Can you overfeed a chameleon

But there is always room for ice cream! If you chameleon starts refusing food then first, go to the schedule published above. If they still turn their nose up at what you feed them then skip a feeding or two until hunger comes back. A healthy chameleon can easily go a week without food. They can go longer in times of hardship, but a week without food is usually enough to get them back to a state where they eat because they are hungry.

Once you break the hunger strike then continue to feed in a sparse manner. There is another possibility if your chameleon is eating, but refuses to eat a certain type of feeder. They may have a bad memory with that feeder. So if your chameleon is eating staple foods, but refuses a certain food, then there is something about that particular food. Properly gutloaded feeder items are placed in a cup or bag that has the proper supplementation and given a tumble to coat the insect with the powder.

These feeder insects are then put in the cage with the chameleon. We tend to want to feed them as big of food items as they can gulp down. The better approach is to feed smaller food items and just give them a couple more. There are a variety of methods to feed your chameleon. Another thing to take under consideration is how long you leave your feeders in with your chameleon. Ed Kammer of Kammerflage Kreations gives some advice that he uses in his breeding operation.

Bowl feeding is where you place a container in the chameleon cage where the feeders cannot get out, but the chameleon has a clear shot for its tongue. These can be as simple as bowls or plastic mini tote boxes with a branch network above. These can be made cheaply or else nicer professionally produced versions are available. This is where you release one or a couple of feeders up the screen side of the cage.

The insects scatter and you chameleon hunts them down. Though this is also a way of insects hiding and coming into contact with poop. To produce a hunting response, feeder insects are released in the cage for the chameleon to hunt down. Usually this takes the form of releasing the insects to climb a wall that is near the chameleon. I sometimes give a tap to get the feeders to go to the cup opening.

The feeders will generally start climbing the screen and you just let them climb up. I do this in tongue range of the chameleon, but as far away from him as possible.

Ideally, this is done below him and the feeders are allowed to crawl up the screen. Doing it below him will make the activity less stressful as chameleons have a security when they are looking down on things. The main challenge with this method is the stubborn feeders that decide they want to climb down. Dubia roaches can have this tendency.

Of course, you can simply place the feeder on the screen with your fingers and let it go. Hand feeding is an enjoyable interaction you can have with your chameleon. It is a way to get him to be comfortable with your presence. Do this with a special feeder treat and hold the treat between you and the chameleon.

This way, your chameleon is not distracted by having to keep one eye on you and one eye on the feeder. Chameleons will take vertebrate prey such as lizards, pinkie mice, and small birds.

If it moves, and can fit in their mouth, then it is fair game. Depending on the size of your chameleon, occasional vertebrate prey is a benefit. Obviously, the larger the chameleon the more likely that they will eat another lizard or even pinkie mouse. But an occasional feeding of an appropriately sized vertebrate is acceptable. There is no determined schedule as to how much is too much.

A bi-monthly vertebrate feeding has worked well for me for my larger chameleons. If you are unsure, then stick with an insect diet. You cannot go wrong with that choice. Silk worms and Hornworms ate a specific food in order to survive.

Their chow are available commercially. There is no need to add another type of gut load for these feeders. They are nutritious enough for your chameleon. For crickets and roaches, I used dry gut load specifically made by a fellow avid chameleon keeper. Long time ago, I used gutload made by cricketfood. Hydration can be provided by water crystal or Fluker Orange cubes. In addition, I also give them fresh fruits and vegetables , such as apples, oranges, dandelion, kale, and collard greens.

Avoid using lettuces as they generally are not that nutritious , broccoli, spinach, potato, tomato, and other types of foods that contain high oxalate contents. I would also avoid using high protein food as gut load for roaches. Many will suggest you to feed your roaches with cat food, dog food, and fish flakes.

But, it is NOT acceptable for Chameleon. A high protein gut load can give your chameleon gout. You can feed your roaches dog food to stimulate them into breeding mode. But, separate the one you are going to feed to your chameleon. This will ensure the roaches to no longer have traces of dogfood in their system. Method : Free roam method: dump the crickets inside the enclosure and let your chameleon hunts. Do not let feeders overnight.

The bugs will bother your chameleon at night by biting him. The benefit of free roam is the way it mimics the nature. Your chameleon will get a good exercise from hunting his food. Unfortunately, free roam makes it hard for you to monitor the exact amount of food that your chameleon eat daily, some insects might not get eaten and manage to survive and possibly escape.

Feeder Cup method: use a semi opaque or opaque cup inside the cage. Put your feeder inside of the cup. The benefits of cup feeding are the ability for you to accurately monitor your chameleon's daily intake, minimize insect escapees, and keeps a cleaner cage since the dead feeder will be in the cup. The negative thing about cup feeding are not all chameleons get accustomed to eat from a cup and chameleon tends to become lazy since no hunting required to get his food.

Combination method: This is the best way in my opinion. Put half of the insects free roam and another in a cup. Sanitary : Do exercise cleanliness while keeping feeders, especially crickets. If you let the container, where you kept the feeders, gets dirty and moldy, guess what! Also, ironically, cricket cannot stand their own nasty smell.

You will start to see massive death when you let the cricket container gets too dirty and too smelly. Do not let dead feeders in your chameleon cage. Pick it up and throw it away at sight. A chapter will be dedicated for specific feeders and their care in the future. Source s : Kammerflage Kreations and chameleonforums. Posted by Frans Kusuma at PM.

Newer Post Older Post Home. Somewhere in this photo is the horned leaf chameleon Brookesia superciliaris playing dead. Native to Madagascar, Brookesia chameleons are among the world's tiniest reptiles.

How do I get my chameleon to eat? From your live crickets, you should measure out the proper size and number to feed your chameleon. Feed in the morning. Place a few insects in the leaves and branches. Mist the chameleon's cage. Give them leafy greens. What time do chameleons sleep? A chameleon just sleeps at night. It is not active and will not eat or walk around. In the wild it is actually pretty easy to find sleeping chameleons.

At night they turn light green in color. Do chameleons like to be held? Chameleons definitely do not like being held and they don't enjoy being petted either. Some can develop a tolerance for being held but they would much better suited to being left alone and observed from afar.

Will chameleons eat dead crickets? Dont feed even very recently dead crickets to your chameleons. If you are certain the crickets are dead from old age and not some kind of nastiness, you can occasionally feed these very recently dead crickets to other insects: kingworms, mealworms, roaches, and especially isopods - these will all eat dead insects. Can chameleons drink tap water?