choking signs

[Brokaylacham]

Ya'll Idk about you but i do not know the signs for choking. I bought new food for his second week of living with us and they were slightly bigger because they ran out of small ones (he's 3 months old) but I asked the lady if he was able to eat them because she's seen Leon before, they were fine, anyways i get home and feed him, and he turned black after eating one of the larger ones, he also stopped moving. A few minutes pass while I'm frantically searching signs for choking while my dad is trying to think of ways to save him just in case, when he starts moving again and immediately turns back to his normal colors, everything is fine now but I'm not sure if at the time something worse could have happened. I do not know the signs of choking I was just taking a hunch, but I'd really like to know how to avoid him choking/ dying because I'm not quick enough.

 

[etclement]

Try to only feed things shorter than the space between a chameleon's eyes, that way the cham can't choke even if the food item goes in the wrong way.

 

[Brokaylacham]

Ok thanks i'll definitely do that, but in the chance that he does choke, how would I know?

 

[etclement]

I haven't really seen that many choking cases on this forum but when I searched it all of them described white/black colors with mouth open and head swinging violently.

 

[Brokaylacham]

That sounds sooo scary, okay thank you so much! Not rly sure how to save them when that happens but I'm guessing just don't let it happen at all lol

 

[etclement]

Prevention is the best medicine

 

[Brokaylacham]

Alright then ill try my best, thank you sooo much!

 

[cstocke]

Today I had a scare with my jackson cham. He snatched up a roach and it seemed to get stuck. He tried to chew and get it down but it just wouldn't go down, I think it had to do with the angle he grabbed him as he was a pretty small roach. He then seemed to try and drop his head downward a few times like he was trying to spit it out. After that followed almost like a gagging style motion. At that point I figured he must be choking so I grabbed a pair of tweezers and as my cham went to open his mouth to try and chew again I yanked it out with one quick motion. He seems perfectly fine now with the exception of not eating anything after all that. It was scary but at least now I know what the signs look like and what to do should this situation ever occur again. I will definitely be making sure his food is smaller.

 

[jamest0o0]

Shorter than the length between eyes would be TINY...

 

[allyaumell]

Ya'll Idk about you but i do not know the signs for choking. I bought new food for his second week of living with us and they were slightly bigger because they ran out of small ones (he's 3 months old) but I asked the lady if he was able to eat them because she's seen Leon before, they were fine, anyways i get home and feed him, and he turned black after eating one of the larger ones, he also stopped moving. A few minutes pass while I'm frantically searching signs for choking while my dad is trying to think of ways to save him just in case, when he starts moving again and immediately turns back to his normal colors, everything is fine now but I'm not sure if at the time something worse could have happened. I do not know the signs of choking I was just taking a hunch, but I'd really like to know how to avoid him choking/ dying because I'm not quick enough.

My veil chameleon is almost full grown and had a good sized hornworm. I also get stressed he’s gonna choke but he normally holds his head high to get it all down and then if he still looks like he’s having problems I drip him water.

 

[MissSkittles]

My veil chameleon is almost full grown and had a good sized hornworm. I also get stressed he’s gonna choke but he normally holds his head high to get it all down and then if he still looks like he’s having problems I drip him water.

This is an old thread but the advice in it is still very valid...only give feeders smaller than the width between his eyes.

 

[kinyonga]

@allyaumell ...don't drip water in his mouth ...especially when hes trying to swallow food.

Drip it on the end of his nose very slowly ...but not when he's trying to swallow.

 

[Kelley Meyer]

Ok thanks i'll definitely do that, but in the chance that he does choke, how would I know?

My cham had an incident yesterday where a bug that was too large got stuck in her throat to the point she was gasping then turning white and lifeless. Scared the crap out of me. I put my thumbnail in between her jaws to pull down on her lower jaw, then went in with cosmetic tweezers to retrieve it. It worked, thank God! She started breathing again and turned back to normal color. I learned the hard way not to feed her bugs that are too big! Almost lost her.