Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 9 month old panther cham. and have never seen nor heard cham throwing up. Is it a normal thing for them to do? He seems to be OK as far as skin color and eyes. Shoudl I be worried?
Thanks

can you clarify? Are you saying that your cham did throw up? Was it right after eating or drinking? More details will produce a better answer

lele
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (both MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog (for summer)
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

I fed him yesterday in the afternoon and today after putting a few drops of water in his mouth he rouse his head up high and a few minutes later throw up. Never had that hapen before and again he normaly uses dripping system to get water, this time I was experimanting.

ah-ha! Something to be aware and careful of. The opening to the chameleon's esophagus is just below their tongue in the lower half of their mouth. While your cham is gaping - or hissing - look inside and you can easily see this. If water goes in there they can gag, choke or even aspirate (water in lungs) which can be fatal. Usually they will pull away and throw up, or attempt to, by shooting out their tongue and sort of "hacking." Luna did it once and it scared the he-- out of me!

If you choose to hand water your cham be VERY careful not to force it to take more than he wants. By raising his head and/or pulling away means he's had enough for now. If he is accustomed to a dripper and uses it I would leave it at that. If at any time you need to give him water by hand or liquid medicine be very cognizant of this anatomical fact. I ocassionally hand water Luna with a rodent water bottle and I make sure not to squeeze it but just let it drip so she can regulate the amount she takes in.

Well, this was probably more than you wanted to know but I feel chatty (lol!) and in seriousness, it is something important for you to know.

Here is an article with LOTS of pix of a necropsy. Not pretty but a good way to understand the inner workings of a cham

lele
necropsy

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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (both MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog (for summer)
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

Thanks Lele for all your help. By the way, does you cham excepts food from a contener or does he/she rether see it crawling freely in the cage. When I first got my panther he had always taken food from a plastic cup however as he got older only freely roaming dugs that's what he is interested in and I cannot seems to find a way to switch him back to a cup.

Luna does a little of both. Primarily she feeds from a cup that I hang on her screen. the superworms I either hold with forceps and release when she goes for it or I will get it to climb on a screen although they often fall off. They have some pretty impressive mandibles (mouth parts) and I don't like to leave them wandering in the cage as they usually just burrow in the plants.

The crix sometimes get out of the cup and climb on the screen. Sometimes Luna won't eat them but will grab from her cup when I hold it up! Butter, wax and silk worms she will eat from my hand or on a long wooden spoon. Depends on her mood. Some days she wants nothing to do with me and if she makes the connection of my hand and my eyes she will stare at me and/or walk away. So I have a long handled wooden spoon I put the larvae on and make sure she doesn't see my eyes! LOL! she's funny

I am glad she cup feeds so that when I go away the sitter doesn't have to worry about it. Try putting cups in a few different places and see if he prefers one over another. I used to hold the cup in my hand, let Luna take one cricket, then slowly move the cup to where it would hang so she could make the connection. Now she sits and waits for her meal

lele
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (both MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog (for summer)
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

Thanks lele.
I have been moving feeding cup around the cage for the last few month and cham only stick his head in it, look around and then moves back to branch and awaits for his food to be placed on the leafe or any where in the cage except for feeding cup. He has some personality that's for sure.
Do you think the material feeding cup is made out of makes a difference? I'm using regular plastic container. Also, when feed roaches to Luna do you let them roam around or do you place then in the feeding cup? I have tried leaving them in the cup but htey have tendency to clime out of it and end up running around the cage.

One other thought. Chams have small stomachs for their body size, so if you are going to hand water don't do it after they have eaten. There is no sphyncter between their stomach and their esophagus so excess food or water can flow back up the throat if the stomach is too full. It is probably an adaptation for catching a very large insect that does not quite "fit". The animal doesn't have to let the valuable food item get away, but they won't be able to eat until the large meal is partially digested.