poop eater

[royden]

How bad would it be if my veiled ate his own poop?



context:
pothos has pretty fine soil in it. I've seen my male veiled go down to the soil several times to shoot his tongue into the dirt. (I think I've seen him eat more dirt than I've seen him drink water). Anyhow - I caught him last night, and I think he might have tagged some of his own poop down there in the soil.

Now before you all go postal on me for not cleaning up poop and the cleanliness of my cage etc - note that I clean his poop out every day, but poop blends in with soil. Sometimes it's hard to see.

Otto- the poop eater

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Ha!
I don't imagine this is too much to worry about.
If he did in fact do it.
I would expect him to spit it out but who knows.

-Brad

 

[alfiealbino]

I have the same problem, i have a pot that i put my crickets in but this is also the only spot he chooses to poo in aswell and i have seen him eat it loads of times.....i have seen him spit it out most of the time but im not completely sure because i look away when he does it lol

Ben

 

[royden]

yeah, my stomache turned a little.

 

[rcagosto]

Oh man that happened with my cham but i have heard that they eat dirt to get some minerals they are missing in there diet. What i started doing was dusting every two weeks with mineral o just so he can get some minerals and he has stopped eating dirt, well i havent caught him until now yet.

 

[royden]

well, I'll try the minerals maybe. I don't mind if he eats soil, it's just kind of risky. I can't possibly sift through all the soil and make sure it's free of debree.

I wasn't worried when I saw him do it once or twice, but he did it right in front of me last night which is a new thing.

Like I said, the guy doesn't drink in front of me.

 

[rcagosto]

So chams are shy, just because you dont happen to see them do it, doesnt mean they dont. You just happened to catch him do it, or maybe he is getting over being shy or even maybe he needs the minerals so he is actually doing it in front of you lol we will never know. Just my sure the soil is just soil, plain old top soil with nothing added. Its fine if just that. Try the mineral thing i have a hunch thats what it is, good luck.

 

[royden]

yeah it was the first time he stared me right in the face and did something I've never seen him do before.

Like he was saying, "go ahead, gawk, I eat soil sometimes ok!"







And I was like, "you ballsy little brat!"

and then he was all puffed up and like, "you want a piece of this?"
...

 

[Tygerr]

You can prevent them from eating soil by putting simple screen covers over the pots. I use a plastic garden screen that is used to support climbing plants, and just cut it to size, with a slit down the middle for the stem of the plant.

But there are quite a few people who advocate that chameleons do have some sort of natural need to eat soil, and that you should give them some access to safe, organic soil.

In your case though, I don't think it is particularly good for the cham to be eating soil that has been exposed to its droppings. There must be quite a bit of bacteria involved.
Sometimes it helps just screening off the one pot that are pooping in - they usually continue to poop there, and it's easy to clean off the poop from the screen, and wash the screen down from time to time. Then they will still have access to soil in other pots in the cage.

 

[royden]

Thanks Tygerr!