Trouble Extending Tongue

[Swild]

I have a 5 month old panther chameleon that I got a week and a half ago, and yesterday I noticed that he wasn't extending his tongue out in order to eat. He seemed to only be able to snap it out about an inch, when normally he has no trouble with extension.
He is still very active in his cage and try's to hunt, however he has a hard time catching anything since his extension is off.
This morning he was able to extend it further and caught a cricket, however this afternoon he is back to limited extension.

Any ideas what could be causing this?

The breeder we got him from was providing a pure calcium every Sunday, and since we got him have provided the same supplement twice. He has lots of chameleons of all ages on this schedule, and calcium deficiency has never been an issue. (He's been breeding for 2 years)
Also, his diet consists of gut loaded crickets, meal worms, wax worms, and occasional butter worms.
UVB and Heat Lamp are provided at the top of the cage. The only thing I can think of would be that we are currently misting around 5-6 times per day with a water bottle while we wait for the mist king to come in. Temp is around 86 in basking and 77 in shaded area.

Thanks!

 

[Lazy Boy]

Everything sounds pretty good but I give my 5 month old way more calcium. Have you given him any multivitamins? Supplements should be.
Dust with Calcium without D3 every feeding
Dust calcium with D3 and multivitamin once every other week

Aldo I would copy and paste this and answer the questions https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/ it makes it a lot easier to help you.

 

[kinyonga]

Tongue extension issues can be from lack of calcium...and once a week IMHO is not enough dusting...so that could be the issue....but the problem can also be caused by infection, injury or dehydration.

Can you please post a recent photo of the chameleon?

 

[Swild]

I picked up a multivitamin yesterday. Here is a pic from last night!

 

[Lovereps]

I second what Kinyonga has said. Calcium 1x a week is far less often than what is recommended.
It is possible to provide enough calcium by feeding the feeders a very high calcium diet but that is usually not what happens.

Here is a good writeup about tongue troubles by another very experienced chamkeeper https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/232-tongue-troubles.html

Here is another helpful link , this one to the forum's Panther caresheet https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/panther/

 

[Swild]

That's great! Thank you!
I'm going to try increasing calcium and adding the multivitamin and monitor from there!