Why is my beardie eating ornaments in the terrarium?

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So when I first got my beardies Mungo and Aster in April, Aster is an orange female, and Mungo is a while, creamy male. They never really liked each other. We got them a large terrarium to both live in. (Note: they are both under 3 months old when we got them) Mungo was getting territorial and ended up having half of Aster's tail rotting away, he grew and she didn't, she didn't eat, because Mungo was intimidating to her. I eventually convinced my dad to get her a smaller Terrarium of her own on my bedroom floor (Both of them live in my bedroom). Mungo's terrarium has red sand, a few large things for his size, and Aster's newer terrarium has pink-ish sand, with dead coral ornaments, a stick for her to climb on (since she would escape Mungo by climbing up the stick), a long piece of bark that is in the sand, a small circle/plate rock under her heat light. My dad told me that the pink sand was part calcium, and that it wouldn't cause impaction. This was good since the "little devil" would lick EVERYTHING. Generally picking up a few grains of sand. We got her terrarium maybe around June or July? And recently whenever I put Mungo on my bedroom floor to run around, he would always end up near her terrarium, looking contently about getting into it. One day I got home from school, to find he and fell 3 ft to the floor, from his terrarium (I left the glass door open) and was hiding in the corner of my room, pecking against the glass of Asters terrarium!

She was freaked out so much, but I decided to put him in there, (taking Aster out of course). And after maybe 30 seconds of looking at Aster stink-eye'ing me on my chest, I hear this crumbling and scraping sound from in the terrarium. It was unlike anything I've heard, I jumped up from my bed, rolled over and onto the floor to see Mungo chewing on the Coral! I pulled him out of the terrarium and saw him giving me that frowning and wide-eye'd look he has. After a month I put him back in to see what would happen. Surely enough he was licking the ornaments and started chewing the coral. A third attempt blew me away. He started eating the rock slab instead! He's such an *****! He never does this in his terrarium.

I showed my dad (who practically owns Mungo, as I own Aster) and he chuckled as he watched the dopey lizard chewing at Aster's rock-solid ornaments. He straight away said "Yeah, it's because of the calcium." This made sense since Mungo LOOOVES food, and putting food with calcium powder made him want to eat the calcium flavoured rock and coral. But then I wondered. Why doesn't Aster eat them? I give her calcium powder on her food to. Maybe it was because she never liked eating. My whole family knows Aster never eats, we've been force-feeding her since we got her. Mungo's male dominance did stop her from going near him and the food they shared. She never touches vegetables and only recently will eat live food. How do I stop him from chewing on calcium flavoured things? Or is it like taking candy from a baby, is he addicted to calcium flavoured things? Is the calcium even got to do with the problem?

I do not have any images, as I'm submitting this from my computer, not my phone or iPod, but you can visit Aster on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aster.algerphorth.7/photos?lst=100017842239484%3A100017842239484%3A1504659268&source_ref=pb_friends_tl
 

destiny1998

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Hi. Get that sand out ASAP. That calcium sand will turn in to concrete in their digestive system no matter what crap the pet stores say!!!! Google it if you don't believe me. Also that coral needs to go. That can cut them on the inside with sharp parts. Beardies lick everything. It has nothing to do with calcium. It's how they learn about their environment. Substrate can be newspaper, non adhesive shelf liner, tile.
 

MungoAster

Member
Original Poster
destiny1998":1qwrvyn5 said:
Hi. Get that sand out ASAP. That calcium sand will turn in to concrete in their digestive system no matter what crap the pet stores say!!!! Google it if you don't believe me. Also that coral needs to go. That can cut them on the inside with sharp parts. Beardies lick everything. It has nothing to do with calcium. It's how they learn about their environment. Substrate can be newspaper, non adhesive shelf liner, tile.

Aster has been living in there with the Calcium Substrate for 3 months, is she still yet to be effected or is small grains harmless? She doesn't bite the coral, so it should be safe aswell, no injuries have occurred as of now. I will keep Mungo out of the terrarium, or at least take away the Coral if I even needed him in there.
 

CaramelBeet

Hatchling Member
MungoAster":2k326z1m said:
Aster has been living in there with the Calcium Substrate for 3 months, is she still yet to be effected or is small grains harmless? She doesn't bite the coral, so it should be safe aswell, no injuries have occurred as of now. I will keep Mungo out of the terrarium, or at least take away the Coral if I even needed him in there.
Please take the sand out, it may have been ok for now, but it only takes a little too much and you'll have a severe impaction, a large vet bill and possibly a dead beardie. Paper towel and newspaper are both fine for substrates, tile also works, reptile carpet too, whatever you want, but nothing loose that they can eat.

I've never heard of ornamental coral, but if destiny says it needs to go, then I'd be taking it out. Better safe than sorry.

Also, make sure they can't see each other, or they'll stress each other out. Put the terrariums side by side or one on top of the other so they can't see each other.

You might want to post your full setup on here so we can take a look at it and see if anything needs tweaking.
 

MungoAster

Member
Original Poster
CaramelBeet":2kj743cq said:
I've never heard of ornamental coral, but if destiny says it needs to go, then I'd be taking it out. Better safe than sorry.

Also, make sure they can't see each other, or they'll stress each other out. Put the terrariums side by side or one on top of the other so they can't see each other.

You might want to post your full setup on here so we can take a look at it and see if anything needs tweaking.

Take a look at my two terrariums on my facebook page to see the ornaments. I get that she can get impaction, but if it is as big of an issue as you say, why do people sell repti-sand, and why do Beardies in the wild survive with sand at their feet?
 

destiny1998

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MONEY that is the reason why pet stores sell it. They don't care if your beardie gets sick and dies. They don't pay your vet bill. Most pet store employees are not trained on how to take care of animals, furry or with scales. Also in their natural habitat they are on mostly on rock.
 

CaramelBeet

Hatchling Member
MungoAster":3vdv0203 said:
Take a look at my two terrariums on my facebook page to see the ornaments. I get that she can get impaction, but if it is as big of an issue as you say, why do people sell repti-sand, and why do Beardies in the wild survive with sand at their feet?
It's not really the ornaments I was thinking of, so much as the lights, temps etc etc etc that pet stores often get wrong. No pressure, just thought we could double check them for you if you wanted.

Honestly, I think repti-sand (or calci-sand) should be banned. There have been many, many cases on here alone of beardies eating it and dying. It's not actually sand, it's calcium carbonate. It turns rock hard when it gets into their stomach, and they have no hope of passing it if too much accumulates.

One thing I'd like to point out is that beardie survival in the wild is very low (hence why they have such large clutches). However, we don't want pet beardies having to fight for survival every second they're alive.

They're not on sand most of the time in the wild. Sand (actual sand, like playsand, NOT reptisand) isn't as dangerous (still very risky, would highly not recommend it).

Please don't trust petstores. They don't know what they're talking about 99% of the time (especially large ones like petco). If you're not sure about something, please check here; there's heaps of experienced keepers on here, who are happy to help with everything :D

Please take out the sand ASAP. Newspaper or papertowel is fine to replace it with.
 

MungoAster

Member
Original Poster
CaramelBeet":justvt4i said:
MungoAster":justvt4i said:
Take a look at my two terrariums on my facebook page to see the ornaments. I get that she can get impaction, but if it is as big of an issue as you say, why do people sell repti-sand, and why do Beardies in the wild survive with sand at their feet?
It's not really the ornaments I was thinking of, so much as the lights, temps etc etc etc that pet stores often get wrong. No pressure, just thought we could double check them for you if you wanted.

Honestly, I think repti-sand (or calci-sand) should be banned. There have been many, many cases on here alone of beardies eating it and dying. It's not actually sand, it's calcium carbonate. It turns rock hard when it gets into their stomach, and they have no hope of passing it if too much accumulates.

One thing I'd like to point out is that beardie survival in the wild is very low (hence why they have such large clutches). However, we don't want pet beardies having to fight for survival every second they're alive.

They're not on sand most of the time in the wild. Sand (actual sand, like playsand, NOT reptisand) isn't as dangerous (still very risky, would highly not recommend it).

Please don't trust petstores. They don't know what they're talking about 99% of the time (especially large ones like petco). If you're not sure about something, please check here; there's heaps of experienced keepers on here, who are happy to help with everything :D

Please take out the sand ASAP. Newspaper or papertowel is fine to replace it with.

But everyone on youtube that I can find uses sand for their lizards (any lizard). Even a famous zoo I've visited has Beardies in an enclosure with sand and rocks, so why is everyone ignoring this issue?
 

CaramelBeet

Hatchling Member
MungoAster":2gmmrekl said:
But everyone on youtube that I can find uses sand for their lizards (any lizard). Even a famous zoo I've visited has Beardies in an enclosure with sand and rocks, so why is everyone ignoring this issue?
The ignorance being spread by pet stores, I assume. It's certainly very frustrating, especially because lots of people refuse to change anything, and then come here when their beardie is dying of impaction/metabolic bone disease/other things that could have been prevented.

I have to admit, it scares me that other beardie-dedicated websites recommend using calci-sand, poor UVB lights, feeding bad food and all sorts of things. This is the only one that I've found that's reliable. Even some people that you'd think would know better (like some experienced keepers or non-herp vets) recommend things that are ultimately harmful. I remember seeing one in a "reptile van" once at an open day (he had all sorts of lizards, venomous snakes, and whatnot). I can't judge the health of most herps, but the beardie looked awful. He was in a tiny tank, shoddy Uv light that was too far away, clear metabolic bone disease and looked miserable.

I think the lack of research is another issue. Most the things we know on here are from trial and error (and some things are still a mystery, like how much UV is too much?). There's really no one to fund the research except the pet stores, and they don't because they're only in it to sell things and make a profit :( :(

Also, I think a lot of people impulse buy lizards without doing the research. I like the system here in Australia, you need a license to keep reptiles so people have at least 3 weeks to research while they wait.

Hopefully, in the future, more research will be done and people will be held accountable for their lizard keeping.
 

ClydesGirl

Sub-Adult Member
I just want to second what the others have said. Get rid of the sand. Calci-sand is the devil. If you MUST use sand, use real sand with some soil mixed in. But trust and believe that it is much much better to use something like non-adhesive shelf liner (I use Duck Brand Easy Liner) or tile. No risk of impaction, much easier to clean, and no risk of microbial infestation.

Also, be sure that your beardies cannot see each other. Even if they aren't in the same viv, being able to see one another will still cause a lot of stress.

I worry that the lack of appetite you talked about with your female might be due to impaction from the calci-sand or from the stress she is still experiencing from being able to see the male.
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
MungoAster":1jzbf2v0 said:
CaramelBeet":1jzbf2v0 said:
MungoAster":1jzbf2v0 said:
Take a look at my two terrariums on my facebook page to see the ornaments. I get that she can get impaction, but if it is as big of an issue as you say, why do people sell repti-sand, and why do Beardies in the wild survive with sand at their feet?
It's not really the ornaments I was thinking of, so much as the lights, temps etc etc etc that pet stores often get wrong. No pressure, just thought we could double check them for you if you wanted.

Honestly, I think repti-sand (or calci-sand) should be banned. There have been many, many cases on here alone of beardies eating it and dying. It's not actually sand, it's calcium carbonate. It turns rock hard when it gets into their stomach, and they have no hope of passing it if too much accumulates.

One thing I'd like to point out is that beardie survival in the wild is very low (hence why they have such large clutches). However, we don't want pet beardies having to fight for survival every second they're alive.

They're not on sand most of the time in the wild. Sand (actual sand, like playsand, NOT reptisand) isn't as dangerous (still very risky, would highly not recommend it).

Please don't trust petstores. They don't know what they're talking about 99% of the time (especially large ones like petco). If you're not sure about something, please check here; there's heaps of experienced keepers on here, who are happy to help with everything :D

Please take out the sand ASAP. Newspaper or papertowel is fine to replace it with.

But everyone on youtube that I can find uses sand for their lizards (any lizard). Even a famous zoo I've visited has Beardies in an enclosure with sand and rocks, so why is everyone ignoring this issue?
They are told by petshops (who want to sell the sand and gravel) it's fine because the staff are clueless and told by their boss to push these products. They also couldn't care less if your pet gets impacted and dies , maybe you'll be back to buy another.

Please remove the sand IMMEDIATELY . Paper towels are actually perfect for hatchlings as a substrate.
 

kingofnobbys

BD.org Sicko
ClydesGirl":2zpghgkf said:
I just want to second what the others have said. Get rid of the sand. Calci-sand is the devil. If you MUST use sand, use real sand with some soil mixed in. But trust and believe that it is much much better to use something like non-adhesive shelf liner (I use Duck Brand Easy Liner) or tile. No risk of impaction, much easier to clean, and no risk of microbial infestation.

Also, be sure that your beardies cannot see each other. Even if they aren't in the same viv, being able to see one another will still cause a lot of stress.

I worry that the lack of appetite you talked about with your female might be due to impaction from the calci-sand or from the stress she is still experiencing from being able to see the male.

It will be a very good idea to get your girl to a reptile vet and ask them to check for impaction due to ingesting calcisand, and ask for xrays to be taken, if there is calcisand in the GIT it will show up very obviously in the xrays and hopefully the vet can help.

When did she last do a poo. If impacted , it will be a long while since she last pooed.

If it's been a while (under one - two weeks) and you can feel hard lumps in her tummy --- the vet visit becomes urgent if calcisand is involved.
 
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