Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey, I'm posting about the baby burm that wouldnt eat. I never noticed her tongue before because she never set it out until last night I started noticing that she does flick it out but she has only half of her tongue.. one of the sides that splits into two is gone. so she has only one side to flick out, will this affect her in any way? shes been flicking it out more often lately so I think it was from some injury that just healed?

she hasn't eaten yet but she seems pretty active, especially at night.

I tried feeding her another live mouse but she ignores it, also tried a dead one after I noticed her tongue flicking more often but she ifnored it too. its been 3 weeks since Ive gotten her.

One thing to check into is the humidity level and if there is any presence of a respiratory infection. Often when the animal has an RI then they will get very mucasy and their splits of their tongue will stick together and look like it doesn't have a fork. Just something to think about.
If it is actually damaged then in captivity it really won't affect it a whole lot. In the wild it uses the two sides of its tongue to help pinpoint the direction and location of smells but in captivity it isn't all that important since food is just given to them. Keep us posted. Todd