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Is there a cause for concern if my Male Veiled(6-7 months old) ate some soil from my ficus? I was casually watching him and he made his way down to the bottom of the tree and then preceded to shoot at some soil and eat it. Is this an attempt to help with the digestion process? His eating habits have not changed and everything else is good. Could he possibly be lacking something in his diet to make him eat dirt? I supplement his food on a regular basis and he drinks often. Thanks in advance.

There is cause for concern if there are things in the soil that he shouldn't have - especially perlite and/or vermiculite (perlite is light, white and vermiculite is shiny and flat [like mica]). Perlite is in MANY potting soils b/c it helps with drainage and root health. B/c is it bright it is attractive to chams.

Luna was doing that when I first got her so I covered the soil with Spanish moss but she would eat that, too! So I now have cut screen on top, folded down into soil, and then some river stone on tops of that. I prefer this to the mosses b/c it allows the soil to breath and will decrease/prevent the problem of fungus gnats, which won’t hurt anything they are just annoying as hell!

lele

>>Is there a cause for concern if my Male Veiled(6-7 months old) ate some soil from my ficus? I was casually watching him and he made his way down to the bottom of the tree and then preceded to shoot at some soil and eat it. Is this an attempt to help with the digestion process? His eating habits have not changed and everything else is good. Could he possibly be lacking something in his diet to make him eat dirt? I supplement his food on a regular basis and he drinks often. Thanks in advance.
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles Jaida & no name
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & no name

I forgot to add that I have replaced the orginal soil with SuperSoil, so it is just SuperSoil that he ate but still I am a little worried. He ate it(Soil) this morning after his breakfast of crickets. So if he does not poop tomorrow morning I will start to worry a little more. Do you have any idea as to why Veileds might do this? Thanks =)

Hi-

One thing Lele left out is that most plants you buy at the store will also have fertilizer balls in the soil. (Green balls) These would be the biggest concern. For some reason I have found the prelite attracts chameleons and they like eating it, so avoid using it at all costs. Supersoil is perfect for use with chameleons for repotting with. I have seen all my chameleon at some point eat soil. The best way to prevent this is to cover the soil with large river rock so the chameleon can not eat the rocks. You can also put a piece of screen or moss over the soil and then the rocks. Both work good, but screen can get expensive with 40 plants to cover, and the chameleon will eat the moss, so I use enough rocks to cover all the soil. As far as your chameleon eating dirt it is thought to be from lack of supplement(s). I would just cover the soil up and feed well gutloaded feeders. Also from my experience the younger chameleons tend to try and eat the soil more often and as they mature to adults they attempt it less often if at all. Hope this helps!
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John W. Lucas

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