Weird parsons behavior

[FloridaChameleonLiving]

So just recently my baby girl finished her shed and looks to be doing fine ! I've noticed on a very few occasions her barely miss a cricket or something and her tongue almost comes all the way out of her mouth and she retracts it back in (if that makes any sense). The couple times it's happened I don't have time to get a video or anything . It's like she's spitting her tongue out then retracting it back in. Very weird to see especially with how long her tongue is. She hasn't seemed super interested in food this past week but then again she was shedding. Still would eat a couple crickets though and a super if I offered (she loves Supers). Has anyone experienced anything similar or have any advice ? Not much on parsons as it is

 

[SerpeRoma]

So just recently my baby girl finished her shed and looks to be doing fine ! I've noticed on a very few occasions her barely miss a cricket or something and her tongue almost comes all the way out of her mouth and she retracts it back in (if that makes any sense). The couple times it's happened I don't have time to get a video or anything . It's like she's spitting her tongue out then retracting it back in. Very weird to see especially with how long her tongue is. She hasn't seemed super interested in food this past week but then again she was shedding. Still would eat a couple crickets though and a super if I offered (she loves Supers). Has anyone experienced anything similar or have any advice ? Not much on parsons as it is

I don't have experience with Parsons, but it would be great if you could post a video to let us understand better

 

[FloridaChameleonLiving]

I don't have experience with Parsons, but it would be great if you could post a video to let us understand better

Yeah I'll try in the future (hopefully it never happens again) lol. I've only seen her do it twice and both times around feeding. Happened so quick I couldn't even pull out my phone

 

[SerpeRoma]

Yeah I'll try in the future (hopefully it never happens again) lol. I've only seen her do it twice and both times around feeding. Happened so quick I couldn't even pull out my phone

It's always like that lol just feed her with your phone ready, hopefully she doesn't do it anymore!

 

[FloridaChameleonLiving]

It's always like that lol just feed her with your phone ready, hopefully she doesn't do it anymore!

Yeah man I hope to never see it again lol . Very weird and unpleasant to watch . Almost spit put her tongue like it didn't taste right or something. & I feel like they have longer tongues than other chameleon species so when she spit out her tongue its super long thing

 

[Mendez]

This behavior isn't exclusive to parson's chameleons. It sounds like some type of tongue injury due to either missing a shot and injuring it somehow or too little Vitamin A and D3 (poor tongue-eye coordination that led to an injury). Luckily it sounds like it isn't a very serious issue if it only happens on occasion. Though the tongue coming out all the way makes me second guess the seriousness of this (i.e more serious). It's possible that if it's an injury like a sprain, it could already be on the mend. I had an experience a while back with a sprained tongue. I just cup fed my Jackson's chameleon larger feeders and did so infrequently so as to let his tongue heal. Stay away from super small feeders as they increase the risk for the tongue sticking to a surface other than the insect. Put feeders at a close to medium range. Super close and super far distances can be a recipe for disaster with a tongue sprain. Treat it like a strained muscle. You want to use it as infrequently as possible until it can be used in a consistent and accurate manner. However, not using the muscle at all doesn't always help with recovery either. So you definitely want her to use the tongue, but in a safe manner to reduce the risk of injury as much as possible until she heals. Answering the questions below may give us a clue as to why and how she go this injury.

I know you are an experienced keeper, so I'll keep this short:
--What supplements are you giving her? (Include brand and frequency)
--Do you keep her indoors/outdoors?
--Do you cup-feed, hand-feed, or free-range feeders?
--You feed any hornworms?

 

[kinyonga]

Absolutely agree with what @Mendez has said.
Could be a sprain or injury.

 

[FloridaChameleonLiving]

This behavior isn't exclusive to parson's chameleons. It sounds like some type of tongue injury due to either missing a shot and injuring it somehow or too little Vitamin A and D3 (poor tongue-eye coordination that led to an injury). Luckily it sounds like it isn't a very serious issue if it only happens on occasion. Though the tongue coming out all the way makes me second guess the seriousness of this (i.e more serious). It's possible that if it's an injury like a sprain, it could already be on the mend. I had an experience a while back with a sprained tongue. I just cup fed my Jackson's chameleon larger feeders and did so infrequently so as to let his tongue heal. Stay away from super small feeders as they increase the risk for the tongue sticking to a surface other than the insect. Put feeders at a close to medium range. Super close and super far distances can be a recipe for disaster with a tongue sprain. Treat it like a strained muscle. You want to use it as infrequently as possible until it can be used in a consistent and accurate manner. However, not using the muscle at all doesn't always help with recovery either. So you definitely want her to use the tongue, but in a safe manner to reduce the risk of injury as much as possible until she heals. Answering the questions below may give us a clue as to why and how she go this injury.

I know you are an experienced keeper, so I'll keep this short:
--What supplements are you giving her? (Include brand and frequency)
--Do you keep her indoors/outdoors?
--Do you cup-feed, hand-feed, or free-range feeders?
--You feed any hornworms?

Thank you SOOO much for the detailed response! Someone else mentioned a tongue sprain though I'm not quite sure how that would've happened . Supplement wise I try to follow this chart I found on here . The only difference is I'm using Repashy Calcium Plus LOD. Might also skip an Earth Pro A day but pretty much try to stick to the rest ! I keep her indoors currently and live in FL (we normally have higher humidity). So when I 1st got her I did strictly free range .. over time she started taking BSF larvae out of a plastic lid I was using . She doesn't free range as much anymore but if I put a cricket near her branch or hold it safely with tongs (not my favorite method but have gotten pretty good) she will gently snatch up the cricket . No hornworms but I do feed supers occasionally. She will drop everything she's doing for a super lol.

 

[FloridaChameleonLiving]

I should also add this is her enclosure for a short time longer . Just bought her a 36x18x36 enclosure and currently waiting on dragon ledges so i can start putting together her new home