3.75 yr old Panther tongue not shooting far and missing

[jcarlsen]

• Your Chameleon - Male ambilobe panther chameleon. 3 yrs 8 months old. Been in my care about 3.5 years or so.
• Handling - Maybe once or twice a week. I put my hands in daily for a hand feed or to clean a poop and the occasional chin scratch.
• Feeding - Feeding mainly superworms every three days. He will eat hornworms and silkworms just not as much. Offering 10-12 and he'll usually take between 3-8. I'm gutloading primarily with Repashy’s super load in both powder and gel form along with apples and greens.
• Supplements - using repashys calcium plus on every feeding. Once a month or so I put Vitamin A gel on a super and offer it to him.
• Watering - I primarily use a mistking with a rain dome set up and a nozzle in the cage. My misting schedule is:

• 730am/5 mins
• 10am/30 seconds
• 1pm/5 mins
• 2pm/30 seconds
• 5pm/2 min

I do see him drink, but not every time. He doesn't seem to rush for the water from what I can see.

• Fecal Description - Fecals have mostly been normal. Though sometimes far apart, meaning the rates are a bit pinkish or orangish on occasion.
• History - Other than coccidia a couple years ago he hasn't had any other major problems. He's a bit small for his age and unfortunately due to my desire for hand feeding I got him hooked on supers. I tried offering others for up to 10 days but no takers, so I gave up.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - 24x24x48 dragon strand keeper cage.
• Lighting - I'm using a double 22" fluorescent fixture with 6% Arcadia and a plant bulb. It's on at 7:00 am and off at around 7:16pm.
• Temperature - Floor is in low 70s, low 80s under uv and 90-95 right under basking spot. I have a probe for the basking and a heat gun to measure the rest. Lowest overnight temp wouldn't be below 70.
• Humidity - have an analogue humidity gauge and it is around 40%, but during the winter it's dipped down to 20 at times right before a misting. I wrapped several panels on 3 sides with plastic to retain spray and help with humidity.
• Plants - Just a large pothos in the rear left opposite the basking spot. Fake foliage and branches cover the rest.
• Placement - Cage is in living room, it is next to but not blown on by heat vents which are to the left of it and above and below cage level. Top of cage is about 6 or so feet off the ground so basking spot is eye level.
• Location - Boston, MA

Current Problem - The last couple of months I’ve noticed he hasn’t quite been shooting his tongue like he used to, and in particular hasn’t gotten it farther out than a few inches and has missed his prey more and more from my hand. At first I figured it was because I don’t have the steadiest hand or the worm is about to fall off, but still a bit concerning. At almost 4 years old, I guess he’s kind of approaching the lifespan-ish of a panther, but I wouldn’t expect this to be age related unless you all think it could be.

As another note, I had made a thread a while back about him having one eye closed. Since then I've adjusted the misting schedule to the longer one above and as mentioned above I'll offer a worm with some vitamin A oil on it once a month, roughly.

Attached are current pics of the enclosure and Jasper basking.

 

[JacksJill]

You know you have a problem with the supers and they don't gut load well. Not much I can tell you there you don't already know. I'd give silkworms a try they might help you break the addiction but it will take some tough love.
He's getting a lot of vitamin A between the Repashy products and the gel you are using. Were you using the Repashy all along or is this all new. It might be time to back off of the Vit A a bit. High levels of Vit A can affect D3 levels and might affect coordination if it's affecting his calcium.
It's a balancing act fixing one problem with out creating another.
Hydration can affect tongue coordination but I don't see a problem with your schedule.

 

[jcarlsen]

You know you have a problem with the supers and they don't gut load well. Not much I can tell you there you don't already know. I'd give silkworms a try they might help you break the addiction but it will take some tough love.
He's getting a lot of vitamin A between the Repashy products and the gel you are using. Were you using the Repashy all along or is this all new. It might be time to back off of the Vit A a bit. High levels of Vit A can affect D3 levels and might affect coordination if it's affecting his calcium.
It's a balancing act fixing one problem with out creating another.
Hydration can affect tongue coordination but I don't see a problem with your schedule.

The Vit A has been going on for....I'd say almost a year? So I can back off on that as I think the misting is what really helped the eye. I'll order some silks. We do keep dubias, so I might just have to be more persistent with what I offer him and see how it goes. As I listed above, he went a full ten days refusing other food items, do you think I should just push on if he gets to that number again? I'd LOVE if he ate dubias more consistently. I've managed to trick him once in a while with the way I hold one, but Jasper's a clever little rascal.

 

[JacksJill]

Jasper does look clever.
I got mine eating dubia by offering them flipped on their back. I don't know that I have the heart to go 10 days but I might go 5 and then 5 or 6 again. You might want to skip the Repashy gut load for a little while and just use veggies while his levels normalize, just a couple weeks should help.

 

[jcarlsen]

Hey, just thought I’d check in with an update. We wound up taking Jasper to the vet yesterday because he had blood in his stool that morning.

While the fecal came back negative for parasites, he’s been put on a round of anti-biotics for a week to two weeks.

He did have a small amount of blood come out of his vent this morning on his basking branch that I cleaned up quickly. I’m hoping the meds will help out, because needless to say it was a stressful morning :/.