Not flicking her tongue

[FlapNeck]

Hi all,

For the last 3 months our chameleon is not flicking out her tongue to eat her food.
She was not eating or drinking at all so we got very worried.
As a last resort, my wife tried killing some crickets and cutting them up and then carefully "forced" her mouth open to put the food inside.
She would then happly crew & swallow. The second helping went much easier as you could see she was hungry.
Now my wife feeds her everyday. She remains green during the feeding so we know she is not stressed.

We searched the net and found some articles on tongue problems where they say the chameleons will stop eating for a while until the tongue is healed (from possibly a sharp cricket bone or similar).

This has been very long now and we don't know what to do.

Any advice?

Also - does anyone know of a "sitter" service for reptiles as we are planning to go away for the holiday and this not "self-eating" thing is a major concern.

Thanks

[Chameleon Company]

Good day

Firstly if this is a flap neck chameleon that you have I suggest you let it go and invest in a LEGAL captive bred exotic species.

Tongue problems can be the result of many things, injury, disease or MBD

I suggest you keep feeding the chameleon by force BUT this chameleon will degenerate.

I have had chameleons that simply do not aim well with there tongues and the reason is unknown.