4 Month Old Panther Missing Food

[Fastedmclintock]

When i tried hand feeding my panther after only cup feeding him for about a month, i noticed that he cannot properly fire his tongue at his food. He shoots high every time and then will eventually lick up the food or just straight bite it. He might have been doing this ever since i got him cause i aways cup fed him and never noticed this. Help please!

 

[carol5208]

I know its a pain, but it would be helpful to fill this out: https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/

 

[Fastedmclintock]

Chameleon Info:

* Your Chameleon - 4 months old male blue bar ambilobe, had for a month.
* Handling - A few times a week and go outside when nice out
* Feeding - 20-25 gut loaded with carrots and Romain lettuce baby dubia a day as stable and silk, horn, and butter worms for treats
* Supplements - rep-cal calcium w/o d3 every feeding and rep-cal calcium w/ d3 and rep-cal multivit twice a month
* Watering - Mist his cage about 4 times a day by hand uptil cage is dripping, and i see my cham drinking off the leaves often
* Fecal Description - Solid brown feces with white urate. Never has been tested for parasites.
* History - Bought the chameleon from Kammer's, hatched in march 2011


Cage Info:

* Cage Type - 18x18x36 reptibreeze
* Lighting - reptiglo 5.0, and 60w indoor flood light
* Temperature - 90 basking temp. Measured with probed thermometer
* Humidity - 40-60%, from hand misting cage, measured with probed hygrometer.
* Plants - Umbrella plant
* Placement - in my family room with low traffic not near vets and about 2-3 feet off the ground
* Location - doylestown, PA

Current Problem - cannot properly target food with tongue. Shoots high every time

 

[Thompson]

I wouldn't feed him 20 crickets a day, just only about 10-12 a day. Also lower his basking temp to 85 degrees. This is just a guess but maybe he needs a bit of Vitamin A? I read somewhere on here that panthers require more Vitamin A than most species, can't remember which thread that was.

 

[Fastedmclintock]

Ok thanks! When i posted about how much to be feeding him in another thread, people told me to let him feed as much as he wants...?

 

[carol5208]

you will get mixed posts on how much to feed. I fed about 15-20 1/4 inch at 4 months. There are members who say feed as much in like 5 minutes or so. Any of it works, just don't want to underfeed when they are young and rapidly growing.

 

[Fastedmclintock]

alright well in that case he is definitely not underfeed and his growing like a weed. Could a Vit A deficiency be the cause of him missing his targets? Or any other ideas?

 

[clarkrw3]

I have been having the same problem with my 4.5mo old. I really don't know what to tell you. I can not figure out what is wrong with my guy and have changed just about everything I have been able to find or do. I took him to the vet and fecal came back clean except for signs of infection. After 10 days of Baytril treatment for infection his tongue hasn't changed and I am just waiting and watching. Everyone will say its injury or a supplement issue but I know in my case I am on top of both things. It's very frustrating all I want is for him to get better.
Good luck and I will be following along to see if anyone gives any good advice that can help your guy get better.

 

[a2zcreatures]

this may be a long shot but they could have bad vision.. or maybe one eye is blind.. i know that when a cham aims at prey they use both eyes... one for depth perception and so on... maybe the vision is bad. Generally a sick cham doesn't eat as well and there would be other signs of problems rather than just missing his target. There probably is no way to test this theory. I have a cham with mental issues and his from legs don't work right.. he tries to grab branches and misses. it takes him hours to move from one branch to another.. he has to be hand fed and watered. Is it possible the temp spiked and dropped? could be brain damage.

 

[Fastedmclintock]

No temp spike and drop that i know of...

 

[Fastedmclintock]

Anyone else have any idea?

 

[ChromaChameleons]

Clark: What supplements and what schedule are you using .

I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a Vit A issue here.

I experienced the same issues with the REpCal regime. It corrected after switching to Zoomed Reptivite. The major difference is beta carotene vs. Vit A.

I learned of this issue from conversations with Connie Dorval ( a retired Canadian breeder) and from reading posts by Jim from Chamco.

I did call Rep Cal several times to discuss their products. After several unanswered calls , several unreturned voicemails and several unreturned emails that I sent to discuss the research and reasoning to replace Vit A with beta carotene in their formulation, I gave up.

I have never found any research that has confirmed that Panthers can convert beta carotene to vit A. I have found info to the contrary.

Once I started to use Vit A supplementation , I saw a noticeable change. ADDING VIT A MUST BE DONE RESPONSIBLY as it can be toxic.

 

[clarkrw3]

Clark: What supplements and what schedule are you using .

I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a Vit A issue here.

I experienced the same issues with the REpCal regime. It corrected after switching to Zoomed Reptivite. The major difference is beta carotene vs. Vit A.

I learned of this issue from conversations with Connie Dorval ( a retired Canadian breeder) and from reading posts by Jim from Chamco.

I did call Rep Cal several times to discuss their products. After several unanswered calls , several unreturned voicemails and several unreturned emails that I sent to discuss the research and reasoning to replace Vit A with beta carotene in their formulation, I gave up.

I have never found any research that has confirmed that Panthers can convert beta carotene to vit A. I have found info to the contrary.

Once I started to use Vit A supplementation , I saw a noticeable change. ADDING VIT A MUST BE DONE RESPONSIBLY as it can be toxic.

This is super interesting and I would be more than willing to try anything at this point. I was using the normal chameleonforums suggested supplementation of Herptivite twice a month and calc / d3 twice a month and calc w/o every feeding. I started adding more Herptivite more once he started having a problem and talked with Libby about supplements and she stated they supplement with vit 8 times a month rather than two. She also recommended sticky tongues w/o for the calcium and that I could also use JUST Repashy calcium plus. And that they had been using it exclusively for 2 years and found it to be a true all in one. So for the past few weeks I have been just giving the Repshy. Repashy also has a new Vit A supplement which I bought but have been a little nervous about using.
I have been gutloading my bugs with a wet formula with 9 different fruits and vegetables and cricket crack for the dry gutload.


I am going to pick up some Zoomed Reptivite on the way home today but I also checked the Repashy vit A supplement I got and it has both proform A and beta carotene in it I am just not sure how much to give since it is so new and no one I know has any experience with it. Also since we don't know if chameleons use proform or beta carotene it's hard to know how much they will be getting from something that has both. I had thought about using it as just part of my homemade dry gutload that I am in the process of making to replace the cricket crack using sandrachameleons great blog...anyone have any input on it?