B.A.Erlebacher wrote:
Beverly, my theory about this is that they do this in the wild where they live and that is just fine. Their soil must contain nutrients and minerals that help them. In captivity we cannot replicate this; they do what comes naturally and problems may arise. I notice young geckos root around much more than older ones; perhaps they are curious, perhaps they need some nutrients to complete their growth process. The older gex seem to do it more when they are not feeling good - like they are trying to fix themselves. Just some observations.From: "maleldil" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 18:04:19 -0500
Just a question. Is there a "safe" sand-like bedding available for small
geckos that they can still bury eggs in? I have heard of wheat germ but I
don't know how well it would do (and I also don't know where to get it).
I was really sorry to hear about your gecko.
Wheat germ is very nutritious stuff. I feed it to feeder insects. I can't imagine using it as bedding, since it gets moldy with the
least bit of moisture and the oil in it goes rancid if it's exposed
to air and warmth very long. You can get it in supermarkets and bulk or health food stores.
When I had Coleonyx variegatus (banded geckos) I put silver sand in the laying box, and the male used to eat it producing feces that were almost 100% sand. I never figured out why he did that since they had plenty to eat, a water dish and a dish of mineral supplement. Silver sand is a very fine quartz sand that you can sometimes buy in aquarium shops. It's also sometimes used to cover fine seeds after sowing, and I think the same stuff was used in those stands you used to see everywhere for smokers to put out their cigarettes in.
I'm not recommending silver sand for your geckos! Please take the advice of the more knowledgable instead!
Btw, I use coir (coconut fibre) in the humidity boxes for my leos and I see some in their feces. Again, I don't know why they eat it - they have water, they get their bugs in a dish, they have mineral supplement available at all time. The only thing I can figure is that when they shed inside the boxes, it sticks to the shed skin and they ingest it when they eat the skin. Of course, an adult leo is a big gecko, the pieces of coir are small relative to e.g. cricket residue and it's soft when wet, so impaction is not likely to be a problem.
Does anyone have insight into why geckos eat substrate, sometimes enough to get into trouble like maleldil's A.persica? _______________________________________________
Julie B.
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