The natural viv has proven to be very interesting and has already presented some difficulties. But I was reminded tonight of something a very wise person once posted here. Our animals will only show us behaviors that our cages allow them to express.
I fed the corn for the first time tonight. There is a lot of coconut fiber bedding for substrate. I was concerned about him getting a mouthful of the stuff since it really expands when wet so I watched him carefully. Sure enough he dragged the fuzzy along the ground and ended up getting some stuff stuck in his mouth. Great I thought, now I have to get him out (which is difficult) and clean out his mouth. I was waiting a few minutes for his meal to settle and he did something that amazed me.
First he tried yawning, licking, and rubbing his head on things. When this didn't work he went straight to the waterbowl and began to drink. Every few seconds he would lift his head straight up and make kneeding/sucking motions with his mouth. I took a pic of it. When he yawned again, his mouth was spotless.
Now I'm not sure if this was just a coincidence but I gave him another fuzzy and he ate the whole thing with his head held several inches from the ground. I have seen them do this before but usually they rub it around and press it on things to help get it down. I am very curious to see if he will learn to eat cleaner.
