Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My female jackson is having tounge aim problems. She keeps missing the insects and after 4 or 5 misses she will give up on using her tounge and just walk up and bite the food. She seems fine other wise.
I thought it may be she is not getting enough vitimin A. So, I have increased the frequency I dust her food. Anyone have any other ideas? I don't want her to get frustrated and stop eating all together.

how much were you dusting before something jax get too much vitamin A and it starts to hurt them....I dust once or twice a week.

I was dusting 1 cricket twice a week for her.

We need more specific info on your husbandry. Before you shot gun this with more vit. A (dangerous), give us a complete description of supplements, gutloads, lighting, age, etc. There are a couple of vet articles on tongue problems on these sites you could read and get some ideas too. www.adcham.com, www.chameleonnews.com and www.chameleonjournals.com. It isn't always deficiencies...sometimes chams do injure their tongues either by biting it or straining a muscle. Also low level dehydration can cause tongue problems.

The problem could also be with one or both of her eyes instead of her tongue. If she can't see very well, she would have trouble aiming, especially if she can see with one eye and not the other since that would leave her with no depth perception. You should check her eyes for any visible problems. As far as supplementing her more, you probably can supplement her more than you have been. I dust all of my Jackson's food once a week with mineral and vitamin supplements, and he seems to be doing pretty well.

Ok here goes never had to describe my husbandry before. Please keep in mind that the bad aim thing is a new occurance. She was a sniper last week. They are about 8"-9" long now not really sure about age.

I keep my male and female together in one cage (I know I am not supposed to but they have been together for months with out any problems and I want them to have babies).

I feed them small meals in the morning and at night daily unless I run out of bugs. I feed them primarily gut loaded crickets (Trex calcium plus & Nature Zone Water Bites & fresh veggies) Mealworms, silkworms and sometimes waxworms as treats.

Lighting I have 2 super uv coil bulbs, 1x 20W and 1x smaller one. They go outside in their basking cage (summer home) on weekends for about 6 hours of natural sun a week.

I have a habba mist that mists them 3 times a day for 30 seconds. The temprature is about 85-90 during the day and around 70 at night. A little hot but it is summer.

My male who lives with her is fine and rarly misses any food. Any ideas???

Even if you want breeding you should not house them together generally. It is safer to introduce one to the other for specific periods once you know they are of breeding age and remove one ASAP if they show unreceptive coloration. I'm not familiar with the UV lighting you mentioned. Also, it is quite hard to see a nutritional problem until the cham can no longer overcome it...that's why problems seem to be sudden. She could have overextended the tongue or injured it, but that is not that common. It is always better to review husbandry and remove any stressors if one cham seems to be a bit off.