Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was watching my brothers baby carpet (1 month) when I saw him drinking the droplets of water at the top of the screen cage that formed by the dripper. Then i saw him struggling to swallow something and after looking closley I noticed a thread (propaply from the towel placed to cover the cage to give some privacy) that was stuck in his mouth. I carely pulled on it and it came out with ease. I wanted to know if swallowing thread could prove to be a serious problem?

My brother, "jeffreypeacock" says by the way: "Thanks guys for the tips, he is eaing about 30 fruit flies a day, what I did was place the entire fruit fly culture in the cage and I poked a tiny hole at the top. I placed a piece of apply next to the whole and one by one the flies came out and went to the apple. My baby gladly picked them off"

Hello,

Swallowing the string could have been a HUGE problem. Any long string-like object (including long, thin strips of bark) could result in a fatal instestinal blockage. As the body tries to pass the object, the contractions of the intenstine could cause the string to bunch up and and lead to a rupture. Subsequent to the rupture is a painful and fatal infection. I am very glad you caught it, and your brother should be too. Keep up the good work!

Best regards,
Franco

Oh boy here comes the paranoia, what if she has ingested some earlier?! They were thread fibers, so thin (almost spider silk) could that still cause blockage?

If some has already been consumed I do not think there is anything you can do besides hope that it is either too small to cause a problem, or sufficiently broken down in the digestive process. Just make sure that the chameleon does not have the opportunity to consume any similar objects in the future.

To ease your paranoia, I do not have any information that specifies which types or sizes of material can be hazardous...maybe you have nothing to worry about.

Best regards,
Franco