Chewing on Fake Exo Terra Vines

[jnpearce]

Hey, guys! I've got kind of a head-scratcher for you.

I have a 10 month-old male ambilobe panther chameleon named Zeus. He has been displaying some strange behavior, which started about a month ago. Every single morning when I wake up and turn all his lights on, the first thing he does is start chewing on the fake Exo Terra vines in his enclosure. He really goes to town on them, too. I'm not 100% sure if he's actually biting anything off and ingesting it (all of this vines still look intact) but I don't know why he's gnawing on them every morning. I tried clipping some kale and veggies and stuff to the vines where he was biting them, but he just ignored the greens and found a new section of vine to start biting.
Otherwise, Zeus appears to be totally healthy. He eats and drinks and basks and does his chameleon stuff. However, I know how fragile chameleons are and how health issues can kind of sneak up on you, so I'd just like to hear some of your input and suggestions. I will 100% take him to his exotic veterinarian if this is potentially something dangerous. Please let me know if any of you have witnessed something similar and how you dealt with it. Thank you!!

 

[Wildwilson]

Do you have any live plants in your enclosure?

 

[Crashbandit05]

Well he looks great, awesome PJs! Panthers are known to chew on things so it can be normal. I think it's a stage they go through when they are 'teenagers'. Panthers don't eat greens so hanging the veggies won't do anything but spoil. My two year old panther did it occasionally when he was around 8 months old but stopped completely (afaik).

 

[jamest0o0]

My Panthers all chewed on anything from large rocks to branches to dead leaves and everything in between as they grew up. I tossed the vines because they were biting bits off of them.

 

[Goose502]

My ambilobe liked to chew on one part of a large moss covered vine in his enclosure. He was under a year still when he was doing it, and has since stopped. He actually knawed away enough moss to expose the metal wire the moss is covering. I chalked it up to he was looking for a drink and was too lazy to walk a few inches and drink water drops. Anyhow, he’s been healthy, and the behavior has stopped, but if the vine wasn’t made of natural material, I would have been more worried.

 

[JacksJill]

Yep. Normal juvenile male panther activity. If he starts to get bits off the vines swap them out, it's not worth risking an impaction. You can put them back in when he's older and this phase ends.

 

[jnpearce]

Do you have any live plants in your enclosure?

I have a live pothos, a live schefflera, and a live money tree in there for him. I’ve never seen him attempting to eat soil or leaves off of any live plant.

 

[Bmjo]

I have a live pothos, a live schefflera, and a live money tree in there for him. I’ve never seen him attempting to eat soil or leaves off of any live plant.

I’m pretty sure money trees are toxic