Missed his food

[asongforyou]

I was finally able to feed Niji with tongs/tweezers today! That's the good news. BUT he missed his dubia twice, once while I was holding it and second when I put it on the screen to see if it was a fluke. Should I be concerned?? Ellie and Russell never seem to miss.

 

[sandrachameleon]

why are you feeding with tongs? Is there something wrong with the animal that requires this?

Missing occassionally is no big deal. Missing repeatedly / ongoing / frequently and/or a slow loss of tongue control or distance is a cause for concern.

Did he miss after he hit something successfully that was in the tongs? COuld have caused injury.

 

[asongforyou]

why are you feeding with tongs? Is there something wrong with the animal?

Missing occassionally is no big deal. Missing repeatedly / ongoing / frequently and/or a slow loss of tongue control or distance is a cause for concern.

I use the tweezers because I don't like holding the dubia with my hands. If it were to become an ongoing problem, what can cause this?

I will watch him for the next few days and if he continues to miss. I will take him to the vet.

 

[asongforyou]

Sorry didn't see the last part. He missed the tongs completely the first time so I don't think that's what caused it since it was the first time I tried this with him.

 

[sandrachameleon]

You might try cup / bowl feeding, rather than tweezers. IMHO that's safer.

Here's a link to some information about tongue troubles:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/232-tongue-troubles.html

 

[DavidBuchan]

Ongoing tongue problems like this would usually be caused by a vitamin imbalance if not an injury. They all miss sometimes though, perhaps since it was his first time he was just a little nervous.......

 

[asongforyou]

You might try cup / bowl feeding, rather than tweezers. IMHO that's safer.

Here's a link to some information about tongue troubles:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/232-tongue-troubles.html

Thanks for the link. He's already eating out of a cup. But I wanted to see if he'd eat while my hands in the cage since we're trying to get him used to us. So in that sense we made progress today I will stop the tweezers though.

Ongoing tongue problems like this would usually be caused by a vitamin imbalance. They all miss sometimes though, perhaps since it was his first time he was just a little nervous.......

That could be it too. I tend to notice everything and panic . I'm the one that's in the vet hospital for every little thing