I’m Oliver

[elizaann2]

the enclosures look amazing!!! I’m sure they all love it!

 

[Andrew1283]

Poor buddy. We are working through this. The baby ambilobe isn’t as bad but he too uses his mouth (not his tongue) to eat. The shop was using Repashy Calcium Plus for regular feedings and Repashy Plus LoD biweekly with a coil UVB light in a double dome fixture. Maybe overdosing/vitamin toxicity? He also does this think with his right eye only. It shuts and doesn’t open unless I gently tap him or the branch.

I want to add that he eats like a horse. He had a large hornworm with a large grasshopper on Sunday. Yesterday I gave him a few superworms to film this video. He’s taking a break from eating today

I want to add he’s showing no signs of imbalance on branches so I’m not afraid for his safety. His disability appears to be solely related to tongue shooting. I’ve also been spraying him regularly to see if he needs to clear debris from his eye.

@Beman what do you think?

 

[Andrew1283]

I still have my list of exotic vets from the shop (where he came from) but I don’t know what the vet would do. Oliver is not going to eat in front of them. Maybe I can send them the videos and see if they have recommendations.

 

[janjan20]

Awe, he is so handsome! Besides the supplement and eye issue I would also be concerned with atrophy to his tongue muscle. How long would it take and would it be permanent. That could be another question for the vet.

 

[Andrew1283]

Awe, he is so handsome! Besides the supplement and eye issue I would also be concerned with atrophy to his tongue muscle. How long would it take and would it be permanent. That could be another question for the vet.

I saw him shoot his tongue about 6” but it went too high up and missed the mark. He is trying for sure but when I cup feed he just dives right in and abandons the tongue. It’s scary to hand feed him because he rushes the food and comes close to chomping my fingers. If I free range the feeders he could hurt himself biting down on a branch. Might be time for a feeder run.

 

[janjan20]

Oh good, so you have seen him shoot it. Yes, I’ve had my fingers chomped on more than once lol. My oldest Cham has tongue issues and I had to get another feeder run so he could fit his head in it.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/104466...f=sr_gallery-1-1&organic_search_click=1&sts=1

 

[Andrew1283]

Oh good, so you have seen him shoot it. Yes, I’ve had my fingers chomped on more than once lol. My oldest Cham has tongue issues and I had to get another feeder run so he could fit his head in it.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1044664065/magnetic-chameleon-feeder?click_key=dc7f88be542ead709ef80ed79a22d7ab816bfb2b:1044664065&click_sum=f365f80a&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=firehouse+gecko&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&organic_search_click=1&sts=1

I’ve been fighting the feeder run so I can keep pretending I’m looking at an actual jungle. But for this guy, I’ll do it. Thanks so much for the recommendation!

 

[Andrew1283]

I bought this evaporative humidifier/air purifier from Home Depot a few days ago. WHAT A DIFFERENCE this has made for my little friends. I set it to 45% humidity and it gets the rooms up to 40% ambient humidity. It put 5 gallons of water in the air in two days. At some points prior to this, the humidity had dropped as low as 20% in the room. Not good at all. This sucker wasn’t cheap but it works great. Highly recommend. And this way with the ambient room humidity up, my early morning and night time misting sessions have a longer lasting impact.

 

[Andrew1283]

Annnnnd this little baby is well worth the $25.00. It’s a smart switch for my basement so the basement lights always turn off at 9PM without fail. No more waking up to find the lights were on all night! Poor guys! It took 5 mins to install. Just make sure you flip off the breaker first!

 

[Lt.WorfReportingForDuty]

That humidifier/purifier is such a good idea. I also have humidity issues. I’ll take a look. What model did you get?

 

[Andrew1283]

https://www.homedepot.com/p/AIRCARE-5-Gal-Evaporative-Humidifier-for-4-000-sq-ft-HD1409/204364015

 

[janjan20]

I’ve been fighting the feeder run so I can keep pretending I’m looking at an actual jungle. But for this guy, I’ll do it. Thanks so much for the recommendation!

Lol!! I feel ya!

 

[Andrew1283]

Here is some of my progress on hand feeding and trust

 

[MissSkittles]

Yay! You’re both doing great!

 

[Ghostbirb]

Awwww i'm literally cheering out load for him! you got this little man!!!

 

[elizaann2]

I saw him shoot his tongue about 6” but it went too high up and missed the mark. He is trying for sure but when I cup feed he just dives right in and abandons the tongue. It’s scary to hand feed him because he rushes the food and comes close to chomping my fingers. If I free range the feeders he could hurt himself biting down on a branch. Might be time for a feeder run.

They make some for chameleons with shooting issues. Look on the sunset chameleon website and see what they have.

 

[Ghostbirb]

^^^^ agree with this, I either have a sunset chameleon product or a similar product to it, they are awesome!

 

[GrannyK]

I bought these feeder runs, they seem pretty open and easy to shoot. They are very reasonably priced, I think.

https://www.fullthrottlefeeders.com/feedercups

 

[Ghostbirb]

I bought these feeder runs, they seem pretty open and easy to shoot. They are very reasonably priced, I think.

https://www.fullthrottlefeeders.com/feedercups

ohhh that's the one i bought, as good stuff!

 

[Andrew1283]

The only time he saw hands was when the store employees went in his enclosure to grab him out for a customer. It was never on his terms and was probably very sudden and scary. He was definitely not hand fed and hates hands. I’m going to break that with only hand feeding for a while. If I get chomped I get chomped