Chameleon Eating Dirt

[Darc777]

Hey all, I've had my little panther for around 2 months now, he's probably around 7-8 months old. He seems healthy and normal in most respects and doesn't display any outrageously unusual behavior. I hand feed him everything from superworms and crickets and he's fairly sociable with me even though he started out kind of cranky.

Recently I've noticed him shooting for the dirt in his pothos plant and just munchin on the dirt. It's organic top soil and not fertilized or anything, but is this normal for a panther or should I be concerned? I removed the plant from the enclosure for now so his enclosure is fairly bland. I also noticed him trying to eat the leaves of a fake plant I had in there a while ago, but I'm to understand panthers don't really go for veggies and mostly eat insects. I just find it weird after adding the plant back to his cage and misting the enclosure, the first thing he did was go eat dirt.

Any advice?

 

[SaintJimmy]

my veiled eats dirt sometimes, I don't think he should be though. It can cause blockage in their system and potentially death, and you can avoid that by putting large stones above the dirt so he can't get into it.

 

[reptilover]

Usually they eat dirt do to them feeling like there lacking some sort of nutrition. Large rocks on top of soil is usually recommended for this reason. Its not horribly unhealthy to eat organic soil but does pose an impaction risk.

 

[Darc777]

I figured impaction could be a problem so I took out the plant. I have some leftover large river rocks from a past water turtle enclosure so I guess I can try covering the plant dirt with that, though the plant isn't that big. If it's nutrition, he's going to be on sticky tongue farm mineral-all o/ repashy calcium plus soon (waiting on delivery).

 

[Dr O]

hey darc-

thanks for turning me on to this post; FYI i greatly prefer to answer questions here so everyone can learn, but you know that you always have my ear since you bought him from me.

i would think that he’s doing it due to some vitamin or mineral deficiency that he needs more of. i know that you have been changing some of your husbandry quite a bit from where you where when we first met, and i think you should see a decrease in the behavior when your new supplements come in. i know that you have just ordered some new products but i would like you to make sure he is not being overloaded with oral D3 which is present in the Repashy Calcium Plus along with many vitamins. one or two good weeks of Calcium Plus with every feeding should help eliminate any deficiencies, but then i would slow down to the classic course of calcium with most feedings, and D3/vitamins every 2 weeks. and of course, as much natural sunlight as possible.

since you were coming from the veiled world i had told you that panthers typically do not eat as much vegetation as a veiled would, but it’s not unheard of for them to take a nibble here and there, particularly if there might be a nutritional deficiency present. any plant that is OK for veileds is also OK for panthers if you want to offer some. they are all unique little creatures!! and the switch to organic soil/placing river rocks over the dirt is a great idea.

as i am confident of his health when he left here, the 2 months or so that you have had him would be fairly classic for some deficiency signs to appear. i would expect you to see those behaviors resolve over the next few weeks with new supplements. keep us (and me) posted!

o-

 

[Darc777]

Thanks for the reply Dr. O, I had intended on using the D3 containing supplements in high moderation in the method you mentioned.

 

[Kaianuanu]

I suggest you cut out a piece of fiberglass screen to fit the pot and lay that under the rocks. And I don't know what your posthos is like, but many of them have the stems coming out of the soil spread out which kin of makes it difficult to cover the soil, whereas most plants have one or a few stems coming from the center of the pot. In this case, using some smaller stones might make it easier to cover soil between the stalks.