Update + Bad aim?

C0nwayy

C0nwayy

Member
Hello! So I haven’t been active because I was hella busy but!
My cham Conway’s been doing great and we bonded a lot during this entire time.
There’s no signs of MBD, no abnormal shedding, good hydratation, well gutloaded crickets and calciworms (and some soldier flies when they hatch of course!) and I’m already waiting for the store to bring dubias small enough for him. He’s grown SO big, he’s eating M to L crickets and stuff!

therefore, there’s something concerning me and that is, his aim is pretty poor.
It used to be great but ever since I started tong feeding him a month or two ago, his aim got awful. He doesn’t catch his prey from a medium distance.

I read that it could be a lack of vitamin A so I started gutloading my feeders with carrots. As well as, I also give him a chunk or two of carrot every.. three days? More or less, whenever he wants to eat it. But nothing seems to be getting better.
I doubt it’s an eyesight thing, his eyes seem pretty normal to me, and he sees everything pretty well, even when it’s dark, he manages to find where his sleeping spot is.
This is him now, he’s 5 months old:

PD: Another good thing, he shows bright colorswhen I’m around!
FD0A1760-6CD8-4E08-828E-E633B9EE690C.jpeg

I don’t know if it’s just him being lazy but,
Now I put his feeders in a cup again, and he eats it whenever he wants to. Haven’t seen him but when I come back after an hour or two, his cup is empty.
 
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When I came back to this post I noticed the extra thing about the bad aim I was like, how did I not see this before?haha😂 Hmm I wonder why he doesn't have very good aim? Hopefully it will improve soon! And by the way he looks so handsome!
 
LukeTheLizard said:
When I came back to this post I noticed the extra thing about the bad aim I was like, how did I not see this before?haha😂 Hmm I wonder why he doesn't have very good aim? Hopefully it will improve soon! And by the way he looks so handsome!
Click to expand...

Lol! Tysm, I’m so proud of him :,)
But yes it’s been like that for two months so I doubt it’s MBD? Like, he has no fractures on his bones and his muscles are working perfectly fine. His grip even got tighter, today his nail accidentally digged on my hand so!
 
C0nwayy said:
Hello! So I haven’t been active because I was hella busy but!
My cham Conway’s been doing great and we bonded a lot during this entire time.
There’s no signs of MBD, no abnormal shedding, good hydratation, well gutloaded crickets and calciworms (and some soldier flies when they hatch of course!) and I’m already waiting for the store to bring dubias small enough for him. He’s grown SO big, he’s eating M to L crickets and stuff!

therefore, there’s something concerning me and that is, his aim is pretty poor.
It used to be great but ever since I started tong feeding him a month or two ago, his aim got awful. He doesn’t catch his prey from a medium distance.

I read that it could be a lack of vitamin A so I started gutloading my feeders with carrots. As well as, I also give him a chunk or two of carrot every.. three days? More or less, whenever he wants to eat it. But nothing seems to be getting better.
I doubt it’s an eyesight thing, his eyes seem pretty normal to me, and he sees everything pretty well, even when it’s dark, he manages to find where his sleeping spot is.
This is him now, he’s 5 months old:

PD: Another good thing, he shows bright colorswhen I’m around!
View attachment 287820
I don’t know if it’s just him being lazy but,
Now I put his feeders in a cup again, and he eats it whenever he wants to. Haven’t seen him but when I come back after an hour or two, his cup is empty.
Click to expand...
What multivitamin do you use?
 
ya I'm no expert but I don't think it's MBD. And it's good to know his bones and muscles are healthy! My chasm digs her nails into my skin all the time! They have really good grip!
 
You said..."I read that it could be a lack of vitamin A so I started gutloading my feeders with carrots. As well as, I also give him a chunk or two of carrot every.. three days?"... The tongue issue could be from an injury, hitting something hard like tongs, infection, nutrient imbalance, and a few other things.
Vitamin A in the carrots is a carotene, prOformed source and it's thought that it can't be converted effectively or maybe not at all by some/all chameleons. It can not be over done. PrEformed vitamin A (retinol, from meat) however is able to be used....but can be overdosed.
 
You said that his aim got bad when you started tong feeding him. That could be the problem. If you hold onto a food item too long when the cham's tongue has made contact, you could cause him to strain his tongue. My cham strained his tongue once before and so for about a week I fed him minimal insects at a close distance to give his tongue a break. One week later and his aim was back to normal. Of course, the time it takes your cham to heal depends on the severity of the strain.

Instead of tongue feeding, I use my hands to hold insects such as dubias. This way I can hold the insect super lightly so when my cham's tongue makes contact, the insect slips perfectly out from my fingers. This may be hard to accurately feel when using tongs. Or you can always make a feeder cup or let the bug crawl on a branch.

If your cham's tongue is strained, you need to give it a rest. Treat it like a pulled muscle. You wouldn't want to run up the stairs with a pulled quad. You would slowly walk up the stairs. Running up the stairs would make your injury worse. Make your cham's life easier while he heals. Put the food closer to your cham and it is okay to skip a feeding or two in between.

I am not saying that your cham's tongue is strained. I am saying it is a possibility. A month or two is a long time. I'd try what I recommended above. Repeated use of a strained tongue could make their aim worse and worse, or prevent it from healing.

If your supplementation is correct. And your husbandry is correct. A strained tongue can look like mbd or Vitamin A deficiency. Though it never hurts to double-check your supplementation and husbandry.
 
CasqueAbove said:
Are you using supplements?
This is a sign of MBD and a serious one. The hyoid bone is very small and thin. It is often affected early in the disease. This is why aim is bad. If the bone is too soft or misshapen.
Click to expand...

of course I use supplements, I use all of Exo terra’s supplements.I use calcium on every feeding, calcium + d3 twice a month and multivitamin twice a month.
 
kinyonga said:
You said..."I read that it could be a lack of vitamin A so I started gutloading my feeders with carrots. As well as, I also give him a chunk or two of carrot every.. three days?"... The tongue issue could be from an injury, hitting something hard like tongs, infection, nutrient imbalance, and a few other things.
Vitamin A in the carrots is a carotene, prOformed source and it's thought that it can't be converted effectively or maybe not at all by some/all chameleons. It can not be over done. PrEformed vitamin A (retinol, from meat) however is able to be used....but can be overdosed.
Click to expand...

I was thinking that it could be an injury too.
And, if not, then how can I give him vitamin A?
 
Mendez said:
You said that his aim got bad when you started tong feeding him. That could be the problem. If you hold onto a food item too long when the cham's tongue has made contact, you could cause him to strain his tongue. My cham strained his tongue once before and so for about a week I fed him minimal insects at a close distance to give his tongue a break. One week later and his aim was back to normal. Of course, the time it takes your cham to heal depends on the severity of the strain.

Instead of tongue feeding, I use my hands to hold insects such as dubias. This way I can hold the insect super lightly so when my cham's tongue makes contact, the insect slips perfectly out from my fingers. This may be hard to accurately feel when using tongs. Or you can always make a feeder cup or let the bug crawl on a branch.

If your cham's tongue is strained, you need to give it a rest. Treat it like a pulled muscle. You wouldn't want to run up the stairs with a pulled quad. You would slowly walk up the stairs. Running up the stairs would make your injury worse. Make your cham's life easier while he heals. Put the food closer to your cham and it is okay to skip a feeding or two in between.

I am not saying that your cham's tongue is strained. I am saying it is a possibility. A month or two is a long time. I'd try what I recommended above. Repeated use of a strained tongue could make their aim worse and worse, or prevent it from healing.

If your supplementation is correct. And your husbandry is correct. A strained tongue can look like mbd or Vitamin A deficiency. Though it never hurts to double-check your supplementation and husbandry.
Click to expand...

I use all my supplements from exo terra so I’m starting to think that if it’s not an injury, then it’s exo terra’s multivitamin the one causing the issue.
However, just in case, I’m cup feeding him and using a cup where he gets the insects easily.
If this doesn’t get any better I’m taking him to the vet.
 
OH YEAH GUYS I JUST REMEMBERED!!!
When I had the UVB light inside of his cage,
he once shot his tongue at the bulb because there was a fruit fly resting there. In fact there’s still the mark on the bulb of the fly being splatted by Con’s tongue but this happened when he was younger.
 
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