Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Mm male veiled cham suddenly can't seem to extend his tongue....

He's interested in eating and such but just can't seem to fully extend his tongue. He makes the motion that he's going to eat but when he opens his mouth to eat his tongue only goes about 2 inches out of his mouth. I don't think its' MBD because it only happend within about 2 hours.....i hand fed him a super worm about 2 hours prior to noticing his tongue malfunction, and he ate the worm as he usually would by extending his tongue the full 30cm length.

Any ideas what it could be?

recently there was a long thread concerning this problem. many people agreed that the problem was the chameleon getting "tounge lazy". i would recomend not handfeeding for a while and free ranging a few if you can, to get him activly using his tounge.

-jonathan

I agree with skater. Luna does this sometimes and that's when I begin moving her cup around (and making it a little less accessible so if she wants something in there she has to work for it!) I also offer her something flying in the cage. Although I rear moths as a hooby I do sometimes collect one at lights to feed her (knowing my moths I can easily distinguish between a gypsy moth and one of our natives). You can also try flies.

There has been speculation about supplements so you may want to post your feeding/dusting routine to see if that seems to be an issue.

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!)

Ok thanks

Ill try that, the problem with that is that my cage has gaps that crickes and what not can get out of.....

if he cup feeds just move it to different spots. Try something that flies. If I hand feed Luna she seems to want my hand as close as possible - lazy!

here are 2 articles on the cham tongue:
http://www.chameleonnews.com/year2003/july2003/tongue/tongue.html
http://www.adcham.com/html/veterinary/vet-tongue-problems-kramer.html
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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!)

Sometimes chams can injure their tongue from over extending it or hitting the tip on a hard surface, but most often it's not that. Check to see if he can retract his tongue normally. If it is really injured he won't be able to. If he'll gape for you check the tongue for cuts, bites (yes, sometimes they do bite their own tongue), infections, or odd swelling. A tip...if you use houseflies to get him to hunt be aware that loose flies tend to stay at the cage top where it is warmer. Gapes here should be taped over. Should save on escapes.

I have had this happen in the past with veilds, in particular. I hand feed about 90% of the insects, mos tof the time.
Veilds are more agrresive, and they come right up to you to eat.
None of my veilds ever failed to do this, they streatch out right to me every time I hand feed, getting as close as possible. Every other specie sI have worked with was much more "typical" sit still, and use the tongue's full capability.
The deremensis seem to be the most dependable.

My veilds will practically try to grab an insect out of my hand with their jaws. If I put bugs in a bowl for my big male, he goes into it, and snaps them up with his tongue like a bearded dragon, not shooting it at all. I have to "force" him to shoot his tongue, by holding the insects far away from him. He will hold onto a branch with his tail and back legs, only after stretching out a foot from the branch will he shoot his tongue. If I free roam, he runs them down and snaps them up. Only with hand feeding does he get tongue excercise.

The deremensis are simply too lazy to get up and move. Not really, that's just how they are--stealthy. My 15" female routienly shoots her tongue 18" out--I've never seen such a proportionally long tongue in a chameleon. First time I saw it I was amazed. I had a big bowl of crickets and superworms on the ground of her enclosure, and I was picking up some to hand feed her when I saw it happen. I never thought she could have reached from her perch.

My little male wouldn't eat from my hands for a while, so I had to bowl feed him, using the plastic milk gallon cut in half method. Deremensis learn to sit by their bowls, and go nowhere else. as a result he's had a bit of a lazy tongue. Thankfully, he's now eating from my hand, so I have improved things a bit for him recently.