Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My tamatave chameleon is about 5 months old, and he looks fairly healthy, except he may be growing a little slow. The thing that's wrong is that I don't know if he is eating right. He refuses to eat out of a feeding cup, and he only eats a few crickets a day, but never right when I put them in the cage. He just kinda eats casually throughout the day. I don't know if he is eating enough, and I can't get him his calcium supplement, since the coat is probably fallen off by the time he eats the cricket. So basically, I don't know if he is eating enough, and if he is growing correctly. Does the calcium dust coat stay on the crickets all day? Or is there some other way I can get him his calcium?

I've tried silkworms and wax worms as well, and the same thing happens, so I don't think that he doesn't like crickets.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I just want to be sure he's eating enough and is getting his supplements.

try some other feeders; roaches, superworms, mealworms, hornworms, moths, grasshoppers, houseflies, butterworms, ect. the calcium dust will fall off eventually and you could give him calcium water drops if you are really worried. i would try not feeding for a few days and then giving him a new food. good luck.

-jon
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1.1 veiled chameleons
0.0.1 normal cornsnake
2.2 leopard geckos

www.funnymanreptiles.com

Hi, I also have a Tamatave and some panthers can be very picky eaters. Make sure you gutload all your insects, have you been cup feeding him from the beginning or is this a practice you've just started? He might not be a cup feeder...most chams like to "hunt" for their food. Mine usually like to see the insect, whatever it may be, on a branch or on the side of the screen cage and it only takes a couple of seconds and then they zap it right away. Try this and try to wait a day or two in between feedings...if you feed everyday they will get bored of looking at insects, especially if they're the same thing each time. Insect variety is the key to get them eating if they're really picky. The post above already listed the insects I was going to say. Also make sure the temps, humidity, and water consumption is where it should be....sometimes it is the husbandry that is the problem.
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Experience and appreciate nature's creation.

www.zenexotics.com

Also remember that at 5 months his growth rate is starting to slow down some.You can try feeding him a larger meal one day and a small one the next to get him a bit hungry. Also try offering flying insects like houseflies or moths. Sometimes the busy fluttering and movement stimulates appetite. As for dusting, if you are gutloading well, the dusts are sort of insurance anyway. Some dust stays on the insects for a while, but make sure you put uneaten insects back in their bin for the night so they can re-load themselves.