Trying to eat the carpet?

[Krypton]

Lately, Riley's been in his 'teething' phase as I like to call it. Whenever we take him out to explore, he runs around and goes to certain areas and then just chomps at things. Some of his favorites are the corners of our heat vents, a specific area of a curtain, and the carpet. We're not so worried about the curtain or vents - he can't really do damage to them or himself. However, I'm worried about the carpet. I thought it was just him testing out the carpet, seeing what it was. But lately he has been trying to eat it (he will bite it multiple times and then will grab hold of it and pull, trying to rip it out!). Sometimes I see him smack his lips and I see little fibers sticking out of his mouth and it worries me that if he keeps this up he might get a carpet ball stuck in his belly or we might just have to keep him off the carpet (which would be no fun for us and him - our whole house is carpeted). So I'm curious - does anyone else have this problem with their beardie? Any ideas on what I could do to get him to quit doing this? I've tried making noise, picking him up and putting him elsewhere, or moving his head away when he tries to do this - but he'll still do it. Even in my bedroom, he never used to do this and now he does. Any help would be great. Thanks!

 

[WAFisherman]

Mine does that sometimes too. I'm not too worried. She'll figure out that it does not taste good...

You might try feeding him before. Or have some greens handy and offer him a peice by hand to distract. Maybe he's just a nervous eater

Does he black beard during this time? Or is her perfectly calm, just acting hungry or whatever?

 

[Krypton]

He's 7 months old and has only black bearded twice, neither of which were during these exploring times. When he's exploring and doing this, he seems pretty happy and content - not nervous or scared or angry. I originally thought he might be hungry and have given him some greens during times when he's exploring and doing this - and sometimes he seems hungry and gobbles them up. And there have been times where he's eaten a ton of greens and all the crickets he wants - and I'll put him out to explore and he'll still do this carpet chomping. Yesterday I started lightly tapping him on the head when he starts doing this - and he'd usually stop after a few chomps and look at me. He seemed a little more hesitant to chomp after doing this multiple times - so maybe he's learning that eating carpet = a no no. We have very short, tight carpet in half our house which I don't think he can really rip out and eat, but the rest of the house has the standard, more longer and fluffier carpet - which is the stuff I'm worried about him eating too much of (if he's getting any good amount of fibers out of his chomping episodes) and getting a carpet ball in his belly.

I suppose I'll just try and keep some greens nearby to give him and keep tapping him when he starts chomping the carpet and see if he begins to stop trying to rip it out!

 

[Goonie]

Just out of curiosity, what color is the carpet that he's trying to eat? Could he be mistaking it as food?

 

[Krypton]

We have various colors of carpet in different areas. A large portion of our house is covered in a kind of brownish color with blue and purple dots mixed in and white dots that form squares (this was the first carpet he tried biting a lot - the different colors seemed to confuse him). Then we have tan, dark brown, and green carpet in other areas. The green carpet is in my room, and I'm not surprised that he bites at it - since it can look like salad or something. However he's usually in the other areas of the house exploring where the tan and multi-colored carpet are.

 

[Goonie]

He probably thinks the blue and purple dots are new and improved beardie pellets sprinkled all over a big sandbox :lol:

 

[Krypton]

Well then why won't he eat the REAL pellets? :lol: Sheesh.....I give him real ones and all he does is go after the 'furry' ones. Maybe he likes the texture better...hmm...or maybe he thinks he needs more fiber in his diet. :roll: He didn't try and eat the carpet today. I'm hoping he's learning not to after I tapped him whenever he started doing it the other day. But who knows...maybe he just wasn't in the mood to chomp carpet today. I'll keep trying my method and if he keeps doing it too much I'll just have to start putting him away I suppose.

 

[jacqui778]

Hiya!

Maybe your beardie is like mine? Reggie seems to think that ANYTHING that is green is edible. The other day, before his lunchtime, I caught Reg gnawing on one of my green shirts! He looked at me, confused, as if to say, 'Why can't I nom this, mummy?' Or it could've been a 'Oh, drat, I've been caught....'

Either way, just as long as he isn't getting a mouthful of fibers, I'd think he'd be okay. Like you said, he could be teething (do beardies do that?) and the carpet may feel good on his teeth. :dontknow:

-- Jacqui :mrgreen:

 

[TheDragonKeepers]

Ah, dotted carpet. We have a blue carpet with purple and red circles on in the study - the first time Tsam was allowed in there, he made the same mistake and spent quite some time trying to eat them. Since then we had a custom toy made for him by a glassworks - a HUGE red marble that matches the downstairs carpet with big yellow and green spots on. Hours of fun! (We always give him a little treat afterwards, that way he's happy to be silly.)

 

[Krypton]

:lol: Well today he didn't try to eat it so much anymore...so maybe he'll be ok. It's good to know other peoples' dragons do this from time to time as well.

Ah, dotted carpet. We have a blue carpet with purple and red circles on in the study - the first time Tsam was allowed in there, he made the same mistake and spent quite some time trying to eat them. Since then we had a custom toy made for him by a glassworks - a HUGE red marble that matches the downstairs carpet with big yellow and green spots on. Hours of fun! (We always give him a little treat afterwards, that way he's happy to be silly.)

Does he lick the marble around? If so, that would be completely adorable!

 

[TheDragonKeepers]

You roll it under his nose and he'll chase after it. Pop him in front, roll the ball towards him and he'll bite at it - causing it to roll right back again!

 

[Krypton]

That's awesome! Wish my beardie could do that! Our cats used to play fetch with bouncy balls. Haha.