Missing food with tongue!!! Bad aim?

[ttshibby]

___________VIDEO_________

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_j_1dksyr8




Hello everyone, I recieved a few new Panthers Last week and one of them seems to have an injured tongue. From the research i have found, I am led to believe she injured it for some reason. I have dusted with D3 and vitamins incase of a deficiency.

Does anyone know how long it takes to heal? and what i should do? She can rarely hit a cricket and am scared of letting her hunt incase she continues to irritate it by missing her prey and hitting foreign objects.

Other than that she seems to be doing quite well, very eager to eat. She is 3 mths old and eats around 8 crickets a day.

I have had her for a week now, and have dusted with vitamins once, cal w/d3twice and with straight cal twice, 2 days with no dust, I also gave her one butter worm today as a treat.



P.S please dont just tell me to take her to a vet. In my opinion they lack specific knowledge on these reptiles in my area.

 

[millionsofchameleons]

take her to the vet, j/k. i actually have a male ambilobe that one day just couldnt hit a cricket anymore, i figure he hurt his tongue as well and has since been the same for that last year. i feed him by putting his food in a cup where he can go down and get close enough to just grab a mouthful of crickets and he is just as well doing it this way.

 

[Lizardlover]

my panther is spoiled and handfed all his foods XD, but yeah sometimes he misses for like the whole day, i just feed him a little bit that day and the next day hes fine

 

[Lizardlover]

but there isnt anything wrong with yours, just do as millionsofchameleons said

 

[ttshibby]

Hi, I did try feeding her in a cup, the problem with that was that she really wants to shoot her tongue at the crickets. Missing most of the time. I figure this cant be good for her tongue, and wont help the recovery. I want to at least give it a chance to heal which is why im hand feeding for now. Is there any supplements that would help in healing the tongue besides D3?

It makes me feel better that this is isnt the only cham like this... It sure was hard to find info, that kinda had me worried..

Thanks for the help. And if it doesnt get better soon, ill have to train her to eat without her tongue.

 

[THECHAMMAN]

my cham used to do that and i started to cup feed and now he has no prob eating free crix all they need is a lil target practice. i also used mor calcium and vits.

 

[FooL111394]

One way is to heal faster is if you: everyday feed all your crix at one inch away.
Next day hold an inch and a half away( make sure she hits atleast 6 out of 8 before attempting to another half an inch away)
Next day: feed at 2 inches and so on
remember if she doesn't hit at least 6 out of 8 you must keep the same length until she can hit them. (however many crix you feed her,it may not be 8 a day.)
This is a crazy method I just came up with but i think may work. It won't speed up the healing but it will help her aiming. Hope this helps. Also try softer foods. This may include pieces of hornworms(considering she is little and may choke on bigger things) or silk worms. Hopefully she will take things not moving. This may speed up healing. Hope this helps again.XD

 

[Sepioteuthis]

The problem may not be with your tongue but with her eyes. If she's blind, or almost blind, in one eye she won't have any depth perception.

You can test this by holding up a cricket or either side of her head, in such a way that she couldn't have seen the cricket with the other eye, and see if she can see the cricket with either eye.

 

[ttshibby]

The problem may not be with your tongue but with her eyes. If she's blind, or almost blind, in one eye she won't have any depth perception.

You can test this by holding up a cricket or either side of her head, in such a way that she couldn't have seen the cricket with the other eye, and see if she can see the cricket with either eye.

Hmm, i think itll be hard to do cause she sees me coming and moves so much, but ill try!

 

[ColorCham427]

If her tongue is shooting upwards like that, in my experience, she needs her UVB replaced and add a pinch of more calcium to her feeders for the next 7-10 days. The natural sun is awesome, if it's not too cold where ur at. If you're feeding crickets, I would place a shallow container in her cage, and break the cricket's legs so they can't jump out. If her tongue is shooting like that, most likely, she won't be able to get one from a deeper container. She'll eventually learn how to grab them with her mouth.

I have a friend who just let one of her chameleons with this problem, hunt for himself and she let crix free roam his cage, and the male Panther chameleon learned how to use his tongue again. I've never experienced that before, I hope you do though, I just love watching my chams hit their foods with such accuracy.

Best of luck,

-Brian

 

[sandrachameleon]

I have one chameleon that was the "runt" of the group. her brothers and sisters ate and grew, while she hardly caught anything. I separated her as soon as this became clear, hand fed her a fair bit, used a shallow dish to contain her food to give her a chance, etc. She was still quite useless. After a vet check, I was advised her eyes werent right (I couldnt tell, I thought she could see me, but maybe just a big blob shadow looming towards her was all she made out).

So handfeeding was the way to save her. Now runt recognizes the sound of her cage door opening, knowing food is on its way. Usually she half-way opens her mouth in anticipation (now, two years later, but not in the begining of course) and then I just stuff a bug in her mouth, wait for mouth to open again, stuff in next bug. Sometimes she is so excited she shoots her tongue randomly and blindly into the air, usually hitting nothing, sometimes taging a branch or nearby leaf, then I help her get sorted and stuff next bug in mouth.
The hard part is water. I use a little aquairum hose on the end of a plastic needless syringe. I try to get 5-10 cc into her daily, but usually only succeed in getting 2-3cc into her. (I dont know how much is the typically daily intake - anyone else know?) The problem is that she usually expecting food, and trys to "eat" the water, risking choking. I cant seem to get her into a system like water first, food second, or water in the morning, food in the afternoon, or whatever. If I drip the water on her snout, to let her know its coming , she freaks out, shaking her head this way and that, potentially banging her head on a nearby branch. I've tried a pablov method, flashing a light and making a sound before offering the water. She fails to make the connection. But we're two years along and she's a tough little creature, so far so good.

Hopefully yours will not be a similar story. I think your idea that he injured his tongue is plausible. I wouldnt overdo the D3 though, assuming you've got UVBlights.

good luck!

 

[Ren]

Since chams can see 2 dif things at once, is there really a depth perception problem possible? Just curious...

 

[millionsofchameleons]

i really believe its injured like mine was. yours shoots its tongue out and hits too high everytime. chams dont shoot their tongue in different directions, it all depends on how their entire head is aimed and if their tongue goes left,right,up or down from the direction their head is aligned to then its a tongue issue. but i can always be wrong.

 

[ttshibby]

I hope so!!! Thanks for all the replies.

 

[millionsofchameleons]

your welcome, i think she will be just fine, just get her used to feeding out of a cup, make sure she can see the crickets once you put them in the cup at first, after that she will run to cup once your hand is in the cage, i think my cup feeder eats even better then my other chameleons. now get some sleep! lol.

 

[ChromaChameleons]

The Ambilobe female that ttshibby recently received is one my chams. I believe she and her one other cage mate mixed it up the evening prior to shipping. TTshibby observed that his female had a few shallow cuts on her. Upon close inspection of the remaining female, I too saw a few battle bruises. They were fine the morning before the shipment and I packed her up in the wee hours to ship through the airport cargo office.

This issue was totally missed by me and I have been in communication with TTshibby. If the tongue is bruised or stretched , it will heal and either become functional again or not . I don't expect a vet will be able to remedy the situation any better than time can. She is healthy, eating well and not in any dire peril, so I have agreed to extend the original health guarantee from 7 days to 21 days. At that point we will reassess the situation and conclude from there.

In the event of a zero resolution to the tongue issue, I have offered a partial refund if he chooses to keep her, a full refund with the return of the female at my expense, a replacement or any other reasonable compensation that is agreeable to TTshibby.

This issue is unfortunate , but I am fortunate to have a customer such as TTShiby, who has communicated this concern immediately and is willing to be patient until the outcome is apparent .

Chromachameleons will always stand behind every sale.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Since chams can see 2 dif things at once, is there really a depth perception problem possible? Just curious...

My understanding (which is not in any way certain to be true!) is that they see in monocular when looking different directions, but have excellent binocular vision and depth perception when they focus both eyes on the same subject. How they fit that ability into their little brains is beyond me!