Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My male veiled chameleon is about 7 months old, and for the past month and a half he has had the tip of his mouth open. It isn't open very much, and his tongue isn't sticking out or anything, the mouth is just open a little.

Any ideas why, or if it is a bad thing, or requires special attention?

Thanks

Do you have any early pics you could compare the shape of his mouth with? It might be a slow deformation of the jaw due to calcium deficiency. Many cham jaws are not perfectly formed, and this might be showing more as he gets older and the bones and skull are maturing. It may not be a problem, but re-visit your supplementation, vitamin, mineral content of your gutloads to be sure you aren't missing something.

Sometimes it is open a bit more and her tongue is resting just inside - gives her a sort of "duh" look! Her brother holds his mouth the same way. She has done this from about the age of 8 months - she's now almost 1.5 y.o. I was worried, too. Thought it was calcium problem and that her tongue would dry out. She's fine, but heed Carlton's suggestion's.

lele & Luna

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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!)

very cute pictures!

-jonathan

Yeah, good pictures. That's about the same as mine. Sometimes it's open a little more. I don't gut load my crickets, but I do dust them with a calcium and mineral powder... I think it's called miner-all or something.

Good to know that it isn't something bad (well, probably).
Thanks

Ah, there's a problem. If you don't gutload the crix they are nothing more than empty crunchies with a bit of calcium or vitamin dust on top. Dusts can't provide all the needed nutrition, they are meant to fill in some nutritional gaps. There are good gutloads and terrible ones. Most gutloads at pet shops are terrible and incomplete. You can do a lot for your feeder quality by getting the insects a few days before you need them and feed them with fortified cereal grain (like Total), fresh dark leafy greens like kale, Romaine or leaf lettuce (not iceberg), a wedge of orange, bee pollen, and a bit of flake fish food. Plus, feed your crix and they live a lot longer!

I do feed them, just not with anything special. I feed them a dry oat kinda thing. I'll try giving them romaine lettuce and maybe some other stuff too.

This is probably your problem. For a baby cham you should be dusting with a mineral dust (Mineral) about every other day and with a vitamin (Herptivite is a good one) dust about once a week. Products that Combine vitamins and minerals together are not a good idea as they degrade each other during their time on the shelf. The so-called vitamin or mineral sprays are useless unless you put them on the insects, and even then I've used them and had very poor results. Gutload your insects all the time, or they aren't doing your cham much good at all. Dusting alone won't guarantee against deficiencies. Once your cham is about 8 months old you can cut back the minerals to once a week and the vitamins to about once a month. Again, gutloading is the most important part of feeding a cham for long term health.