Advice or thoughts please

[ReptileLover0423]

I have a female veiled and she started hanging around the bottom a lot so I made her a lay bin with play sand. Today I noticed her poo was very light brown. So when I was cleaning her cage, I noticed that it is poo with sand in it. It was fairly moist but when I crumbled it, it just turned to a ton of sand. Why would she be eating it? I feed her roaches, crickets, hornwoms, mustard and collard greens. She gets calcium with no d3 everyday and Reptivite every other week. I'm using a Reptisun 5.0 uvb bulb. Her basking temp is 87 degrees. Water is misted 3 times a day and dripped all day. For a live plant I have an umbrella plant. She's very active and eats like a horse! Thanks.

 

[blackened]

Eating sand can be a sign of them lacking a certain mineral in their diet (or so I have read).

Are crickets and cockroaches being gutloaded properly? I thoroughly recommend sandrachameleon's blog for ideas on good gutloading choices: link

Using small amounts of nuts and seeds in your dry gutload may help.

Also I notice that your temps are maybe just a little too high. Many experienced members recommend a basking temperature of about 80F for a female veiled.

 

[ReptileLover0423]

Thanks for the input. I am using her dry gutload recipe for my insects. Also I do make a wet gutload and freeze it into cubes then feed that every other day.

 

[SSimsswiSS]

Is she digging? or just eating sand.

 

[ReptileLover0423]

I haven't seen her dig thus far.

 

[blackened]

Could you replace the sand with soil (or a mix)? She may not want to eat dirt... Just a thought.

 

[ReptileLover0423]

I suppose I could give dirt a try but I would really like to get to the bottom of why she would be eating it to begin with.

 

[ReptileLover0423]

Any other thoughts?