Terrible tongue trouble

[RescueMom]

I recently brought my sons Panther chameleon home because he was no longer able to spend enough time taking care of him. He was very dehydrated (the profile picture posted was exactly 1 year ago).
2 years ago on this forum, when my son first got him, my daughter posted a thread asking for help because he was having trouble catching his food. My daughter thought his tongue wasn't "sticky", but over the next years, we chalked it up to bad aim.

I've read a lot of the information on here, but it seems like panthers have a lot of trouble with their tongues due to vitamin deficiency or hydration.

I got a video of him trying to catch a cricket and I paused it at a few places and screen shotted it to show how much he shoots his tongue out. It's very sad, and I'm afraid it's serious.

What can i do ?

 

[deerhunter]

I have a female parsons that was born with a bad tongue. I honestly believe she has vision problems she can shoot her tongue it is slower. 95 percent she misses. I hand feed her every single day I also use a dripper every day and visually make sure she is drinking. Your poor boy looks very skinny he needs plumped up. Are his urates white? The white stuff when he poops. It is the best way to see if he is hydrated. Also are you supplementing with calcium? Good luck to you!!!

 

[Pitcard]

My boy has the same problem. Ever since I got him, terrible aim. I also hand feed and water. It's posed no problems so far, other than some embarrassment for him.

 

[RescueMom]

I have thought about the fact that he may not be able to see very well. He used to shoot his tongue as far as he needed to, he would just be off to the left or to the right. He would have to be very close to actually hit the cricket. Now he hardly shoots it out far at all.

I know he was terribly dehydrated. If I showed you a picture of how sunken in his eyes were a week and a half ago, you wouldn't believe it!

He has been eating 2-3 horn worms a day. Some he gets on his own. Other I help with because they hold on really tight and unless he actually bites them, he can't get them at all.

I put a larger sized bird seed feeder cup on a branch in his cage for worms. It works great! He ate 20 wax worms in 2 days the first week I had him. I dusted those with calcium.

He also still loves his crickets, dusted with calcium too. My son was very good about the calcium and only gave him crickets with D3 one day a week.

I've read that too much calcium can cause the tongue problems, so that might be another cause.

His urates... More yellowish I would have to say than white, but the horn worms can change that, correct?

He has a dripper and I am misting his cage twice a day.

He is too thin, but that picture is bad for several reasons. I was across the room, and zoomed in. Here is what he really loves. His showers

 

[RescueMom]

My boy has the same problem. Ever since I got him, terrible aim. I also hand feed and water. It's posed no problems so far, other than some embarrassment for him.

I have critically injured some crickets so he can catch them (just thumping the bag until they're to weak to get away from him

 

[RescueMom]

I have a female parsons that was born with a bad tongue. I honestly believe she has vision problems she can shoot her tongue it is slower. 95 percent she misses. I hand feed her every single day I also use a dripper every day and visually make sure she is drinking. Your poor boy looks very skinny he needs plumped up. Are his urates white? The white stuff when he poops. It is the best way to see if he is hydrated. Also are you supplementing with calcium? Good luck to you!!!

First time on here... I replied to response wrong

 

[rminnis]

If his urates are more yellow than white you need to do more for him in terms of water at humidity. Drippers can be pretty hit and miss on keeping a cham hydrated the best 109 I ever spent was the CliMist professional mist system (google it) very easy to setup and actually totally worth the money. Your cham will appreciate the fine mist and you will appreciate not having to ever do anything but keeping the resevoir filled with water. If hes havin trouble catching food put them in a shallow bowl so he can get right up to the food and eat it. Also more live plants to be soaked with mising could help him stay hydrated.

 

[RescueMom]

If his urates are more yellow than white you need to do more for him in terms of water at humidity. Drippers can be pretty hit and miss on keeping a cham hydrated the best 109 I ever spent was the CliMist professional mist system (google it) very easy to setup and actually totally worth the money. Your cham will appreciate the fine mist and you will appreciate not having to ever do anything but keeping the resevoir filled with water. If hes havin trouble catching food put them in a shallow bowl so he can get right up to the food and eat it. Also more live plants to be soaked with mising could help him stay hydrated.

I hardly see him drink that water that comes from the dripper, but the 20 minute showers are what brought him back around to the point where he is (he was almost gone). I do need to get a mister, but I'm still concerned about the fact this tongue won't extend. Is this dehydration or vitamin deficiency, or to much vitamin? And will it get worse?

 

[Peachypink]

I hardly see him drink that water that comes from the dripper, but the 20 minute showers are what brought him back around to the point where he is (he was almost gone). I do need to get a mister, but I'm still concerned about the fact this tongue won't extend. Is this dehydration or vitamin deficiency, or to much vitamin? And will it get worse?

It isn't too much plain Calcium that can cause issues, it's too much D3 that can be toxic. D3 should be given 2x a month, same with the multivitamin. Vitimin A deficiency can also cause aim issues. You can get vitamin A gel caps and put a drop on a feeder once a month.

Panthers need lots of misting, an auto mister is the best investment I ever made. Mine goes off 5 times a day. Once for 2 1/2 minutes once for 5 minutes and in between for 1 minute 45 seconds. The longer mistings help stimulate them to drink and gives them a chance to clean out their eyes.

Please check out the resources tab at the top of the forums and read through the care sheets for panthers. It will help you tremendously.

 

[deerhunter]

What ever you do rescue mom don't give up! You are doing great. If he is pigging out on hornworms he will be good. I personally would focus on hydration and like someone said earlier 2x a month on the d3. I personally do calcium every other day for my parsonii.

 

[jajeanpierre]

It can be nutrition or injury.

 

[Andee]

So he's 2 years old? Just making ng sure his vision isnt likely age related? Do you know how old his uvb is? Otherwise keep doing showers. Definitely continue regular dustings. Look into good gutloads available.

 

[RescueMom]

It isn't too much plain Calcium that can cause issues, it's too much D3 that can be toxic. D3 should be given 2x a month, same with the multivitamin. Vitimin A deficiency can also cause aim issues. You can get vitamin A gel caps and put a drop on a feeder once a month.

Panthers need lots of misting, an auto mister is the best investment I ever made. Mine goes off 5 times a day. Once for 2 1/2 minutes once for 5 minutes and in between for 1 minute 45 seconds. The longer mistings help stimulate them to drink and gives them a chance to clean out their eyes.

Please check out the resources tab at the top of the forums and read through the care sheets for panthers. It will help you tremendously.

He was not getting that much hydration when my son had him. I don't know how he stayed as healthy as long as he did.

I will cut the D3 back to twice monthly for sure. I had read information about to much D3 causing problems with their tongue. I'm just not sure if it's permanent or not

I am home all day so most of the time I can mist him, but I do need to look into an automatic one for him.
Thank you for you reply!

 

[RescueMom]

So he's 2 years old? Just making ng sure his vision isnt likely age related? Do you know how old his uvb is? Otherwise keep doing showers. Definitely continue regular dustings. Look into good gutloads available.

My son got him in about September of 2014 and he was a baby, so he's about 2 1/2 now, almost 3 maybe? The picture is how small he was. He always had the aim problem, so it's a real mystery

 

[RescueMom]

So he's 2 years old? Just making ng sure his vision isnt likely age related? Do you know how old his uvb is? Otherwise keep doing showers. Definitely continue regular dustings. Look into good gutloads available.

And the uvb bulb I just replaced. We were careful to replace it every 6 months. At my house I move his cage each day in front of the sliding glass door when the sun is shining there. I can tell that makes a big difference!

 

[Andee]

Unless the sliding door is open I wouldn't assume the sun is providing any extra uvb, not saying the extra light isn't helping though. He may have gotten his tongue injured when he younger.

 

[RescueMom]

Unless the sliding door is open I wouldn't assume the sun is providing any extra uvb, not saying the extra light isn't helping though. He may have gotten his tongue injured when he younger.

Our sliding doors are literally plain glass with no UV protection at all. And we're here in Florida where it's still in the 80s, so there's definitely a benefit to having him in that light.

 

[Decadancin]

Our sliding doors are literally plain glass with no UV protection at all. And we're here in Florida where it's still in the 80s, so there's definitely a benefit to having him in that light.

Only benefit is warmth. Just like in an enclosure, if your UVB light is on top of screen you are going to have it penetrate through to the enclosure below. If you are going through glass or plastic you will get basically no benefit at all. Even in Florida the sunlight still will do little good through a glass door or window for UVB needs.

 

[RescueMom]

Only benefit is warmth. Just like in an enclosure, if your UVB light is on top of screen you are going to have it penetrate through to the enclosure below. If you are going through glass or plastic you will get basically no benefit at all. Even in Florida the sunlight still will do little good through a glass door or window for UVB needs.

I'm not sure if I'm reading this right, but are you saying that the uvb bulb on top of the reptibreeze doesn't do any good?

 

[JacksJill]

Thru the screen allows UVB. Glass and plastic block UVB severely. Closed windows render sunlight useless for UVB.