Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone. Well I think this female leo has something wrong with her. She keeps trying to eat her paper towels. She leans down, licks the paper towel, opens her mouth, rips a piece off and then starts eating it. I immediately changed her paper towels to repti-carpet, so that she couldnt eat any. But now I am worried she will lose some teeth on the repti carpet. I dont have any slate cut to fit the cage, otherwise I would put that in. Now she has resorted to trying to eat everything else in her cage. All she has now is a water dish, and a dry hide. I didnt want her eating the peat moss in the humid hide, so I took it out. Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong with her??
Thanks
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Josh
My Email

there are 2 things that i can think of that may be possibilities. i have no real idea, so these are just thoughts. the more likely of my thoughts is that its just a phase, maybe out of boredom. i also thought it could be some kind of annoyance in her mouth, maybe an infection. by chewing stuff maybe it kind of sooths the pain, like babies and puppies chew stuff when teething. i have no clue if either of those are true possibilities mind you.
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your head will collapse, but there's nothing in it, and you'll ask yourself, "where is my mind"

I know that lizards with mouth rot often rub their snouts against anything soft to try to ease the pain...maybe she has the beginnings of mouth rot???

Cleo
1:1 leos (6 eggs cooking)

I dont think it is mouth rot, I went to go change the cage around a little after I posted and I found a super under the paper towel. I dont know if this would cause her to bite the paper towels, trying to get it, but she is acting fine now. I will keep an eye on her though...thanks for you help everyone
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Josh
My Email

Kept bumping her nose into the wall, ran to the other side of the cage, bumped her nose and kept repeating the process. After a few minutes I looked in the cage and found that a mealie musta slipped by and turned into a beetle.
She kept chasing it and trying to eat it. LOL. I thought she was going insane too...

np

i have no idea the cause, but it is pretty serious. ive never had to deal with it though.
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your head will collapse, but there's nothing in it, and you'll ask yourself, "where is my mind"

mouthrot or stomatitis is caused by an internal infection and then an open wound within the mouth.. it can be treated locally but will come back if the internal infection is not treated.. one of my water dragons had a pretty bad case of this about 5 years ago and died after hefty vet bills and alot of pain ... but i don't think that this leo has it...unless there is visible sores, jaw is swollen and has a cottage cheese type substance in its mouth....how often is the leo being fed..how is its calcium intake? is it showing any signs of stress other than eating everything..

Actually, her mouth looks completely normal. She is fed about 3 supers every day. The supers are dusted with Miner-All every other day, and she has a calcium dish in her cage.
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Josh
My Email