Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a panther that is about 4-5 months old. had it about a week now. i may be paranoid, but i sometimes think the very front of its mouth, by the snout, is slightly cracked open. i've also seen him, now and again, open his mouth and move his tongue outward. the cham does this pretty quickly and doesn't leave its mouth open for an extended period of time.
it also opened its mouth wide at me today and i saw what might have been a very little bit of mucus stringed between its bottom and top jaws. i don't know whether any mucusy stuff in the mouth is normal given their sticky tongues.

should i err on the side of caution and go to a vet now or continue to monitor the situation? or does this sound like nothing? thanks for any input.

This doesn't sound much like URI, but here are a couple of ideas. Chams sometimes have slightly mismatched lips or a jaw that is not perfectly straight. If this seems to be getting more obvious, you need to check your calcium supplement schedule just in case it could be a sign of MBD. Chams will gape at you, and depending on when it last ate or drank, there could be some saliva showing. The keys for URI include not eating or drinking, sitting under the basking light more often than normal and staying a dark "warm up" color, not moving around, not alert, sitting with head tilted straight up even when resting, gaping continuously for a long time regardless of temp or activity around the cage or disturbance. As it progresses you may see heavy breathing, see the cham gulp and swallow over and over and puffing out its throat, along with the gaping and more mucous, and blocked nostrils.