Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a giant piece of aquarium slate in my cage.
After months of it being there my bearded dragon has decided he wants to eat it. Unfortunetly it is sort of sharp so I keep having to distract him from it (I am worried he will cut his mouth!)

I dust his crickets with minerals/vitamins whenever I feed him...All I can guess if perhaps there is a mineral he is craving...

Has anyone else seen this behavior?
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Megs

1 Bearded dragon
1 Ocellated Skink
3 cats
2 rats
1 Scorption

Hi
is the rock white ?
then he wants some extra calsium .
buy some cuttlefish and scrape thin layers of it and trow it in cage on a rock he wil eat that .
whats calsium you use?
i use minneral from sticky toung indoor with good results .
young beardie need to have calsium say 5,6 times a week one time a week vitamines.
byeeeeee
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www.dragoncave.nl

It's purple aquarium slate. I only saw him do it today, although my boyfriend told me he has seen him do it before.

I dust his crickets with Fluker's dietary supplement,
Calciumhosphorus 2:1

He is in a 40 gallon breeder aquarium with carpet for substrate.
I mist him everyday. He gets veggies (kale, swiss chard, endive) everyday and usually 50-100 crickets every week.

He is about 10 months old now. He is a strong eater, and fairly active around his cage.

Thanks for the suggestion!
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Megs

1 Bearded dragon
1 Ocellated Skink
3 cats
2 rats
1 Scorption

The correct calcium for Bearded Dragons contains no Phosphorus or Vitamin A. Live food is high in Phosphorus that's why you only want to add Calcium. A herbivore would use the 2:1 Calcium you have. Switch to the RepCal with D3.

There are only a few reasons I can see a dragon trying to eat rock. Either he is lacking some form of mineral in his diet or something is bothering him in his mouth and he is trying to get rid of it by biting the rock. Or he thinks the rock is a big piece of fruit or something.

My suggestion. Remove the slate from the cage before he does injure his mouth. Examine his mouth for signs of injury, inflammation, cheesy like substances or redness/bleeding. If you see any of these, a vet trip is needed. Other than injury from biting the rock itself, these are signs of mouthrot. As Mouth rot can be a secondary symptom of another problem (MBD if advanced enough, can cause mouth rot, even before noticeable weak bones are present).

If the mouth is fine, then removing the rock and using a proper calcium supplement (no phosphorus but containing vitamin D3) as already suggested. Make sure you feed a wide variety of greens as well.
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PHLdyPayne