Help! Our Veiled Cham has no tounge!

[Chamluvrs]

Hey All,

We have a 4 month old Vieled Cham that lost her tounge in an unfortunate accident prior to our having her. She seems to be doing fine (looks-wise) at the moment but I believe the injury is still new. I have never had a chameleon that is without tongue so I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to get her to eat and drink. She hasn't been doing either as of recent I am starting to get a bit worried. I want to make sure I handle this properly so she can have a long and color changing life! If anyone has any tips or any experience dealing with this issue I would really appreciate the insight.

 

[pigglett79]

I know someone with a panther that cant use its tongue. She feeds it hornworms and it just bites them with its mouth. Maybe try hornworms, silkworms or any type of worm/ caterpillar that can crawl on the branches.

 

[Elizadolots]

Hi! We've seen a number of stories of chameleons doing well without their tongues. Obviously they cannot hunt their food, but they can eat them out of a dish just like other reptiles. You can even hobble crickets to keep them in a dish (put them in a plastic bag and squeeze right at the top of the thigh, it will pop the leg off).

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the chameleon forums. You should be able to get her to hand feed. Get some nice worms for her such as silkworms, small hornworms or super worms and hold them very close to her mouth. When she opens stick the worm in and she if she will chew. Eventually she should learn to just grab the food. You may have to hand feed forever or you might be able to get her to cup feed down the road. Here's an older thread that you might find helpful.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/freak-accident-need-help-46443/

I'm also attaching a couple of links to my blogs that you might find useful. The first is about general care and the second about egg laying and the laying bin. Females can and often do lay eggs without a male even being around. There's also a link to a video by Dez (one of our senior members) on how to setup a laying bin.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/jannb/345-egg-laying-laying-bin.html#comment1399
https://www.chameleonforums.com/laying-bin-set-up-educational-video-77225/

 

[Chamluvrs]

First off thank you everyone for your quick and helpful replies! That's great to hear that she will still be able to eat and survive. We have been really worried so it's great to hear such comforting news. Does anyone know if she will have difficulty drinking without her tounge? My previous chams have always licked it up off the leaves but seeing that she has no tounge this could be very difficult. Any suggestions on the best ways to keep her hydrated?

 

[pigglett79]

My cham kinda of bites the leaves and drinks as it goes down his throat. Also if you use hornworms they are really great for keeping your cham hydrated.

 

[Chamluvrs]

That's great to hear! I have always fed a nice mix of food to all my chams but will she get enough nutritional value from just the worms or should I still keep crickets in the rotation? Thanks again for the help I feel so much more at ease!

 

[laurie]

First off thank you everyone for your quick and helpful replies! That's great to hear that she will still be able to eat and survive. We have been really worried so it's great to hear such comforting news. Does anyone know if she will have difficulty drinking without her tounge? My previous chams have always licked it up off the leaves but seeing that she has no tounge this could be very difficult. Any suggestions on the best ways to keep her hydrated?

One of the other moderators has a veiled that lost his tongue. I am sure Hoj is asleep but I will text him so he looks at your thread first thing in the morning.

 

[Chamluvrs]

Laurie,

That would be great, I would really like to hear about his experience with his toungless vieled. Im sure he has some really great tips that could really help.

 

[laurie]

I sent the text so he will help you tomorrow morning. Camo was a wonderful Cham, just as sweet as could be. He was Hoj's first Cham.

 

[Elizadolots]

That's great to hear! I have always fed a nice mix of food to all my chams but will she get enough nutritional value from just the worms or should I still keep crickets in the rotation? Thanks again for the help I feel so much more at ease!

As I mentioned, you can hobble the crickets and put them in a dish. Just pull their back legs off. It's sort of gross but they don't seem to care much.

 

[Chamluvrs]

Thanks Laurie! I look forward to hearing about his experience.

 

[Chamluvrs]

Elizadots,

I will def try feeding sme hobbled crickets. I also thought putting them in the freezer for a min Might slow them down but for now I may just stick to worms and leggless crickets. Thanks for the help!

 

[Elizadolots]

If you've never done it, just put them in a sturdy plastic bag (nothing flimsy) and grab them at the upper thigh and squeeze with your fingernails. The legs just pop off. Oddly, they don't seem to care.

I strongly recommend emptying that plastic bag right then or throwing it away and using a new one because the bag of legs is sort of pukey the next day.

 

[peacenlove]

my meller cant stick her tongue out more then a couple inches, she just hand feeds and will stick it out a little and ill stick the food to her tongue and she will chomp down on it, sometimes she even opens her mouth for me, shes almost 5 years old and still healthy besides that issue eats like a champ

 

[Olimpia]

The tricky thing about tongue-less chams is they don't have any sticky part left so they have to learn how to clamp down with their mouths and not depend on the tongue to reel food in. This is tough for them. And it takes them a while to get used to it. Myveiled had to have her tongue amputated and I had to force feed her at first because she would try on her own and frustrate herself into not eating. After that she started getting the hang of it bit by bit. The drinking wasn't as much of a problem, but I mist heavily so she would face the nozzle and let the water collected on her face slide down into her mouth. Additionall, I would drip water where she could do the same thing in a specific spot. She got the hang of leaning her face upwards to swallow very quickly.

Good luck with your little girl! It is a challenge butt manyof them learn how to do very well.

 

[spawn]

I have a male Jackson with a LONG tongue - I've seen it fully extended and it's slightly longer than his body with tail I believe, but I've also been able to handfeed it to his mouth with him chomping on it, as well as he will - if close enough - walk up to a bug on the ground and just bite it like any other lizard without the tongue. So this suggests to me that chameleons are aware of this, given many also bite leaves, and have to bite the ends of leaves to allow the water to drip into their mouths.

PLease take pics if you get him to eat!

 

[Jay Sick]

There is this stuff some company sells in a sort of syringe. It is made for sick lizards and you can refrigerate them to use as needed it has all the stuff needed to nurse a sick lizard to health again including chams. I for the life of me can not find the site or the product I just spent a half hour searching looking. This would be ideal if you ran in to any problems of him not eating. Maybe some one one here knows were you can find it otherwise make your own Bug Juice. What you can use to start is a monoject 412 this is a fine tip needles syringe.

http://www.kitkraft.biz/product.php?productid=1460

this thing work miracles just make sure you use easy flowing substance like chicken baby food and pedialyte. You can also trim the tip to make it wider also you can use the tip to sorta pry open chams mouth if he is being stubborn. All in all good luck with your cham.

 

[shiftyeyes]

one of our members on the fourm and a good friend of mine have a veiled chameleon that lost its tounge also, his name is Hoj search for him on the fourm he can give you some really good tips on how to feed your little guy

 

[jannb]

The tricky thing about tongue-less chams is they don't have any sticky part left so they have to learn how to clamp down with their mouths and not depend on the tongue to reel food in. This is tough for them. And it takes them a while to get used to it. Myveiled had to have her tongue amputated and I had to force feed her at first because she would try on her own and frustrate herself into not eating. After that she started getting the hang of it bit by bit. The drinking wasn't as much of a problem, but I mist heavily so she would face the nozzle and let the water collected on her face slide down into her mouth. Additionall, I would drip water where she could do the same thing in a specific spot. She got the hang of leaning her face upwards to swallow very quickly.

Good luck with your little girl! It is a challenge butt manyof them learn how to do very well.

Thank you for posting Olimpia.

Chamluvrs, If you have anymore questions I'm sure Olimpia will try to help. She also had a female veiled without a tongue.