Weirdest thing your beardie has eaten?

[lori2plus1]

My dogs tear the green fuzz off tennis balls and Loki always goes for the bits if he gets a chance. He has also tried to eat fabric scraps in my sewing room.

 

[ToothlessTheDragon]

once i had a little froglet in a critter keeper by my beardies tank,
and he was trying to eat the baby frog though glass :lol:
some time i think of what they think of when glass is blocking the way,

 

[luigismom]

Paper shred is also not safe around Luigi. Once I accidentally shredded a document I needed. As I was on the floor trying to piece the strips together, Luigi ran over to 'help' with the long paper worms. :lol:

 

[AmyMB]

A fly that was in midair flying right past my Yoshi. She grabbed that thing so fast!
I guess this wasn't weird, more just amazing to have seen. :shock:

Oh, I just remembered I do have a good weird item that my Lucky has tried eating. We have this holiday dish towel that has graphics on it including berries and mistletoes. She has tried a few times to eat the graphics on the towel thinking they are food.

 

[KahliLizard]

Kahli has tried to eat my hair when he is sitting on my shoulder quite a few times. Along with my chickens now that I think about it. Kaili also once ate a rollie pollie when I took him outside. He was fine though. That is probably the weirdest thing that I know of.

 

[Jroid33]

I've had mine eat a clump of dog hair that was shed. He chewed. Thought he would stop, but then he went berserk and swallowed it. Still passed it.

 

[ANDTWENTY]

I got Lennie out his cage put him on the floor and closed up his viv, when I turned round he was eating a huge wasp that had landed in front of him, he licked his lips and carried on as normal. It made me a bit worried for a while.

 

[MamaTater]

Back when my daughter was starting to feed herself fingerfoods like cheerios and baby cheesie poofs she dropped a few on the floor. Stuart did a good job taking on the duties of a house dog scuttling and scavenging about. Once he attempted a green ribbon.
smh
Oh, you... :lol:

 

[Jon1034]

His poop....

 

[Heyimbrit]

I got some candy on Halloween and wanted to see if Prince wanted some. I unwrapped a sucker and put it near him and he started licking it. I know a lick or two a couple times a day won't hurt him. From reading this thread I know beardies have eaten worse. Maybe it's the bright orange color of it that he likes...

 

[MamaTater]

Stella was out exploring the livingrm and found herself in the hibiscus. She licked a chunk of styrofoam then let it fall. Picked it back up and ate it. Her adventure there was short-lived. It was a fairly small bit.

 

[Ofthelime]

Surprisingly never my hair nor my huge class ring. However hair from the carpet, my sheets, the carpet, my flanel shirts, a white rock bigger than his head (only tried once thank goodness) and lastly even after a month he persists to try and eat the grout between the tiles in his enclosure. I'll be sitting there and then hear "thunk thunk thunk" as he tries.

 

[MamaTater]

Stella attempted to take a bite (or two) from a cinder block. Stanley got hold of a faux christmas tree needle, and a nip of tissue. Like babies. Scuttling, reptilian, ornery babies.

 

[premammalian]

So far the posts are very interesting from an evolutionary and behaivioral point of view. Agamids generally are purely visual hunters, that is, they eat prey based only on its form and movement, with underdeveloped olfaction and taste. However chemical discrimination ability has been re-evolved in those species which became omnivorous, probably to be able to distinguish between good and toxic plants, and as a consequence it was useful for animal prey too. Acording to a study I read, bearded dragons have re-evolved some chemical discrimination ability.
However that ability is much less developed than in other lizards, mainly active hunters. In a study I read about the toxicity of fireflies to dragons, it was stated that bearded dragons aren't detered by any insect regardless of its taste except for the burning ones. And I have read also that they will avoid burning plants like raddishes. So they can distinguish chemically between foods, but still the primary sense is vision.
If you payed attention to the intended pood items, most are high contrasting small areas on a unicolor background like nails or scars, small moving objects like fish and small animals and sheet or leaf like objects or projections of objects, like papers, bags, ears of stuffed animals etc. All these are biologically relevant, as they resemble the foods consumed normally in the wild. High contrast objects seem like flowers and fruits, moving objects seem like insects and small animals, and sheets or flaps resemble leaves. I cannot make a hypothesis about hair, but perhapse they eat mosses or lichens in the wild when food is scarse. Probably there is some morbidity or even mortality due to wrong food ingestion in the wild, but a relevant study there has not been conducted. So we must be careful of our dragons.
ps. Chilli peppers do not affect reptiles and birds. Capsaicin, the substance that activates the pain receptor and gives the false sensation of burning, has evolved to affect only the mammalian receptor, as mammals are more likely to chew and destroy the seeds of the plant, but birds will mainly swallow the fruit and defecate the seeds intact elsewhere.

 

[Taterbug]

Could you share some more info about the capsaicin? Ive been searching high and low for a definitive answer for reptiles. When I got my guy the breeder said some of her dragons seemed to like jalapeño peppers, I was a little surprised.