Ok umm where to start. I basically have a couple of Leos that are extremely messy especially with their calcium powder supplements. I have a lot of Leos, their husbandry is correct. I can deal with a little day to day mess from my Leos but a couple of them are at an extreme.
I used to use those small kidney bowl shaped dishes to hold the calcium powder a long time ago. Because those have slanted sides instead of straight vertical ones that was really messy for all of my Leos not just the really bad ones. I then changed to the small round ceramic bowls that are shallow. Mealworm bowls. They are about 3” wide maybe 1” tall total. Maybe a little taller but I don’t want to get out the measuring tape. This has worked out well for me over the years. I like it and the Leos seem to. They are a lot less messy if the Leos stand or walk over it, and then it doesn’t kick out so much powder.
Like I said I can deal with the normal mess they leave or make but lately I have noticed after I clean their tubs or tanks out and come back later in the day or the next day a couple of my Leos have basically dug or thrown or done something to the calcium powder so that only a tiny bit is left in the dish and the majority of it is spread out all over the place. I haven’t seen them do it but they are throwing it all over making a mess and wasting the powder. They do this weather it’s one of my daily quick cleanups or one of the weekly major tank/tub cleanings.
My attempt at solving this was to use the dishes I feed them mealworms with. I use little glass dishes for mealworms instead. They are the same diameter as the ceramic ones but they are a little bit taller. I like these for mealworms because the mealworms escape from these less and since its glass it seems like it gets their attention that there’s food in there more than the ceramic ones. So for these two I still used the glass ones for mealworms but I swapped out the shorter ceramic ones for the taller glass ones and used those for their calcium powder also. This has not worked. Like I said I haven’t seen them doing it but I come back and the powder is all over the place. I am assuming they are throwing it out because I see only a tiny bit left in the dish and it’s all piled up to one side. Like they are digging and throwing it out behind them.
It’s not an issue of me putting a ton of it in there. I noticed that one of them that is making all the mess is also one of my Leos that likes to pull all of the moss out of her humid hide and throw that around but she only seems to do that if the moss dries out and she is trying to get to some on the bottom that is still moist. The two that are doing this are both females but I don’t know if that has anything to do with it. I don’t think I can put it in an even bigger container I don’t want them having trouble getting to it if they need it. I mean I dust all of their food with a regimen of calcium, calcium with D3, and vitamins/minerals but I want to make sure they have all they need I don’t want to take it away from them but its god awfully messy. I mean its bad they aren’t just getting a little out of the dish when they walk on it they are purposefully doing it. Not to mention wasteful. Like I said their husbandry and such is all correct.
Any suggestions on getting them to stop this? Getting them to do this less? Should I stop offering them calcium powder and offer them something else? Should I mix some calcium in with their drinking water? Any suggestions would help.
Sorry for the long post.
