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Okay- I have a 1 1/2 year old Panther Cham that has always been very healthy. Today I noticed that he was being lazy when eating and not using his tongue as much. So I held a few crickets in my hand and let him shoot at them. But for some reason he would hit the crickets and they wouldn't stick. Usually when I do this he gets the cricket and rips it out of my hand cause his tongue is so sticky. But today it's dry and he's having a hard time at. I put crickets in a cup for him and he's eatting them just fine. But I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this before. Any help would be great! He's cage setup is good. He has UVB 5.0 bulbs at the right distince. I dust his crickets all the time with sticky tongue calcium powder. His temps are great. I can't think of anything else that might be worth checking.

You should not be feeding your chameleon calcium dusting everyday which this can cause an overdose on calcium supplementation and can cause a prolapse. I would try watering your chameleon a little more often. Maybe your chameleon just could not get the flap of skin around the cricket.

This could be something to worry about, it might not be. There may be a problems with the tongue muscles, as a chameleon hits the prey it contracts muscles (a bit like a suction cup) to firmly grip its prey combined with the sticky saliva.

>>Okay- I have a 1 1/2 year old Panther Cham that has always been very healthy. Today I noticed that he was being lazy when eating and not using his tongue as much. So I held a few crickets in my hand and let him shoot at them. But for some reason he would hit the crickets and they wouldn't stick. Usually when I do this he gets the cricket and rips it out of my hand cause his tongue is so sticky. But today it's dry and he's having a hard time at. I put crickets in a cup for him and he's eatting them just fine. But I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this before. Any help would be great! He's cage setup is good. He has UVB 5.0 bulbs at the right distince. I dust his crickets all the time with sticky tongue calcium powder. His temps are great. I can't think of anything else that might be worth checking.
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-Jamie Whitehouse
-corn_snake_123@msn.com
-formally known as corn_snake_123

Chams tongues are not really that sticky in themselves. It is more the shape of the tip, the velocity of the strike etc. that makes prey stick to it. Sometimes dehydration can cause tongue trouble, but if the tongue seems weak or uncoordinated it is probably nutritional. I agree...cut back your mineral dusting as it is way too high. Also what about vitamins or gutload? Sounds like you should review this too. There are articles on tongue problems and nutrition on www.adcham.com.

Please read this article

www.chameleonjournals.com/vet/vetcare.cgi?show=6.0_Vitamin_D3_and_Calcium

It is long so if you do not want to read the whole thing go to where it says Here is the meat and potatoes folks
and at least read from there down.
If you supplement with calcium daily you may soon run into problems with dehydration, constipation, weakness and lack of appetite.

Thank You!!!

try misting him for a couple minutes that happened to my vields and it worked