Riddle me this...

[slideaboot]

So...today, I noticed Aesop eating some eco-earth. Again. So...I threw him the mouse that I had thawed--thinking, "Yeah! That'll do it! He'll stop eating that junk now."

Nope.

The mouse remains. He ate more eco-earth.

It's strange--he doesn't large mouthfuls of it, though. Very tiny little pecks. Weird.

Ideas?

 

[Curtis T]

I do not have any Tegus yet but maybe their is something that he is missing in his diet and found it in his eco-earth. Curtis

 

[tora]

^ What they said.
Also, could there be any bugs in it? Do you feed him in there? If so it could smell like a more preferred food.

 

[slideaboot]

^ What they said.
Also, could there be any bugs in it? Do you feed him in there? If so it could smell like a more preferred food.

I'm thinkin' you might be on to something with the whole smell idea. He eats inside his cage and isn't exactly winning any etiquette contests when doing so. I bet he's going after the tiny little turkey bits and such that he spreads around.

Thanks.

Anybody else got any other ideas? I'm still open to ideas here...

 

[Nessie]

I agree with the whole scent thing. I have my Tegu on Coconut Husk and he has never tried to eat it but I will see him take an interest and repeadidly flick where he last had a treat. I dont' feed him in his enclosure but when he was younger he had the occational left over pinkie that my other Tegu decided he didn't want. They have a great sence of smell. I once shot a red grape across my bathroom floor when he wasn't looking he and stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he caught the trail the grape took (skin side down)and followed it right back to the grape.

 

[Guest]

As a suggestion, I would stop feeding in his enclosure immediately, and get a Rubbermade bin of sorts to feed him in. Our All American is an absolute mess when he eats and flings food everywhere with wild abandon... it's cute, but a pain in the butt to pick up after him. I couldn't imagine trying to find ALL the pieces in their enclosure, so I'm really glad we used a feeding bin right from the get-go.

And yeah, their sense of smell is WICKED STRONG. As an example, we have another feeding bin that we use just for our ball pythons when it's time for their mice and rats. Well, I used it once to moisten up some moss with water for our tegus' hides. Shortly thereafter, I noticed our B/W frantically searching an digging through the moss, like he was hunting for something. I didn't think much of it, until I noticed him trying to eat some of it. It then occurred to me that he was smelling the rodents that we feed our snakes from the BIN.

So like I said, I really would recommend using a separate bin for your little messy guy's meals from now on.