Deliberately Eating Soil

[thealissa]

So, I do not use substrate in my cham's cages specifically for the reason that I don't want them ingesting anything that isn't a part of their diet. However, I do have a hibiscus plant in each cage, which has been re-potted with organic soil.

Today, I noticed that one of my chams (female veiled about 6ish months old, you never really know when you buy from a local pet store) is deliberately going down, sitting at the rim of the pot, and eating the soil! I feed her about 8 crickets or superworms every other day (as I do not want to breed her) and she has her hibiscus to eat whenever she wants.

She cannot eat anymore soil since I put stones on top of the soil, but my questions are; should I be worried about what she did consume? and, why is she doing this? Am I feeding her too little? She does not appear thin or malnourished.

 

[Syn]

Sometimes chameleons eat rocks, soil, etc. to get nutrients they can not get anywhere else.

Could you please post your supplementing schedule?
Also, what do you feed her?

Please make sure the rocks are SMOOTH (not sharp, could cause potential harm to the mouth) and not small enough to be consumed.

 

[thealissa]

Sometimes chameleons eat rocks, soil, etc. to get nutrients they can not get anywhere else.

Could you please post your supplementing schedule?
Also, what do you feed her?

Please make sure the rocks are SMOOTH (not sharp, could cause potential harm to the mouth) and not small enough to be consumed.

Since she is fed every other day now that she's old enough to be, I dust every time she is fed.

I feed her 6-10 (usually around 8) large crickets, which are gutloaded with fluker's cricket quencher, fluker's high calcium cricket diet, dandelion greens, potatoes, carrots, etc. or, she is given 6/7 superworms (as they are larger than adult crickets).

The rocks are completely smooth, no worries.

 

[Syn]

Flukers cricket quencher is rubbish.. throw it away, there was something a while back that people were talking about that said that that causes more problems than it helps.

Keep up the dendelion greens (where do you get them? I want some) potatoes carrots and whatever else you feed.

Still, you never mentioned a dusting schedule..

What do you dust with, when, and how much/often?

 

[thealissa]

Flukers cricket quencher is rubbish.. throw it away, there was something a while back that people were talking about that said that that causes more problems than it helps.

Keep up the dendelion greens (where do you get them? I want some) potatoes carrots and whatever else you feed.

Still, you never mentioned a dusting schedule..

What do you dust with, when, and how much/often?

I get dandelion greens from Sprout's. They don't always have them though because they're apparently high in demand, so sometimes it's better to call and ask/have them held before you make the trip out.

I dust with a mixture of ReptoLife Plus and ReptoCal, at every feeding, which is every other day. The crickets aren't necessarily lightly dusted, but they don't look like little ghosts running around either.

 

[Syn]

Errgh, I'm going right to bed after I make this post so I can't really give you the do's and don't's of supplementing.. But I'm sure someone can do that for you.

If you get me some dandelion greens I'll trade you for some dubia!
I'll check up on this thread tomorrow morning when I wake up.

Have a good night..

 

[thealissa]

Errgh, I'm going right to bed after I make this post so I can't really give you the do's and don't's of supplementing.. But I'm sure someone can do that for you.

If you get me some dandelion greens I'll trade you for some dubia!
I'll check up on this thread tomorrow morning when I wake up.

Have a good night..

I would definitely make that trade, but I don't think my mother would let me keep roaches in the house. Haha. We have a bunch of beardies, maybe she would if they were beneficial to them as well. Doubt it though.

Thank you for your help, and maybe we can work out a trade for something else!

Night.

 

[Syn]

*is on my phone and can't type much*
Roaches are great for beardeds too! Mine loves them!

I'm really off to bed this time, though, turning my phone off so I can sleep without being woke up by a stupid text.

 

[thealissa]

*is on my phone and can't type much*
Roaches are great for beardeds too! Mine loves them!

I'm really off to bed this time, though, turning my phone off so I can sleep without being woke up by a stupid text.

I will work on convincing her in the morning.

 

[summoner12]

There is nothing wrong with her eating the soil as long as it is clean and doesn't have anything to impact her. My panther goes to his plant pot DAILY. He likes to go down and shoot at the dirt. He doesn't eat much... since the amount of dirt in the spot he goes to isn't diminishing... but he does go head first down his tree and snack.

My male veiled Jake used to do this in his sunning tree.... he kinda broke the habit I think... although I do see him walking around his plant pot sometimes these days......

But it isn't an issue as long as the dirt is clean.

 

[Jono]

My veiled also does this occasionally (or maybe constantly while I'm not looking Also freaked me out the first few times but as suggested it not an issue as long as the soil is clean.

 

[Syn]

My crested geckos just recently got pinworms for organic soil I was using, so let's hope all of your soil was baked!