I hear him crunching throughout the day on leaves dying either from his pothos or creeping Jenny - sometimes on the dead leaf litter at the bottom of his bioactive as well. His staple diet is mainly crickets, I mix in silk worms, and use super worms as a hand fed treat occasionally. I properly dust calcium w/o d3 daily, and twice a month do the multi vitamin w/d3. He rarely eats the living leaves though. The ONLY reason I am concerned is because he was holding his mouth open the other day too long and often, so I took him to the vet and they found a bacteria that we are currently doing antibiotics for. However he was only doing the mouth thing for a couple days and is already progressing and has seemed fine. Just wondering if the eating dead leaves relates to the bacteria. Thanks all.
Why does my 7 month male panther love eating dead leaves?
- Thread starter Robby
- Start date
Welcome to the forum!
Any dead leaves decomposing would have bacteria because that's part of what is needed in the process...
https://academic.oup.com/femsec/article/92/11/fiw177/2403096?login=false
Any dead leaves decomposing would have bacteria because that's part of what is needed in the process...
https://academic.oup.com/femsec/article/92/11/fiw177/2403096?login=false
Thank you for your response. As funny as it sounds, the vet told me he has Chlamydia (comes in diff forms) which is what we are treating for. Unfortunately with having live plants comes occasional dead leaves, with the addition to the leaf litter being a bioactive. With that the only other thing I could think of doing would be to remove all the dead leaves as they die from his plants (most are still connected to the live plant) or just not have a bioactive enclosure….
He must be sneaking out at night and getting frisky then. Lol. He is doing well but wondering if maybe it was related to eating the dead leaves, as well as maybe any other reasons he would be doing that, since it seems not many people have a panther eating much plant matter, let alone dead leaves being the favorite…
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Lindasjackson
Chameleon Enthusiast
welcome to the forum! I’ve never heard of any chameleons eating dead leaves so that certainly is different.
He also tries to take bites out of the branches in his enclosure as well. He is an odd bird. I’ve never had a Cham or heard of them doing this - especially with all the focus I try to put on his nutrition.
Snuits
Chameleon Enthusiast
Wasabi loves eating the dead leaves on ferns. There's a bunch of lives ones. But he eats the crunchy dead ones. Lmao
Klyde O'Scope
Chameleon Enthusiast
Chameleon equivalent of potato chips? 
TayloredExotics
Established Member
Maybe- my old dude loves going for the crunchiest ones!Chameleon equivalent of potato chips?
bruce the cham
Avid Member
my veiled munches on all the dead leaves at the bottem of his enclosure
