Baby Panther eating FICUS

Ok, I took my baby Ambilobe outside for some sun and he started moving quickly toward the base of his ficus. I thought he had seen a bug, until he grabbed a fallen, yellowed ficus leaf and proceeded to munch the whole thing down. I have NOT heard of panthers doing this, only Veileds and I am scared! Will this harm him? What should I do? Not only did he eat that one, but when he was through, he ate another fallen ficus leaf! Is that ok??? I was used to my veiled eating greens, but not a panther!

My Oustalet male does this same thing-even when he was a baby! But only the dead dry crusty leaves! I try to keep those picked up but I don't think a few will hurt him.

Oh good! I was worried also because he was only eating the fallen leaves, but it sounds like you had the same experience! From now on I will pick them up. Thanks Juli! I wonder why they only eat the dead ones...

hi Kat,
it is the same reason why they eat dirt actually..
no body knows about the geophagy behavior.
a Panther (owned by dr Ferguson) once ate a shelf fungus.
It's an interesting behavior but there is not a lot of info of why.

Hmm, very interesting! It scared the living hell out of me!