i currently own a male ambilobe panther chameleon that i have had for about 6 months now, he's about 7-8 months old and i recently noticed that when he tries to eat he misses his food and every time his tongue is about a quarter inch up and to the right of the food. i have had no other problems with him up until this point, from what i can tell he is fully extending his tongue and shows no signs of other sicknesses or diseases. i have been hand feeding him and when i move the food closer to him he gets it and he constantly drinks. I am wondering if this is a disease, if its harmful and how to fix it. any input is appreciated
chameleon missing its food
- Thread starter absolitt
- Start date
sandrachameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
Please answer all aspects of the how to ask for help questionaire. In particular, tell us what prey you feed to the chameleon and what you feed the prey. and what supplementation you use, if any
Also check out this:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/232-tongue-troubles.html
Also check out this:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/232-tongue-troubles.html
chameleoman
Avid Member
my chameleon has a similar problem right now i give him antibiotic injections every other day they were given to me buy the vet
chameleoman
Avid Member
what color is his toung?
Your Chameleon - The species?- Ambilobe panther chameleon,
sex?- male
age of your chameleon?- about 7-8 months.
How long has it been in your care?- since march of 2011
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?-somewhat often and when i do it is only a short period of time, 10-15 minutes.
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham?- Crickets.
What amount?- 2-3 every other day.
How are you gut-loading your feeders?- variety of different fruits and vegetables.
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?- Rep-cal herptivite and calcium with vitamin D.
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use?- Mist system with reverse osmosis water.
How often and how long to you mist?- 30 seconds every 3 hours.
Do you see your chameleon drinking?- yes
Fecal Description -
Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. - brown and white.
Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?- no
History - i ordered him from screameleons.com when he was only a few months old
Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage http://www.screameleons.com/site/ProductID__1913/ItemID__3746/3365/default.aspx - this is a link to the exact kit i ordered with him.
What are the dimensions?- L: 18.00 W: 12.00 H: 20.00 (I plan on upgrading once he gets bigger)
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using?
What is your daily lighting schedule?- 12 hours on, 12 hours off.
Temperature - What temp range have you created? 65-105
Lowest overnight temp?-65
How do you measure these temps?- electric thermometer.
What are your humidity levels? 60%
How are you creating and maintaining these levels?- mist system.
What do you use to measure humidity?- a humidity gauge
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?- no live plants
Placement - Where is your cage located? my bedroom
Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? i have a fan in my room only on at night
At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?- about halfway from the floor to the ceiling
Location - Where are you geographically located- Ohio
sex?- male
age of your chameleon?- about 7-8 months.
How long has it been in your care?- since march of 2011
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?-somewhat often and when i do it is only a short period of time, 10-15 minutes.
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham?- Crickets.
What amount?- 2-3 every other day.
How are you gut-loading your feeders?- variety of different fruits and vegetables.
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?- Rep-cal herptivite and calcium with vitamin D.
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use?- Mist system with reverse osmosis water.
How often and how long to you mist?- 30 seconds every 3 hours.
Do you see your chameleon drinking?- yes
Fecal Description -
Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. - brown and white.
Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?- no
History - i ordered him from screameleons.com when he was only a few months old
Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage http://www.screameleons.com/site/ProductID__1913/ItemID__3746/3365/default.aspx - this is a link to the exact kit i ordered with him.
What are the dimensions?- L: 18.00 W: 12.00 H: 20.00 (I plan on upgrading once he gets bigger)
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using?
What is your daily lighting schedule?- 12 hours on, 12 hours off.
Temperature - What temp range have you created? 65-105
Lowest overnight temp?-65
How do you measure these temps?- electric thermometer.
What are your humidity levels? 60%
How are you creating and maintaining these levels?- mist system.
What do you use to measure humidity?- a humidity gauge
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?- no live plants
Placement - Where is your cage located? my bedroom
Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? i have a fan in my room only on at night
At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?- about halfway from the floor to the ceiling
Location - Where are you geographically located- Ohio
I don't believe so I think high heat just lowers life span lots of eye and tongue problems come from vit A deficiency http://www.store.repashy.com/vitamin-a-plus.html
Read this and the multivitamin that you use I used to use and my girl became vitamin A deficient this product sounds promising.
Edit: As far as the heat goes it may cause other problems but I don't believe it's the issue here
sandrachameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
From the sounds of it, you are not offering a wide variety of feeders, you dont say specifically what you gutload with, and you dont mention using a plain (vitamin free) calcium nor do you indicate the brand of calcium with D3 you use. It sounds like you are over-doing the D3 (cant be sure until you provide missing details). Using less of the D3 and adding a little preformed vitamin A may help.
Did you read the link I provided previously? If not, I suggest you do so. Then read these (including all the links within each)
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/65-supplements.htmlhttps://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html
Did you read the link I provided previously? If not, I suggest you do so. Then read these (including all the links within each)
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/65-supplements.htmlhttps://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/75-feeder-nutrition-gutloading.html
Last edited:
There are a few reasons for tongue issues including but not limited to MBD/nutrient imbalances, injury, infection and even dehydration. Until you determine which it is the treatment can only be trial and error IMHO. A vet can run tests to help determine the cause.
Here's some information I hope will help you with things like supplements, gutloading, etc....
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.
Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.
Since many of the feeder insects we use in captivity have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).
If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).
Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)
Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)
Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.
Please note that various supplements have various amounts of D3 and vitamin A and so some can be given more often than others. The idea still is not to overdo the fat soluble vitamins like D3 and prEformed vitamin A.
Here are some good sites for you to read too...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.
Here's some information I hope will help you with things like supplements, gutloading, etc....
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.
Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.
Since many of the feeder insects we use in captivity have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).
If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).
Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)
Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)
Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.
Please note that various supplements have various amounts of D3 and vitamin A and so some can be given more often than others. The idea still is not to overdo the fat soluble vitamins like D3 and prEformed vitamin A.
Here are some good sites for you to read too...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.
Yes actually she was missing when I was hand feeding and it seemed strange so I looked into it and read symptoms of Vit A def. And then her eye began to bother her and of finally went completely closed. I began a regiment of Vit A and she began to get better a friend has her now and has ordered the repashy to finish her treatment but it sounds like the product is made for thus type of thing
