Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey world. im new to the site.

i have a young female beardy.

ok my question is, have any other of you ever seen ur BD eat thier fresh sheded skin?.. mine shed the other week and as soon as she shook a piece off she ate it right up!.i took the big back skin out right away juss incase this was bad. i ddnt know what to think about it, i was juss wondering if this was common?

thanks.
-rich

I haven't heard of bearded dragons eating their shed skin but many other lizards do naturally (mostly geckos I think). They eat the skin to help restore nutrients present in the skin back into the body. or to hide the fact they are in the area from predators (not completely sure why geckos eat their shed skin off hand but the above two reasons are the only two I can think of to explain the behaviour).

I don't see any harm in the dragon eating it's own skin. It may be a good ideal to check your temps/humidity and diet to make sure you are not lacking something the dragon needs that prompted it to eat its shed skin. It may have just been a fluke as well.
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PHLdyPayne

i would say its pretty normal, both my babies and adult female do this and it hasnt hurt them any