Why does he keep trying to eat branches??

[pierre]

Greetings! We are new to the site, so if this is the wrong place to be posting this, please bear with us. We just got a panther chameleon, he is only a couple months old. We have had him for only a few days now, but just yesterday and today he keeps trying to eat the branches we have in his enclosure, we were just wondering why he may be doing this and if it's normal, he has been eating a hefty amount of crickets throughout the day as well.
Any advice of suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

 

[carol5208]

Can you post a pic of your enclosure? What kind of branches is he trying to eat? That seems a little out of the norm.

 

[Jamelon]

Ive heard that they will munch on leaves and flowers and such but never branches. maybe he has something in his teeth and hes trying to floss

 

[Lil nasty]

My guy has done that, probly wants some veggies, put some leafy green in the branches, my guy notices the difference and will eat it out the branches

 

[Gensen]

???

Veild Chams will eat foliage but it is not common for a Panther to do so. As Carol suggested if you can post some pictures of your enclosure that would be helpful....

 

[pierre]

thanks everyone!

https://www.chameleonforums.com/first-post-rate-my-enclosure-47399/

if you look on that thread, we made our enclosure with travis, they have all the same things inside.

 

[mwebb]

Bark

I use grape vine in all my set ups and almost all my panthers eat the bark female and male. I use branches off a type of tree at the river i don't know what kind of trees they are but they love the bark on them and they have been eating the bark for a long time with no problems.

 

[pierre]

as it looks, he is only trying to eat the bark, he scrapes it off! i'm just afraid he might get a big chunck and puncture something.

 

[carol5208]

I use grape vine in all my set ups and almost all my panthers eat the bark female and male. I use branches off a type of tree at the river i don't know what kind of trees they are but they love the bark on them and they have been eating the bark for a long time with no problems.

Wow that is very interesting to learn. I have never heard of panthers eating much of anything in the cage, let alone bark or brances! That is why I was wondering what kind of branches Pierre has in his cage as to why the chameleon finds them appealing to taste.

 

[mwebb]

No worries

as it looks, he is only trying to eat the bark, he scrapes it off! i'm just afraid he might get a big chunck and puncture something.

don't worrie they have been surving on there owen for a little while LOL they no what to do!!!!

 

[carol5208]

as it looks, he is only trying to eat the bark, he scrapes it off! i'm just afraid he might get a big chunck and puncture something.

Pierre, I have no idea why your cham wants to scrape off the bark and eat it. More than puncturing something I think you have to worry about him being able to digest it. If they cannot pass it, and it causes an impaction you are gonna have a big problem!

 

[mwebb]

fresh bark

Wow that is very interesting to learn. I have never heard of panthers eating much of anything in the cage, let alone bark or brances! That is why I was wondering what kind of branches Pierre has in his cage as to why the chameleon finds them appealing to taste.

They seem to realy like fresh bark but they eat the dryied bark to. kinda weird the young ones realy go to town on it.

 

[jr andrade]

He Could be a bit thirsty just mist a bit more provide larger plants aswell he could munch on them, my cham used to do it and doing those things seemed to solve the problem

 

[kinyonga]

Panther chameleons are well known for nibbling on bark of trees. I have no idea why they do it or if it ever causes an impaction.

 

[reptoman]

All of my young panthers seem to do this quite often. Not sure if they are actually trying to eat the branches or practicing their kill bite. I try to keep the branches in my baby cages large enough so they cant break them off and choke on them. Mine seemed to grow out of it after around 6 months or so.

 

[carol5208]

Panther chameleons are well known for nibbling on bark of trees. I have no idea why they do it or if it ever causes an impaction.

Guess ya learn something everyday on here! I guess I am just going by what mine does and the most I ever saw him do was lick a branch!! Wish we knew what the reason was for why they do it.

 

[Gensen]

Interesting...

Neither of my guys do this... but if they did and I was concerned about it I think I would switch out the branches for dowel rods... just a thought....

 

[Silkyslim]

My panther did this a bit the first month or so I had him (8-9 months old). I saw him going after the nubs on the branches, I never saw him eat anything though; it was more of a scraping sort of thing from what I noticed. He hasn't done it lately, at least from what I have heard or saw.

 

[reptoman]

After watching one of my 3 month old babies do this, it almost seems like a teething thing. I saw one scraping his teeth on one of the river stones covering the dirt in his plant this morning. The rock was much to big to grip with his mouth but he was gnawing at it anyway.

 

[pierre]

thanks everyone!

You are all so helpful!!! thanks for the info!!