are greedy little food hounds doesn't mean we should give them as much as they want, even when they are young.
Dr. Stahl once told me to observe my chameleons' feeding behavior to determine how much food they need.
When you give a chameleon a bowl of crickets it will start picking them off one after the other. But sooner or later there will be a pause, where it looks like the cham is debating whether to take another one. This is when you should get them away from the buffet table.

- Suzanne

Bowl feeding can make feeding too easy on them. Mine had competition for their bowls, that kept them fit, lol! Do you slow them down at around 6 months, or at 3 months?

There is another old cautionary experience of a melleri being grown too fast. A keeper raised a CB baby to 500g+ within its first year. I'm told it died of infection from footpad lesions that were hidden on its soles. So much weight on its feet, accumulated so fast, may have contributed to or caused it. In CH or CB, or LTC WC, it is rare to see spontaneous footpad lesions on a healthy-weight melleri.

http://dragonbreeders.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=5f454a1f9343f292a07e55923cabb585&topic=49.0

When I had Ferris too fat, he got them, too. They went away when he was fit.

I fed mine fairly liberally until about 5 - 6 months, but like you I kept mine in one big cage. I also only bowl fed crickets; fruit flies, house flies and silkworms were free ranged.
BTW I actually don't know how this keeper was offering the food, I only mentioned the bowl feeding to illustrate the overfeeding behavior.

As one of the melleri baby recipients I'll share my experiences thus far.
At 2 weeks of age they were put in screen cages in groups of 4.
They were primarily on fruit flies the first 2 weeks and were allowed to eat liberally free range. After that they were switched to crickets appropriately sized free range also. I don't super supplement these guys but a huge variety of organic vegetables are used in gutloading the crickets.Hydration has been very important as well. All have been robust and healthy.

Forgot to add,they were fed once a day and were only allowed 15-20 minutes to hunt, after that the diner was closed. Believe me,these guys know when feeding time is!

Chuck G said:

Believe me,these guys know when feeding time is!

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lol Sounds like they have to work for it, Chuck, that's good!

Suzanne, I was thinking about it- and that is the first melleri prolapse I can recall hearing or reading about. I wonder if they rarely prolapse because they have so much natural gel lubrication, as chameleons go...?

Something to also consider is that this can be a long lived species. Power feeding an animal that is supposed to grow gradually over a long period of time is going to do nothing but cause problems. You see a lot of this in some of the Parsonii that are being kept currently. Besides getting a fat, lethargic Cham, which isn't a treat to see, you'll get one with some type of internal issues because of the accelerated growth. Inevitably you get an animal that won't live even a fraction of what they are capable of and probably won't be the best breeder either. 100 grams at 3 months is outrageous. 500+ grams at a year, even more so. Cup feeding is a great way to feed animals IMO but be careful how much you put in there and the frequency. If your animal is well fed, it can easily go a day or two off food here and there without any adverse affects. Good luck. Love seeing all the baby Melleri lately.

mattjillson said:

Power feeding an animal that is supposed to grow gradually over a long period of time is going to do nothing but cause problems.

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I think you are absolutely right, Matt.

mattjillson said:

100 grams at 3 months is outrageous.

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Actually, I said it reach 100 grams 3 months earlier than my melleri - it was 8 months old at the time. Just wanted to clarify that.

studiocham said:

Suzanne, I was thinking about it- and that is the first melleri prolapse I can recall hearing or reading about. I wonder if they rarely prolapse because they have so much natural gel lubrication, as chameleons go...?

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Could be, that would be something to ask a vet about... Maybe it's just because there are still so few young melleri out there compared to veileds and panthers.

I feed little Pat whatever/however much he'll eat, but he is on a recovery from a lot of weight loss. I am guessing he is in the 12-13g range right now. I need to check him tonight. So the way to determine we are over feeding is by weight gain vs. intake.... not just based on how much food intake they have?

This was very interesting so I thought I'd bump this old thread!

Good find Donna!!

Prolapse being rare in Melleri, I'm curious if they ever found out if it has to do with their natural lubricants.