tongue problems

[miquilarena]

Hello greetings, I have a vailed chameleon for about 3 years, until now everything was fine, but about 2 weeks ago I saw that he is not eating and I started to observe him and it turns out that his tongue is not being able to shoot it, he is hungry, he is approaching the food with interest, makes all the movements to use his tongue but he tries to shoot it and it does not come out, today I gave him forced food so that he does not weaken from starvation, what could it be?

 

[Beman]

You should not have to force feed him. If he is attempting to eat you should be able to hand feed him.

What supplements do you use and what is the rotation? What UVB lighting do you use and when did you replace the bulb last? And what feeders have you been giving him?

 

[kinyonga]

Welcome to the forum!

It could be an infection or an injured that is causing him not to use the tongue....but the most likely reason is that he has a nutrient issue...may be calcium/phos or D3/calcium or even vitamin A/D3 imbalance.

I agree with @Beman ...force feeding should not be done as a rule.

 

[Chameleoking]

The most common reason for a chameleon not zapping bugs with its tongue is due to a form of metabolic bone disease, nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism. This is all related to calcium metabolism, vitamin D3 synthesis and ultraviolet (UVB) light.

 

[miquilarena]

Unfortunately, I have made some mistakes, I am basically feeding him with mealworms, it has been more than a year that I have not given him any type of supplement, as he is on a balcony where indirect sunlight gives him I assumed that he did not need UVB light since how can they see I use the health of plants to measure the intensity and quality of the light that enters their enclosure. I am very grateful for your invaluable answers and guidance.

 

[Beman]

Unfortunately, I have made some mistakes, I am basically feeding him with mealworms, it has been more than a year that I have not given him any type of supplement, as he is on a balcony where indirect sunlight gives him I assumed that he did not need UVB light since how can they see I use the health of plants to measure the intensity and quality of the light that enters their enclosure. I am very grateful for your invaluable answers and guidance.

What supplements do you have? Take pics so I can tell you how to use them.

Toss the meal worms. Go get either crickets or discoid roaches.

Does the balcony get any light or is it all shade during the day? If it is all shade then the levels of UVB he would have access to through the screen of the cage and the screen of the balcony would be extremely low. So a T5HO fixture and a 5.0 bulb would be needed to supplement the lack of UVB lighting.

 

[miquilarena]

These are the supplements that I have and if obviously it is not leaving enough light to keep it healthy, I had even thought of buying a photometer to measure the amount of light that is reaching the enclosure and all this happened

 

[Beman]

These are the supplements that I have and if obviously it is not leaving enough light to keep it healthy, I had even thought of buying a photometer to measure the amount of light that is reaching the enclosure and all this happened

ok keep the reptivite with D3... That one you would use 2 times a month say the 1st and the 15th. Then all other feedings you need a plain calcium without D3. It has to be the NO D3 version. Repcal makes one. Here is a link https://www.pangeareptile.com/store/rep-cal-ultrafine-calcium-no-d3.html
So do not use the rep cal you have because it has D3 and you will overdose him. Go buy feeders that are correct today. Dust them in the reptivite. Will he hand feed? How does he normally eat?

Buy this fixture in the 24 inch... https://www.pangeareptile.com/store/t5-uvb-light-fixture.html
Buy this bulb in the 22 inch... https://www.pangeareptile.com/store/arcadia-6-uvb-t5-reptile-bulb.html

You will remove the grow bulb from the fixture and put in the UVB bulb. Distance to the closest branch would be 8-9 inches no closer.

 

[Weebo]

Welcome to the forum!

It could be an infection or an injured that is causing him not to use the tongue....but the most likely reason is that he has a nutrient issue...may be calcium/phos or D3/calcium or even vitamin A/D3 imbalance.

I agree with @Beman ...force feeding should not be done as a rule.

My chameleon lost use of his tongue from nutrition deficiency. It’s been over 3 years now that and he still can’t shoot. Walks into his food bowl and struggles but eats that way. Are they able to regain tongue or is it lost forever?

 

[kinyonga]

@Weebo ...I would have expected your chameleon to get the use of his tongue back if it wasn't from an injury and the nutritional things were corrected...but I'm not a vet so it's only a guess.