tongue and mouth

[K4fru]

i have a chameleon i posted 2 previous threads on, one for black dots on skin and one about swelling in the left corner of the mouth which have both resolved thankfully and were quite simple actually
now i need ur help again plz since my last post about his swelling 2months ago he didnt once use his tongue and i was mouth feeding as his appetite was nul then even after the pus fell off 2~3 weeks later, i made him chase the worms as i always do to train him again to project his tongue far as he can step by step and sometimes i leave it on the ground to hunt for himself yet he didnt use his tongue at all eating like a lizard then i left him for 9days without food and yet same result then aferwards it became worse his appetite returned being low eating only 1 or 2 worms + a bell pepper or cucumber i gently put on the tip of his mouth to grab it and swallow it
as for his mouth he now opens it after a while of presenting the worm to him
(i feed the insects carrots before feeding and i feed my chameleon a piece of green bell pepper the size of a mealworm which i always do to provide vit A)(i use the term worm to describe dubia roaches and mealworms and mealbeetles)
and thank u in advance for ur help

 

[nightanole]

Id say most of my chameleons lives ended without full use of the tongue. At some point they either miss and hurt it or some other injury. The last injury was a feeder with a death grip on the stick, and rather than letting go, the chameleon pulled itself across the cage by the tongue, reeling the feeder in. That was the last shot before he spent the rest of his life eating like a beardy.

But its not so bad, if you can grow silk worms, you can put them on sticks all over the cage and its a scavenger hunt. And once they are feeder trained you are good to go. Plus you have a bit more intimate relationship with the ones you have to had feed vs fill the feeder and goto work

 

[K4fru]

for husbandry i provide basking lamp and spray once or twice daily and my big balcony is his kingdom that has plastic fecus tree and other natural plants my mom planted there and the poop and urate r normal he is also active like he usually is just mouth and tongue problem

 

[K4fru]

Id say most of my chameleons lives ended without full use of the tongue. At some point they either miss and hurt it or some other injury. The last injury was a feeder with a death grip on the stick, and rather than letting go, the chameleon pulled itself across the cage by the tongue, reeling the feeder in. That was the last shot before he spent the rest of his life eating like a beardy.

But its not so bad, if you can grow silk worms, you can put them on sticks all over the cage and its a scavenger hunt. And once they are feeder trained you are good to go. Plus you have a bit more intimate relationship with the ones you have to had feed vs fill the feeder and goto work

i had a chameleon once before and after a couple of years it died naturally and then i bought this cham, its been 6months since i bought him so i understand the intimate relationship u feel i just want to accept the condition without worries if its not reversible

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."his appetite returned being low eating only 1 or 2 worms + a bell pepper or cucumber i gently put on the tip of his mouth to grab it and swallow it"...this is a common chameleon, right? They are generally insectivores....not omnivores.

You said..."(I feed the insects carrots before feeding and i feed my chameleon a piece of green bell pepper the size of a mealworm which i always do to provide vit A)(i use the term worm to describe dubia roaches and mealworms and mealbeetles)...you should be feeding the insects a wider variety of greens and veggies. The pepper has beta carotene as the form of vitamin A but it's thought that chameleons can't convert it into a useful form of vitamin A.

Tongue issues can be from injuries, calcium deficiencies or nutrient imbalances, infections, etc. It's important to determine which is playing a part in your chameleons diet. Are you still dusting the insects with calcium powder...which one? Dusting with a vitamin powder twice a month?

 

[K4fru]

You said..."his appetite returned being low eating only 1 or 2 worms + a bell pepper or cucumber i gently put on the tip of his mouth to grab it and swallow it"...this is a common chameleon, right? They are generally insectivores....not omnivores.

You said..."(I feed the insects carrots before feeding and i feed my chameleon a piece of green bell pepper the size of a mealworm which i always do to provide vit A)(i use the term worm to describe dubia roaches and mealworms and mealbeetles)...you should be feeding the insects a wider variety of greens and veggies. The pepper has beta carotene as the form of vitamin A but it's thought that chameleons can't convert it into a useful form of vitamin A.

Tongue issues can be from injuries, calcium deficiencies or nutrient imbalances, infections, etc. It's important to determine which is playing a part in your chameleons diet. Are you still dusting the insects with calcium powder...which one? Dusting with a vitamin powder twice a month?

there is no infection, and i provide calcium powder every meal but i am still searching for vitamin supplements to be honest i barely found someone who breed dubia roaches that i bought some from to breed too
can i ask for now what other ways to supplement my cham with vitamins better than carrots, please?
and please bear with me the next question can i feed my common chameleon anything beside insects like boiled egg albumin and/or yolk, fish and/or fish oils, certain types of fruits and vegetables, and meat
I'll be forever grateful to you

 

[kinyonga]

What calcium powder do you use. Is it the same one Petr Necas told you had too much salt in?

You can use dandelion greens, kale, collards, squash, zucchini, sweet red pepper, sweet potato, mustard greens, a very little bit of apples, pears, berries, papaya, mango, etc. I don't know what would be available to you in your country.

I did keep common chameleons a long time ago but only for about 8 years.

You said sometimes you can get crickets...from a store? They aren't that hard to breed if you know how to do it. Have you had any luck getting any insects from the wild in areas where no pesticide is used?

I'm not a vet and only speak from my own experiences, what my vets have told me, and what I've learned from studies and others who have kept chameleons.

I can't tell you if you can feed the chameleon's egg yolks, etc....but you can feed them to the insects. The problem is that we don't knew how much good that does the chameleon for sure...but it shouldn't hurt. Do you know anyone who keeps bees? You might be able to get bee polenta from them. They might have waxworms at times too. You can use waxworms for a treat...VERY SELDOM for the chameleon.


If you have more questions just ask...ill answer them if I can.

 

[K4fru]

What calcium powder do you use. Is it the same one Petr Necas told you had too much salt in?

You can use dandelion greens, kale, collards, squash, zucchini, sweet red pepper, sweet potato, mustard greens, a very little bit of apples, pears, berries, papaya, mango, etc. I don't know what would be available to you in your country.

I did keep common chameleons a long time ago but only for about 8 years.

You said sometimes you can get crickets...from a store? They aren't that hard to breed if you know how to do it. Have you had any luck getting any insects from the wild in areas where no pesticide is used?

I'm not a vet and only speak from my own experiences, what my vets have told me, and what I've learned from studies and others who have kept chameleons.

I can't tell you if you can feed the chameleon's egg yolks, etc....but you can feed them to the insects. The problem is that we don't knew how much good that does the chameleon for sure...but it shouldn't hurt. Do you know anyone who keeps bees? You might be able to get bee polenta from them. They might have waxworms at times too. You can use waxworms for a treat...VERY SELDOM for the chameleon.


If you have more questions just ask...ill answer them if I can.

thank u very much i do appreciate ur help ❤❤
and yes that same powder i cant find better substitutes for it
and yes also the one i bought the roaches from knows someone who catches crickets from the wild but he still haven't got them since
plus I'll ask for bees and waxworms and continue searching for other breeders

 

[kinyonga]

The reason I asked about the bees is so you could talk to the beekeeper about getting bee pollen from him. Petr already suggested you use bee pollen and other things..
@PetNcs said..."that type of calcium powder is too high in salt
So it is not food for chameleons
You meed also other supplementa like bee pollen and mumtivitamis to Keep him alive eapexially when you feed him with the mealworms, which is not a good fokd anyway". Did you follow his advice?

I've never bred wild caught crickets only the type we buy at reptile stores...so I might not have good info on breeding the wild ones....but Petr said he could help with that.

 

[kinyonga]

In your other thread, you also said the chameleon was diggin hikes at one point. I think the chameleon might be a female...could she have laid eggs?

The tongue issue would make more sense if she was female. It also might be that the high salt Petr talked about in the calcium you are using could be part of the problem...but it's only a theory on my part. I don't really know. I do know that salt can cause calcium to be excreted in humans though so maybe it does for chameleons too.

 

[K4fru]

The reason I asked about the bees is so you could talk to the beekeeper about getting bee pollen from him. Petr already suggested you use bee pollen and other things..
@PetNcs said..."that type of calcium powder is too high in salt
So it is not food for chameleons
You meed also other supplementa like bee pollen and mumtivitamis to Keep him alive eapexially when you feed him with the mealworms, which is not a good fokd anyway". Did you follow his advice?

I've never bred wild caught crickets only the type we buy at reptile stores...so I might not have good info on breeding the wild ones....but Petr said he could help with that.

yes i remember, i am trying to find one for the pollen and also ask for pollen directly from honey stores, yet still searching

 

[K4fru]

In your other thread, you also said the chameleon was diggin hikes at one point. I think the chameleon might be a female...could she have laid eggs?

The tongue issue would make more sense if she was female. It also might be that the high salt Petr talked about in the calcium you are using could be part of the problem...but it's only a theory on my part. I don't really know. I do know that salt can cause calcium to be excreted in humans though so maybe it does for chameleons too.

no its a male I'm sure, i had a female before and she didnt require all that stuff to live healthy but its good atleast I'm doing the right thing and can motivate me to buy other reptiles in separate enclosures ofcourse
once i get my hands on a supplement or hopefully all 3 at once I'll post them here

 

[kinyonga]

From post 10... It said "diggin hikes"...I meant digging holes.

I treated the males and females almost the same except that the females got more calcium when gravid and had lay bins.

 

[K4fru]

From post 10... It said "diggin hikes"...I meant digging holes.

lol np i knew what u meant and he still has this habit, i later knew he just seeks a burrow to hide under nothing alerting thankfully
i have an idea in mind, in a thread about feeding chameleons eggs u replied that too much protein is harmful+egg yolk contains prEformed vitamins as A and D3,, sooo what if i fed a baby dubia roach or a single mealworm egg yolk to provide some vitamins without overdosing

 

[kinyonga]

I figured you got what I meant. Bugs me when I miss spell checks "corrections"!

I think that would be a good way to do it for now. I can't be sure how much egg yolk would be too much for an insect because I don't know if insects store the fat soluble vitamins or protein like other things do. Guess I should have studied entomology! (I already went back to school to take biology when I started keeping reptiles cause I always took physics and chemistry so I wouldn't have to cut critters up.)

 

[K4fru]

I figured you got what I meant. Bugs me when I miss spell checks "corrections"!

I think that would be a good way to do it for now. I can't be sure how much egg yolk would be too much for an insect because I don't know if insects store the fat soluble vitamins or protein like other things do. Guess I should have studied entomology! (I already went back to school to take biology when I started keeping reptiles cause I always took physics and chemistry so I wouldn't have to cut critters up.)

I'm against u with this love biology but hate physics cant thank god enough for passing physics in school hahahah

 

[K4fru]

i did some research and found that insects in general store vit a for their vision and dubia roaches in particular can store food in their intestines for 3 days before excereting as poop so i have to be careful with that