How to teach young chameleon without tongue to eat

[Lewia]

Sadly my 7 months old panther chameleon torn out his tongue when he did shoot on wrong place and his tongue got stucked.

I went to vet ofc, got antibiotics, I do care for him.

The thing is it's been a month and he still can't eat by himself.
I tried couple of advices, nothing worked, such as:
1. put crickets in freezer for a little while (3 min, btw, more time kills them), they will got slow and cham will mamage to catch them (he is just going around and not doing anything),
2. Torn back cricket legs, so they can't jump and are slower, same result,
3. put crickets to high dose so cham can dive in it and catch them, the same result,
4. vet recommended cut crickets in half so they will be dead and not moving and have also lots of blood around so the cham will smell it and got interested (he completly ignordem them),
5. holding food right in front him scares him, he always hated when the crickets move. We bonded over worms bc they don't move so much. He even ate from my open palm. Well, those days are gone .
Even if the crickets are frozen and unmoving, he simply doesn't understand that now he has to bite.

I ended up to forcefeed him 3x times a day. But that stresses him out, he hates it. I always have to force him to open his mouth, I don't believe he will get ever use to it. I wish to teach him somehow to eat by himself again.

Please help, I don't want him to be stressed or to die. This way of eating will cause his prematur death, I'm sure of it.

 

[Gloriawood]

So I don’t have any advice, I’m just here to say welcome. You’re in a good place for help. There are lots of knowledgeable people here and hopefully someone will have some ideas. Your boy is gorgeous btw! What is his name?

 

[Lewia]

I hope that someone will be able to help us :/

I call him Bertík ( B + Emma + R + soft T + EE + K)

I read that chams being forcefed live for 6-8 months :/. ...

 

[elizaann2]

Hello and welcome. I’m so sorry to hear about your beautiful baby. Let’s see if we can get you some help.

@Beman @MissSkittles can you give any advice on this?

 

[MissSkittles]

Hi and welcome. I’m sorry that your beautiful chameleon lost his tongue. I have no personal experience with this, but maybe can offer a little help. I do have a couple of ideas
Chameleons won’t recognize food unless it is alive and moving, so some of what you’ve been doing isn’t going to work. The first thing you should do is buy or make a feeding station that will contain the feeders in a small area so your chameleon can easily catch them with his mouth. I really like the shooting gallery style https://www.rainbowmealworms.net/shooting-gallery-chameleon-feeder/ I’ve been using these for at least a couple of years and have had very few escaped feeders. Provide a branch or vine that your chameleon can sit on in front of the feeder and reach in to grab his bugs.
The other thing I suggest is offering a variety of insects. Attaching a graphic to help guide you. Don’t pull off their legs, freeze them or do anything else like that. Let them keep moving to attract his attention.
Don’t force feed him for 2-3 days or more to become hungry. Put lots of different insects in the feeding station and then give him privacy. Chameleons are vulnerable when they are eating and he needs to feel completely safe.
I know there are some members who have personal experience with this and hope they’ll be along to offer their advice.

 

[Beman]

I agree with everything @MissSkittles said above. I know some people use a shallow plastic (not see through) cup. Like maybe 2 inches deep. Put the feeders in there and hold the cup for him so he can see them moving and can grab them with his mouth out of the cup. You can also add another one of these in the cage. Hook it in so that he can look into it to see them moving. I would attach it to the top basking branches since that is where they spend most of their time.

 

[Lewia]

Thank you for your advices.
I do have a feeding cup in the cage. It was originaly even but vet recommended to tilt it. No effect. My chams are used to be free fed (the home chameleon breeder I bought them from wanted his animals to have most natural habitat and I do agree with him, free feeding is the best. They are used to it from day 1, the same as 12 years generations before them). But when I moved him to bigger cage (120x60x60cm), I installed a feeding cup just to make it a bit easier. Some of them would jump out anyway (but that was OK, he did always find them). He was used to every morning having fresh crickets in there and ate always within seconds (Bert doesn't give a damn about privacy , I like that about him very much).
But now he completly ignores them or just goes nervously around them like he doesn't know what to do. Sometimes I saw him, poor him, trying to shoot without his tongue . I did torn their legs so they would be slower and easier to catch. Because the cham moves extremly slowly. He will never catch them. The crickets are simply too quick. But he doesn't even understand that now when he wants to eat, he has to be more lizzard than chameleon and catch them to his mouth and bite.
Have no idea how to teach him that. I'm trying when I'm forcefeeding him to give him the crickets just partially in his mouth so he has to bite and chew. But no progress there.
My vet said that he is simply too young to understand that :/, that an adult chameleon would have a "smooth" transition to lizzard style.
He is uncapable to eat even slow easy to catch worms. I think he simply doesn't understand how to eat.
I wish there would be someone with the same issue who solved it.

 

[nightanole]

I have to use really long tongs.

Other things to try would be the "feeders" that have the screen on the back so the bugs climb up them.
https://www.amazon.com/FEITA-Extra-Tweezer-Stainless-Curved/dp/B01HT8YVPA


And in this case you can use supers, since they seem to be cricket crack. I would rather have a super addicted chameleon vs one i have to force feed daily.

 

[Lewia]

By feeders you mean a long tweezer? I am feeding him with tweezers.
I always have to hold his head with one hand :/, and while his stressed and attacking opening his mouth trying to bite, that's the only moment I can put the cricket in his mouth :/
He hates me now. I do this 3x times a day. Always 2 crickets in a row, so he doesn't have to be stressed 6x times because of food. Plus he always ate 2 right away in mornings, sometimes even 3. So I'm trying to copy that a little.
And because he doesn't swallow them so easily as chewed crickets, I have to stress him always out a little more by spraying extra water on his plants so he could drink. And he always drinks, thank God. But still. That means stress him at least 6x a day. Minimum. Terrible.

Anything but forcefeeding.

 

[lurker9090]

man im so sorry to hear this. really sending love to you and your little cham. welcome and hopefully your chams feels better soon

 

[GrannyK]

Welcome to the forum, so sorry you’re dealing with this, hopefully your little guy will catch on soon to be able to self feed.
He’s adorable!!

 

[jannb]

I’ve always hand feed if any of mine have a tongue problem.