Eating Sand

[carbyville]

I am so sorry for making another post. Claudia has been giving me a heck of a time as a Cham owner the last few days. First, she slowed down her eating considerably. She still eats, just not nearly as much as she was and she's sworn off crickets entirely. She still goes to town on hornworms and super worms.

Other than the change in eating habits, she's fine. She's alert, active, strong.

Well, today I caught her in her laying bin eating the sand. Her crickets were in there (I tried again today to get her to eat them. Glutton for punishment) but she was eating the sand.

Naturally, I want to take the laying bin out to eliminate the sand eating but I really don't want to leave her without it for laying purposes.

I'm at a loss as to what to do right now. Does any of this sounds like it warrants a vet visit? I was thinking that if things don't change with her eating by mid-week, I would make an appointment to get her checked out.

Help! I'm going out of my mind.

 

[MSMorgan]

The slow down in eating may be a good sign that she is ready to lay her eggs. She IS eating, so that is also good. While you have the laying box in there, try cup feeding, or put items into a shallow dish where she can find them and go from there. Keep the crickets at bay for now and give her the super and horn worms. keep them out of the laying box. If you've got a good reptile vet, make an apt. Your piece of mind and cham's. health is worth the trip. Have them do an exam and make sure to bring in a fecal sample for them to test.

 

[carbyville]

Thank you, MSMorgan! Oddly enough, about 10 minutes after I posted this thread, I looked over and watched her eat two of the crickets. I'll keep the crickets out for now and stick to the hornworms and superworms. I'm going to order some phoenix worms soon too.

Just to clarify though, she wasn't eating the sand because her food was in it. She was just sitting in the laying bin eating the sand as if THAT were her food, which of course worried me.

I have a vet that I took her too a few weeks after I got her for a check up and fecal test, so I'll bring her back there since they know her. They were very helpful and thorough, so hopefully they'll have some idea of what's going on. My nerves are getting frazzled over here wondering what's going on. I definitely need that peace of mind.

 

[kinyonga]

Female veiled chameleons are notorious for eating sand. It's hard to deal with because as you said, removing the bin will leave her no place to dig to lay eggs. I have used a washed playsand produced by kings that comesnin a white bag with red, yellow and blue sand box toys on it. I have fount that it never leads to impaction and passes through the chameleon.

It's said that they may be eating get substrates due to missing some nutrients in the diet...what specific supplements do you use and how often for each? What do you feed / gutload the insects with?

 

[carbyville]

Female veiled chameleons are notorious for eating sand. It's hard to deal with because as you said, removing the bin will leave her no place to dig to lay eggs. I have used a washed playsand produced by kings that comesnin a white bag with red, yellow and blue sand box toys on it. I have fount that it never leads to impaction and passes through the chameleon.

It's said that they may be eating get substrates due to missing some nutrients in the diet...what specific supplements do you use and how often for each? What do you feed / gutload the insects with?

I'll definitely look for that sand, thank you for the suggestion!

As for her supplementation, she gets Rep-Cal calcium powder dusted on her feeders daily and ReptoCal and ExoTerra's Multi-Vitamin powder dusted on feeders every other Friday.

The gut load is usually cricket crack for the crickets, and I've added apples, oranges, and greens into the mix in the last couple of weeks, as well.

 

[carbyville]

Caught her in there again this morning having a sand-feast. And, this morning's poop was full of sand, so who knows just how much she's been eating lately. I guess it's a good sign that it's coming out and passing though, but it sure was alarming to see sandy poop like that.

I went ahead and bought other feeders last night. Going to take a break from the crickets entirely and introduce Dubias. She's already tried, and liked, Phoenix Worms so I got some of those too, more super worms, and another pod of hornworms.

I'll give the vet a call in the morning and see when we can get an appointment to get Claudia checked out. I need to stop stressing, already.