Tongue issues

D

ddamuth

New Member
Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Female Jacksons, roughly 11 months old. I've had her around 6 months
Handling - Around every other day. But I don't hold on to her and whatnot, I have extra vines above my desk so I let her crawl around while I get work done
Feeding - I've been feeding her a mix of crickets and supers. She won't eat crickets unless they are free roaming, so they are both always available (supers in a dish in the corner and crickets just throughout the tank). I feed vitabug crickets, so I don't gut load too much aside from orange cubes, apples, bananas and potatoes.
Supplements - I have reptivite Ca w/ D3 and flukers Ca w/o D3. I dust new supers every day with flukers and once every other week with reptivite.
Watering - mister that is set to go off at 8, 12, 4, and 730 for two minutes each
Fecal Description - The poop looks normal color. Typical dark brown with white urates. She hasnt been tested for parasites
History - Had a bout of being lethargic, but has been fine recently.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Screen enclosure (18Lx18Dx36H)
Lighting - I have an Zilla UV T8 strip light and a Zilla 75W day light, both cycling from 7:30am-8:00pm
Temperature - Ambient temps are roughly 75 and basking is at 83 (F). Night drops down to about 63F (measured with classic thermometers as well as the thermometer gauges in the tank)
Humidity - typically stays within the range of 50-60%
Plants - One of the larger plants is a begonia (when he is active, he loves this) the other smaller ones that are throughout the tank I don't remember the name of them but I've been using them in all of my tropical tanks
Placement - The cage is in a secluded area of my room, the top is roughly 5ft from the floor.
Location - Virginia

Current Problem - trying to eat, but tongue isn't extending beyond maybe an inch and stops. Almost as if her depth perception is all of a sudden gone. She is eating fine as she has been eating more like a gecko, getting up close and using what extension she has to stick the bugs. I have noticed that the end of her tongue is relatively dark bluish color almost as if it is bruised. I don't know if that has any significance here. Again, she is eating fine and is otherwise healthy and active. I just don't want this to be an issue that progresses and would like to reverse it so she can eat like herself.

I've read that it is sometimes an indicator of calcium deficiencies? When I catch her drinking, should I mist come calcium on the plant as well? (I have a Zilla calcium spray). I prefer not to have to force feed her but I don't want her to starve either obviously.

Any pointers to get her to eat are greatly appreciated!
 
Check the care sheets for Jackson's - it might be a case of over supplementation not under
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/jacksons/

With my jackson I find the better I gutload the better she is as far as being active and alert- I use cricket crack and add "beardy salad" as we have a couple of beardies in the house - frozen butternut squash and mango's and fresh stuff - potatoes aren't great - I'm not a big fan of orange cubes - cricket crack has way better stuff in it -
I use a dripper also as I have 3 different species and I find that it takes her longer to drink than the other two - she's more likely to drink from it than from the spraying
 
Hmm. . . Ok. I'll try reducing her supplementation a bit and see if it helps. The drinking hasn't been an issue with her. It was originally, as I didn't have a heater in the water reservoir, but now I do, and she loves it. As soon as it starts, she bolts straight for the nozzle to get covered and then over to the hanging plant it primarily collects on to drink.
 
It may also be that she just injured it - I wouldn't add more supplements though - there's a way to pinch the back legs off of crickets so they can't get away as easy- I've luckily never had to try it -
You could try getting some silk worms or phoenix worms (calci-worms) to give her a little change of pace if she's having a hard time with catching crickets. If it's injured - there's not much you can do except to wait for it to heal, and give her food that's easier to catch so she doesn't strain it again while it heals up.
Did she wake up one day with the problem or did it appear over time? Over time would lead me to think it's not an injury - if it was an overnight thing I would think it might be.
 
I can't really say if it was a gradual or overnight thing. I noticed she was gradually getting closer to the food before striking, but I'm not 100% sure if that was due to the tongue not extending as much.

She has been eating fine still. I would even say she's been eating more and has been more active since she's been like this, because she's moving faster to catch food and getting closer to the food. Lately I've been trying to get her to switch to cup feeding but she doesn't want anything to do with it, so I've been putting the supers one-by-one on the screen of the side of the tank and she snatches them up as they crawl around. She's been eating roughly 4-7 large, dusted supers per day
 
On over supplementing it's unlikely that to much plain calcium would cause the problem but it doesn't sound to me like your girl is getting too little-
The problem with calcium is that there are some companies that add other things to the calcium supplements and it's not just calcium in it. Jackson's are more sensitive to D3 than other species - too much D3 and A doesn't work right ... It's pretty much over my head even thought I've read a lot about it- there are different opinions on how much is too much especially with Jacksons. I would check the ingredients on your no D3 calcium and make sure it's only calcium but it sounds more like an injury than a supplementing problem -
I like to give my chameleons as many choices for food as I can- mixing things up - flies, silkworms, hornworms and phoenix worms- and mixing up the ingredients for the gut loads - and trying to get them outside in the summer as much as I can-
There's an interesting thread on the subject but be sure to read through - you'll see that there are different opinions - and keep in mind they are talking mainly about panthers and jacksons have different requirements-
https://www.chameleonforums.com/over-supplementing-warning-112257/index2.html
 
Jax require a lot of water, and it can be tricky getting them to drink enough.
They need to be properly hydrated to use their tongue effectivly.
If their mouth is dry, not enough saliva, and they cant extend their tongue very far.
Make sure you actually SEE your cham drink. Never assume she is just because you have it available.
You should also check her urates to see if they are white, which is a good indicator she is hydrated.

Tongue injuries are also very common in chams, but they mostly go away after a few days of resting it.
So if you suspect an injury, hand feed her for a few days.
If her tongue hurts, she may just pick the feeders up in her mouth like a dog would do.
 
Here's my contribution:

https://www.chameleonforums.com/showthread.php?t=118665

I've found that my Jax is very sensitive not only to supplements, but also to the quality of the gutload I give the crickets. When I switched to including Bug Burger with my fresh veggies, it made a huge difference in the strength and accuracy of his tongue. Read through this post and see if any of it applies to your situation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

nl.mau
Tongue injury
Replies
3
Views
318
kinyonga
K
Pitin Cham
Valet Chameleon No eating, slipping all day ,slow moving , light green color
2
Replies
23
Views
938
ERKleRose
ERKleRose
E
How much time does it takes for follicle absoprtion?
Replies
13
Views
489
kinyonga
K
C
Tongue issue
2
Replies
20
Views
995
Beman
Beman
ville M
Respiratory infection
Replies
8
Views
220
Beman
Beman
Back
Top Bottom