I feed all of my chams out of a rubbermaid and have walked in on my oldest veiled a few times and found that his tongue appered to be stuck out. But when he saw me and i spooked him he sucked it back up. Then the other day I was sitting and watching him after i put crickets in his cage. he did not know that i was there. After a couple of minutes he shot his tongue oddly slow and it did not fling back in his mouth? I watched for a minute and a cricket slowly climbed onto his tongue and he sucked it up. A fluke? No, because the next day i was sneaky again and when i put the crickets in i sat and watched again and sure enough, let his tongue down slow and waited. He got another one!?!?!?!?!? and i recorded it on my digital cammera!!!! has anyone ever heard of this, or do i have a special crafty cham?
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What about this?
Replies (4)
hey,thats definitly not normal i'd say..but i gotta say,that is some trick he can do..really would like to see the video of it..thats one of the craziest things i've heard a chameleon do..can't even imagine what that must look like...bizarre..hope everything is ok with him though..dpes the cricket still get stuck on his tongue or does he just pull back and the cricket stays??wanna hear more about this.
jon
It could be that age is slowing the tongue muscles (how old is old?). Tongue problems can be tricky, but as long as he can retract it and the insects stick to it he's probably fine. There is a vet article on tongue problems on www.adcham.com that might give you some ideas. Chams can injure their tongues and dehydration and deficiencies can keep them from controlling them normally.
could be signs of MBD or other problem. How is he otherwise? Any other changes?
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
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he is only about 3 yrs. he looks perfectly healthy and is a very big boy. he gets his greens, gut loaded crickets, and a pinkie every once in a great while. he drinks from an electric fountain and seems to shoot his tongue well, but he does have bad aim. i thought this was some strange trick, i hope nothing is wrong w/ him. i am new here, how do i post pics? Thanks all!
