Chameleon eating plant soil!!

[Todnedo]

well my friend here has a veiled cham that was eating soil after weve seen him doing that, we went to the veterinarian doc and she did a blood test and that pointed out he missed some calcium... (i dont know the term in english sorry).

We did get another gutloading for the crickets, and in the first week we need to give him 2 drops of olive oil to oil the dirt out, after two weeks the cham was the old one again and stoped aeting his soil.

And in nature the chams just dont eat soil because they could get everything out of mother nature, and thats exactly what we cant do. But were always trying to do best for the cham.

I wouldn't call that concrete evidence as to why they eat dirt but if low calcium is the reason I can see why a lot of chams get impacted because they don't have a "safe source" of dirt when they are not supplemented correctly or you could use that as a clue to give them more supplements if you see them eating dirt.

 

[kinyonga]

Eating soil/dirt is called geophagy...and many animals and even humans have been found to eat dirt/soil. Not all the reasons for doing it have likely been determined yet...but here is some information...
"Because the clays release minerals and adsorb other cations as part of the same process of cation exchange, it remains challenging to determine which function is the more important motivator in any given instance of avian geophagy."...
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Geophagy/106162292749435

"Four hypotheses relate to geophagy in alleviating gastrointestinal disorders or upsets: (1) soils adsorb toxins such as phenolics and secondary metabolites; (2) soil ingestion has an antacid action and adjusts the gut pH; (3) soils act as an antidiarrhoeal agent; and (4) soils counteract the effects of endoparasites. Two hypotheses pertain to geophagy in supplementing minerals and/or elements: (5) soils supplement nutrient-poor diets and (6) soils provide extra iron at high altitudes."...
http://www.rainforest-initiative.or...tive-significance-and-ecological-consequences
(Funny, but I talked to Mr. Mahaney quite a few years ago and asked him if he knew why chameleons ate sand and soil. He told me that it was likely due to boredom!)

Calcium Deficiency In Children - This Can Be Geophagy: A Pica Disorder...
http://www.yogawiz.com/blog/home-re...iency-in-children-geophagy-pica-disorder.html