morts
Full Member
Posts: 28
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Post by morts on Jun 29, 2004 14:15:02 GMT -8
Is there any reason my iguana feels the need to have a few mouthfuls of dirt when I take her outside? I gave up on trying to stop her a long time ago, as she's quite insistent about it.
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David
Junior Member
Posts: 18
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Post by David on Jun 29, 2004 16:26:38 GMT -8
Reptar does the same thing and I always try to stop her. I would also like to know if that is okay? Maybe its like when dogs go outside and eat grass
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Post by Tesa on Jun 29, 2004 17:22:39 GMT -8
Uhmmmm this is a new one on me guys. I can't imagine it being GOOD for them! I know in other animals it may be a sign of a vitamin or mineral deficiency. Hopefully someone who has a decent answer will see this... In the meantime, I'll search around and if I find anything I'll post it for you.
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morts
Full Member
Posts: 28
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Post by morts on Jun 29, 2004 18:36:29 GMT -8
I could've swore that some animals do it to gain bacteria to help with digestion, but try as I might I can't find any information about an iguana doing it. My ig has always seemed healthy, and gets a varied diet with plenty of vitamin/calcium supplements.
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Post by Kerrydaktyl on Jun 30, 2004 5:30:24 GMT -8
My ig does this too, he goes for pot plants mainly, gobbling mouthfuls of it! He doesnt do it outside though, too busy basking to care about eating.
I also wasnt sure if he knew best and was trying to get some minerals from it, or whether I ought to stop him. He hasnt done it for a while though, has anyone noticed a pattern to it?
Could it be some sort of digestion aid perhaps? Or as Tesa says vitamin or mineral deficiency?
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Post by Patrick on Jun 30, 2004 12:39:55 GMT -8
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Post by Tesa on Jul 3, 2004 4:07:26 GMT -8
I can't find any "scientific" explanation. Patrick is exactly right tho. If it's not food it needs to stay out of their mouths.
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Post by Patrick on Jul 3, 2004 5:29:17 GMT -8
Thank You Tesa, I could not find Why they like to eat dirt either or carpet or anything else that they put in there mouths all I know is iggys like to eat everything they see Quazi was trying to eat Miss Jr. Enclosure the other day now that was funny! I have to tell mine to stop eating the carpet all the time when there out roaming I am say all the time STOP EATING THE CARPET LOL!!!!!!!!
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Post by Merlin on Jul 3, 2004 8:06:14 GMT -8
When Zok was little she tried a bite of the rug now and then. I think it had something to do with the color, sort of greenish. Once she figured out it wan't edible she stopped.
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Post by Kerrydaktyl on Jul 3, 2004 9:06:26 GMT -8
Don does that too, very cute, but I have to tell him off. We have to keep the carpet extra clean coz he eats hairs and fluff and anything on it too. He also likes to graze on my hair straight from my head! Silly creatures!
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Post by Diane on Jul 3, 2004 13:22:58 GMT -8
My herp vet says eating dirt, sand or even calci-sand is a big no-no. Can cause impactions. . .
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Post by IguanaKing on Jul 3, 2004 16:13:16 GMT -8
It could just be a "curiosity" thing. Maybe the colors of various types of dirt are interesting to your igs. I think that a bite is an iguana's final means of attempting to determine what something is. Usually, when something interests them, first they look, then they smell, then they bite. Eating dirt is definitely not good for your ig though, try to keep them away from things that they can eat but shouldn't. My dearly departed female ig, Mercury, used to bite at the carpet (sort of greenish), and even the green patterns in the linoleum on my kitchen and bathroom floors, I think she was attracted to the color. About 3 weeks ago, when I was a staff member at the annual open house for the Colorado Reptile Humane Society, I saw this individual color preference exhibited by our 85+ iguanas. One of our visitors was a woman who had always had various types of monitors, so she felt very (maybe a little too) comfortable with large lizard species. She handled several of them, and none of them seemed to notice the fact that she was wearing a pink top and pink lipstick. But, there was one that she picked up that apparently was very attracted to pink. This 3-foot female ig immediately started biting at her top and stopped when she noticed the woman's face. I stepped over and grabbed the iguana, just as she lunged for the woman's lips. I averted a disaster there, and it just reinforced the belief I have in the individual color preferences of iguanas. I think probably your ig's curiosity is causing her to take bites of dirt, its color must interest her for some individual personality reason.
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Post by Merlin on Jul 3, 2004 18:28:52 GMT -8
Whew! Good thing you were there and paying attention! A facial bite would have been bad for everyone concerned! I think it was Dominick that made the response in another post that Igs eat "colors"!
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Post by Kerrydaktyl on Jul 4, 2004 2:25:05 GMT -8
I think your right that biting comes after looking and licking. Although mine seems to not bother licking anymore, he just dives straight in, and he remembers where the plants are, Ive had to put them out of reach, but he still tries to get to them.
Yeah good job you were so quick to act, the lip is probably not a good place to be bit, I bet the ig could have ripped a chunk out of it if it wanted!
My ig likes anything green, we have a plate with different coloured spots on and he only goes for the green, yellow and blue ones, ignores red and purple!
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Post by IguanaKing on Jul 4, 2004 5:27:48 GMT -8
Heh...yeah, it was like that ig and I had the same thought at the same tiime. I still cringe thinking about what could have happened, because I know exactly what it would have felt like. I took a defensive bite on my lower lip back when I was inexperienced with ig behavior and body language...umteen stitches later, I still have my lower lip. That's interesting that your ig ignores red, but so do a lot of the igs I have seen. On the other hand, there was one of those igs that actually pushed a milk crate off of a red spot (a strawberry had fallen on the newspaper earlier) he saw underneath it and immediately started trying to bite that spot. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the smell left by the strawberry because he couldn't get close enough to smell it while the milk crate was there.
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