Eating dirt why?

[Jordanworks479]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - male Veiled with me almost two months I think he 5-6 months
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?Once a week for cleaning just to put on another one of my trees
• Feeding - Crickets,hornworm,bsfl,tropical spotted roaches,Dubai’s,spinx moths,super worms,bsf and stick insects I try to break it up different species during the day maybe one or two of a soft bodied and then 6-7 chintin bugs a gut load with fresh veggies and cricket crack to those who can eat dry or don’t live in substrate
• Supplements - Zoomed repticalcium without d3 every feeding.1st and the 15th repta cal multivitamin and 2nd and the 16th I give repta cal d3 calcium
• Watering - Little dripper and mist king all waking hours little dropper is dripping and mistking goes off 4 times a day with 4 min sessions one 6 min session before lights come on don’t see him drinking but urates are white
• Fecal Description - White urate waiting on fecal float results everything looks good to me
• History - got Him from somebody who attempted a rescue from Petco but bit off more than they could chew and gave him up promptly

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Reptibreeze 24x24x48 all screen
• Lighting - zoomed dual fixture with a 60 w incandescent bulb and 6500k cfl 24”10.0 t5 reptisun matching the sun and sunset schedule on a timer 6:50 am to 6:50 pm
• Temperature - basking spot is 87f any lower and he’s climbing the ceiling trying to get closer bottom of cage is about 72f i measure with a temp probe and gauge overnight temps never lower than 60f
• Humidity - my humidity is usually 60 to 70% the mist king and live plants keep it up and I measure using a gauge
• Plants - Live and a little bit of fake I’m using a 4 foot hibiscus
• Placement - It is on a stand now in my sun room about 8 feet up basically touching the ceiling no draft ceiling fan is never on
• Location - Strong island( Long Island)

Current Problem - Caught noob noob eating dirt.
I have already put the screen to block the dirt(it was organic)now I’m just curious why they do it? Is it to help with digesting or is it lack of provided minerals on my part?

 

[ERKleRose]

Not sure, but veileds are notorious for it!

 

[Jordanworks479]

I thought maybe he was going for one of the springtails,earwigs or isopod I keep in all my plants dirt but then I looked closer and seen he was just going for the small pieces of dirt.Did some researching and seen that it’s fairly common with veileds now I’m on a quest to know why.

 

[JacksJill]

Two theories that I know of 1) they are after minerals missing in their diet or 2) they will eat anything that isn't nailed down that can be mistaken for a bug.

 

[SirWilliamj]

Mine tries to eat the perlite.

 

[Jordanworks479]

Two theories that I know of 1) they are after minerals missing in their diet or 2) they will eat anything that isn't nailed down that can be mistaken for a bug.

I would like to test that out..well at least the first theory haha do you know of any good mineral supplements I can buy for a chameleon I’ll give it to him and see what happens in a month so we can see if it’s lack of minerals

My theory is since there have short Intestine and no real mechanical digestion they swallow other Things to help grind up food

Mine tries to eat the perlite.

Perlite wow I don’t know who that would be nutritious but I guess they don’t know the difference and aligns well with my theory

 

[JacksJill]

Miner-all has a mineral and calcium supplement but I think answer 2 is the right one.

 

[Jordanworks479]

Miner-all has a mineral and calcium supplement but I think answer 2 is the right one.

Yea I’m probably over thinking it I’m a plant man not a biologist
Still gonna try the first one out

 

[JacksJill]

It's not a bad idea just don't over do it.

 

[Brodybreaux25]

Most likely trying to get minerals/nutrients he isn’t getting in his diet. I notice that my female Cham will eat a bit of sand or dirt when gravid, but I’ve never seen her do it when she’s not gravid.

 

[Brodybreaux25]

Mine tries to eat the perlite.

There shouldn’t be any perlite in your chams viv.

 

[Mawtyplant]

to my experience, the only time i saw one of my chameleon eating dirt was because he was missing something (food . most of the time donc know vitamin because its not easy to know). especially when they are young.
But i never had a veiled

 

[Jordanworks479]

Most likely trying to get minerals/nutrients he isn’t getting in his diet. I notice that my female Cham will eat a bit of sand or dirt when gravid, but I’ve never seen her do it when she’s not gravid.

I just got the miner all that @JacksJill recommend and I’m gonna see if that curbs the dirt eating.

to my experience, the only time i saw one of my chameleon eating dirt was because he was missing something (food . most of the time donc know vitamin because its not easy to know). especially when they are young.
But i never had a veiled

It happened after I gave him a huge Sphinx moth which had me thinking it might be minearals

 

[Jordanworks479]

There shouldn’t be any perlite in your chams viv.

I do not use perlite in my viv but curious on why you should not use it,not even for a drainage layer on the bottoms of your plants pot?(not as substrate)

 

[CJ's Exotics]

I do not use perlite in my viv but curious on why you should not use it,not even for a drainage layer on the bottoms of your plants pot?(not as substrate)

Perlite can get them impacted I believe, I don't think it would break down that easily.

 

[Brodybreaux25]

I do not use perlite in my viv but curious on why you should not use it,not even for a drainage layer on the bottoms of your plants pot?(not as substrate)

Because of its small size and indigestible composition. If ingested it will cause impaction. I guess you could use it in the bottom of a flower pot as long as any loose granuals can’t find their way out. You’d have to put some type of fine screen in the bottom of the pot. But that is why we usually reccomend using expanded clay for drainage, much to large to be swallowed.

 

[toolturner]

I thought maybe he was going for one of the springtails,earwigs or isopod I keep in all my plants dirt but then I looked closer and seen he was just going for the small pieces of dirt.Did some researching and seen that it’s fairly common with veileds now I’m on a quest to know why.

I don't know for sure but, when my sister was a child we caught her eating dirt all the time and the doctors told us it was because she had an iron deficiency. I wonder if that's why our reptile friends do it

 

[Jordanworks479]

Because of its small size and indigestible composition. If ingested it will cause impaction. I guess you could use it in the bottom of a flower pot as long as any loose granuals can’t find their way out. You’d have to put some type of fine screen in the bottom of the pot. But that is why we usually reccomend using expanded clay for drainage, much to large to be swallowed.

Thanks informative as always