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Can a cham's tongue/saliva lose its stickiness? Luna get right into her cup so she gets about an inch away and will sometimes miss or it seems that the crix doesn't stick to it. I read the article on ChamNews and it seems that the force of the tongue shooting has a direct correlation to the tip capturing the prey. So I am assuming that since she is so close to her target, thus less force, she does not have the same ability to secure the food. Am I correct?

Other than MBD, what are other causes of tongue injury? Could just hitting it too hard on the side of a feeding cup 9soft plastic, not glass) injure it enough? I switched to all white b/c she would sometimes try and shoot thru the clear plastic. If it is an injury like this will it heal?

I know I am doing a lot of speculating but I am now realizing that it may not have been so much going off her food but that she just couldn't get close enough to it, which would say to me that it was acute - like an injury. There have been times that I would see her preparing for a strike (the movement of saliva to the tongue that you can see) but never actually strike.

lele
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles Jaida & Jetta
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

my understanding is that chams dont have sticky toungues, the have something of a grip at the end of it. kind of like to ity biyt fingures so if he or she cant grab it could be muscle prob

true, but they also have sticky saliva which they coat their tongue with right before shooting. Ever notice how you can see movement in their gular while preparing to shoot? That's what they are doing. Here's an article all about the cham tongue - interesting!
Cham Tongue

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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles Jaida & Jetta
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

I don't think this is really MBD related. Yes, shooting from very close will affect how easily the prey gets "trapped" by the lobes on the tip. Force helps the lobed end wrap around the insect. It may be laziness on her part. She is used to getting very close to the prey and has lost some of her muscle control. We tend to put the food closer and closer the harder the cham seems to be trying. We unintentionally make the problem worse (I did this with my first cham). Sometimes dehydration can alter the stickiness of the saliva. You could help her retrain her tongue by letting some loose flying insects in her cage for her to practice hunting (houseflies are great as they are active during the day and tend to stay higher up in the cage near the lights).

Hi Carlton,

I don't think laziness is the problem. She was shooting just fine and from a reasonable distance - I made her "work" for her food b/c I had heard about the "lazy tongue" syndrome. I am trying to remember if it seemed to change after she hit the outside of the plastic cup (which I immediately switched to white(!). I thought she was just not eating and then I went away for a week. The night I was showing my cham-sitter, Deb, her routine she shot at a silk moth, spit it out and then shot it again (first time got it's rear and it may have released some cocoonase (yup - real term!), the second shot she got it by its head and ate it. Deb said that she tried a moth and Luna shot it, spit it out and did not try again. She put 2-3 crix in her cup each day and some were gone. When I got home she was eating nothing in her usual set up - same cup, same locations, I tried moths on the screen, loose crix, mealworms, silkworms, superworms, even her favorite roaches! all to no avail until I held the cup real close the other day. She also doesn't seem to chew with the same gusto." She seems guarded - sort of like your first food after the Novocain wears off!

I had a big order of housefly pupae come in the day before I left (they were late and most had emerged - what a mess!) mainly for my anoles and geckos but thought they would be good for Luna to chase. B/c of the problem I didn’t have enough to go around. I am getting my replacement order hopefully tomorrow and I am waiting for a few silk's to eclose. If she still seems to have a problem, I will bring her to the vet to get her mouth checked out. Other than her leaky lip, it seems OK. I look while she is eating to see if there is any noticeable problem.

thanks!

lele
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles Jaida & Jetta
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta