Why do my panther chameleons try to bite branches?

[LanceLee]

I have a 4 months old Nosly Faly male and a 10-month old ambilobe female both biting the branches in their cages occasionally. are their teeth ichy or what? should i be worried?

 

[alphakenc]

That is a very odd action for them to bite their branch...described the way they bite on the branch,do they bite hard or they just scratch their mouth on it??did u actually see their teeth grinding that branch or is that their tongue doing a lick??​

 

[EnterThePanther]

I have seen one of mine do that recently. Its rare id say for sure. And the one doing it ended up being fairly thirsty and drank a lot. It could be they want more to drink...

 

[alphakenc]

If that is the case,it must be the juiciest branch,or maybe the cham think its a black thingy from the dipper ,mister learning to bite n suck like us...who knows.

 

[EnterThePanther]

Haha something like that. I observed mine bite a rather large branch several times but I could see he was also feeling for moisture with his tongue simultaneously. Who knows they are some super goofy creatures

 

[jpowell86]

It is very common to see younger chameleons biting at and chewing on branches. Especially panthers. Almost all of mine did that when they were young. They did grow out of it however.

I really don't know the reasoning behind it though.

 

[Zen Reptiles]

I've seen several do this. It only seems panthers do this, not that I have experience with all chams... I actually had one die because it managed to bite off chunks of the vine and eat it...I did a necropsy and found he was impacted from the material used to coat the wires for those vines. I have NO idea why they do this and I can't even come up with a good theory....maybe trying to remove bark bits in order to get at grubs or insects that would hide under loose bark on the buttress of trees? I don't know.....

So beware!

 

[LanceLee]

thanks for all the replies, you guys are great!