Chameleon tongue completely detached

[Andrew1283]

When we eat, our tongue helps maneuver food toward our teeth on one side of our mouth and the other. I’ve seen my chameleons’ tongues do the same. Without a tongue I wonder if she does a chomp chomp chomp at the intake and swallows feeders whole essentially.

On another note, my veieled has never drank water in front of me and I suspect he gets most of his hydration from the horn worms and silkworms I feed him. They’re just bags of water. And he does swallow them whole without much chewing at all So she should be fine!

Misting is the best way to help them retain the moisture they get from feeders. A evaporative humidifier can be a valuable tool for night time humidity.

 

[KailieBug]

Maybe try a smaller bowl that she can get up close to. That one she can’t get close enough to reach the wax worm. Sweet little honey will get it figured out. It’s great that she’s working on it.

I have this feeder for her, but none of the worms ever seen to climb up the pole, so I gave up, and found the shallowest bowl I could lol. I'll go looking for something better today. I do have a better feeder coming, but I'm in Canada, and can't get hold of the ones everyone has recommended

 

[MissSkittles]

I’ve made a couple of shooting gallery style feeding stations. One was a plastic tray that I can’t recall if it was from take out or a frozen entree. I got some push pins and pencil erasers to cover the points of the pins. I sanded the sharp edges and then ran a thin bead of hot glue where a chameleon might step onto. Another I made for a baby from half of a two sided cat bowl. Really anything can be used (avoid black/dark items) and it’s super simple. My two who only shoot their tongues a couple of inches have no problem getting to and reaching their food and the bugs rarely escape.

 

[KailieBug]

View attachment 353550
The Colors of Kailie! Tomorrow will be 6 weeks since she lost her tongue. She is really thriving!! She still won't eat independently, I have a feeder in her cage, similar to the shooting gallery, and I leave Dubia roaches in all day, but she won't touch them. However, when I take her out, she will open her mouth to the touch of my finger, and allow me to place bugs inside. Still trying to figure out nutrition - she can't manage crickets anymore, as they are far too jumpy for me to actually get them in her mouth. Soldier fly larvae come out the other end still whole. Mostly she's been eating meal worms, with an odd horn worm here and there. She is definitely gaining too much weight though. I finally managed to find some Dubia roaches last week (they're hard to get in Canada, and super expensive!) I'll be trying to breed the Dubias for her, for more sustainable food. So until my colony is self sustaining, I'm only giving about 3 roaches every 5 days or so right now. I hope to make the roaches her staple food soon.
She is alllll about water now, it's funny to watch. When her mister goes off in the evening, she starts going to town licking all her leaves. Never saw her so it before she lost her tongue. We moved her into her new cage a few weeks ago, and she is absolutely loving it! I was so worried about her, but she's turned into such a happy little girl.

 

[MissSkittles]

Have you tried silkworms yet? Those are one of my favorite feeders. They are slow, don’t bite back and don’t have the super grippy feet like hornworms have…plus, they are just cute.