Tongue Problem

Hi,

as of five days ago my chameleon started to have problems with the accuracy of his tongue and over the past two days he stopped using his tongue altogether. He will literally walk over to my hand and take the food from me. I have tried to position it away from him but he just stops trying to get it if he absolutely has to extend his tongue. I brought him to the vet last month for a check up andhe told me that everything is working fine with him. I powder nearly every cricket and locust I give him (vet had no problem with that as he said you would need extremely high amounts of calcium in order for it to be too much) . One thing I also noticed is that his urate is very coloured at one end but as the vet said when I showed him "it's only worrying if the whole piece of urate is coloured as that signifies that the problem is coming from the kidneys".

I will be bringing him to the vet on monday (a different vet just incase the other one is incompetent!!)


Any help at all would be much appreciated.


Type - Panther
Born - April 2008
Colours - green, turqoise & red a white stripe



Food - Locusts (fed on carrots, broccoli, peas, pears, oranges, tomato, dandelion leaves occassionally)

House - Glass Vivarium (1m x 1m x 50cm deep)
- 1 big Real Ficus Plant,2 smaller ficus plants and 1 dracaena
Bi-colour
- Fake hanging Ficus and Hibiscus for back drop
- plenty of appropriately thick vines with a good basking spot
- Substrate is compost on one side for ficus plants and Orchid bark

Light - 40cm Repti sun bulb left on 12 hours/day (bulb is not too old)
- 60 watt basking bulb

Heat - 250 watt ceramic bulb with semi-circular fitting positioned
outside the roof of the vivarium for safety

Humidity - Namiba Terra "Tropical Rain System" produces very fine spray
from two nozzles (german, 100 euro, v.good)

Atmosphere - temperature ranges between 24 & 26 degrees C
- Humidity ranges between 45 and 80 percent (finding it
hard to keep the humidity up all the time,I spray the cage
about 3 times a day)

I'm glad you're taking him to he vet. However, broccoli binds calcium so it should not be fed. I can't remember if the whole tomatoe is poisonous or just the leaves, but I know it should not be fed as a gutload. Do you give him and vitamins at all? How about calcium with d3?

I agree with pssh about not using Broccoli.

Are locust the only prey your chameleon gets? You may want to add in some other insects. Such a limited diet, even gutloaded, may not be providing sufficient vitamins and minerals. Other than the calcium product (what brand is it, what is in it), are you using any supplements?

Have you been able to look in his mouth to see if there are any signs of infection?

You can gutload crickets, locusts, superworms, roaches with a wide assortment of greend (dandelion, collards, kale, endive, escarole, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, zucchini, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, celery leaves, etc.).

You don't mention using any supplements.

Since many of the insects have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus its important to dust the insects before feeding them to the chameleon with a phos.-free calcium powder.

I also dust twice a month lightly with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder. D3 from supplements can build up in the system, so don't overdo it.

I dust twice a month with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene source of vitamin A. Beta carotene (prOformed) sources of vitamin A can't build up in the system like prEformed vitamin A can but there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert beta carotene to vitamin A...so some people give a little prEformed once in a while.

Tongue issues can be the result of an injury, an infection, a calcium issue and there are other causes too. A vet should be able to tell you which it is.

ok illl stop using the broccoli so. He recently started eating crickets again so i'm happy about that coz i was a bt worried that he would go off them. Besides that I used to get him butterflies and moths in the garden in the summer but there's none around this time of year. I try to stay away from worms altogether,from everything I have read and from talking to the vet and a few other experts worms are not to be included in his daily diet but are more of a treat every now and then.

For the calcium I give him nutrobal (which has a calcium phosphorous ratio of 46:1) and every now and then I mix some ccf (critical care formula) in with his water. I don't give him any extra vitamins. I thought he would get eveything he needs from the vegetables and I didn't want to overdo it especially seeing as the vet was happy with him over the past two visits.If you can reccommend some vitamins to buy that would be great. I'm not sure if the nutrobal contains d3 or not to be honest but ill check that out.

The person I boughthim from is very experienced and I definitely asked him before if he needed anything else like vitamin supplements and he said no. He also sold me the nutrobal so I'm a bit confused as to what I should be doing. I have had the chameleon since october 2007 and things have been going fine until now, I thought if he was deficient in somehing signs of this would have shown up by now!

thanks very much for the quick reply guys, ill get back to you about the supplement as tjo exactly what it contains

Thanks again

Anthony

I would not use nutrobal so often/at all as it contains vit. A which chameleons can overdose on. I use repcal brand calcium and vitamins. Silk worms, hornworms, Phoenix worms and butter worms can be fed pretty regularly with crickets and roaches. Superworms, mealworms, and wax worms are treats.

I supplement like this because my chameleons do not recieve regular sun light right now.

Week1
mon-fri: calcium without d3
sat: none
sun: calcium with d3

week2
mon-fri: calcium without d3
sat: none
sun: vitamins without vit. A

Week3
repeat week one

week4
repeat week two.

As an adult you can dust his food with calcium less (every other feeding) since he is not growing as fast anymore. I also skip one of the vitamin dustings every now and then.

Nutribol plus good gutloading should take care of all the main vitamin needs of the chameleon. Nutribol does contain preformed A and D3, so I wouldnt use it all the time. I would use it perhaps weekly, and use a plain calcium the rest of the time.

Is there any sign of infection? Could he have injured himself (hit something sharp with his tongue, got it wrapped around something on retraction, or been bit by an insect)? Has he been to the vet since this started happening?

I never knew they can overdose on vitamin A. Ill get him some normal calcium powder aswell so.Ill try to get him some Superworms, mealworms, and wax worms too to vary things a bit.

I don't think he could have been bitten by anything, I normally feed him by hand. I am really starting to think he has some sort of cut in his mouth or on his tongue as he ate very carefully this morning as if to avoid pain.

He hasn't been to the vet since this problem started but he will go on monday.

The calcium supplement I give him doesn't contain vitamin d3 so he doesn't get that a you were asking pssh.

I did hear that the legs of crickets can be a bit sharp which I thought was a bit weird but as he only started eating them again over the past week maybe it's the cause.

Anyway enjoy america and canada as me and steve are drowning here in Ireland!!