My chameleon eating from the soil

[Maddiyey]

Hello everyone! I caught my chameleon eating from the soil of one particular plant in the enclosure. it could be a coincidence but i saw him two-tree times to do this and it is always after pooping.

 

[IrohtheVeiled]

Any soil ingestion is an impaction risk - I have this issue with my Cham with lower pots he seems to be drawn to the water

You can cover the soil with smooth river rocks to prevent him from getting to it you can find them at most garden stores

 

[MzLaurie]

Strange. It could be something like cats do when they have an upset tummy they eat grass. If you don’t cover it, the sift the top two or three inches of all the soil so there is nothing in it to cause an impaction, like tiny rocks, wood chips, perlite etc. I do that with all my potted plants as feeders will go there then burrow or crickets will get there and the Cham will shoot his tongue and get the cricket and whatever it’s on. Just to be safe I recommend that if you aren’t going to cover it with rocks. No small rocks either. Those tongues are strong and it’s auto to gulp down or chomp on what the tongue brings back. You the second member this week that has mentioned eating or digging in soil for the veileds. Umm

 

[GrannyK]

My Cham did this for a while as well. Mine was when his food was being cut back so I felt it was a tantrum. I covered the plants with river rocks, increased his dripper (for some reason thinking hydration was an issue) and eventually he seemed to stopped going to it.

 

[kinyonga]

Is this a panther chameleon?
They don’t normally eat the soil. Does the soil have little white pellets in it?

As was suggested, I would cover the soil with stones that are definitely too big for the chameleon to swallow.impact Iin is always a possibility from eating substrates.

 

[Maddiyey]

i covered the soil with river rocks, i hope he doesnt do this again

 

[IrohtheVeiled]

i covered the soil with river rocks, i hope he doesnt do this again

It would be wise to look at gut load an d supplementation too, I’m prettty sure chams do this when they aren’t getting something in their fried that they need sometimes

Best of luck

 

[Maddiyey]

It would be wise to look at gut load an d supplementation too, I’m prettty sure chams do this when they aren’t getting something in their fried that they need sometimes

Best of luck

I do basically everything i gut load the insects with sweet potato, carrot, bee pollen, i but blue berries from time to time… i use calcium without d3 every feeding and twice a month i give him multivitamins from repashy… i have read about that chameleons tend to do this when they lack of vitamins but i do everything recommended from the group

 

[IrohtheVeiled]

I do basically everything i gut load the insects with sweet potato, carrot, bee pollen, i but blue berries from time to time… i use calcium without d3 every feeding and twice a month i give him multivitamins from repashy… i have read about that chameleons tend to do this when they lack of vitamins but i do everything recommended from the group

Sometimes they just do it because they’re curious too, they explore with their mouths/tongues @Beman told me they’re like toddlers in this regard when I was having a similar thing go on with my Cham

 

[kinyonga]

There may be reasons we have not figured out yet for why some chameleons eat soil…

You might be interested in reading these…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geophagia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoopharmacognosy

 

[jamest0o0]

Impaction makes no sense with substrate. Every animal in the wild would be dead. A large part of wild chameleon’s diets are beetles. Those shell fragments are likely harder to pass than most things you’d find in soil, yet they still do. My chams were always on open soil, outside with leaves, branches, you name it. Not a single issue, no parasites either, nothing.

I still do like the advice of sifting the top or keeping large leaves/preventing from eating perlite or bark chunks. If you’re more comfortable covering with large stones, do that too. It’s not wrong. I just feel that most impaction scenarios are a husbandry/unnatural enclosure issue. No reason a small chunk of something shouldn’t be easily passed in most cases.

 

[kinyonga]

You might like to read this…
http://www.muchadoaboutchameleons.com/2013/11/thoughts-on-substrate-other-natural.html

I would think that animals would not become impacted in the wild, from eating the natural soils found there…but in captivity we use some that are not naturally found in the areas they come from or ones that are not natural …and that could possibly cause issues. I prefer to err on the side of caution and prevention and limit what I use in their cages.