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Do Blue Tongue Lizards eat their shed?? (mine did?!)
Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 5:27 pm
by Cedar
So I have heard of geckoes eating their shed skin but never a blue tongue lizard??? And this morning i wake up to my blue tongue vigorously shaking his head so i was like ?!!!!! And when I go up to her i find her eating her shed. When she sees me she spits it out but then continues until its eaten. It wasnt a whole shed but a decent bit of it.
Will this effect her in any way? Today also was her feeding day (i feed her twice a week) so I was just worried it might affect her digestion??
Also yesterday she was strangely aggressive but ill attribute that to pre shed behaviour as she was probably very uncomfortable. Other than that she shed very well and there are cute little shed gloves!!
Re: Do Blue Tongue Lizards eat their shed?? (mine did?!)
Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 11:21 pm
by alichamp
Re: Do Blue Tongue Lizards eat their shed?? (mine did?!)
Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 8:32 am
by splashy07
I don't imagine it would be a bad thing, although I've never seen it. (Sort of wish they would to save me the trouble of cleaning it all out!) My Cuban anoles do it all the time, don't leave a single piece. I've even seen a beardie do it. Wouldn't worry, perhaps reptiles do this for the same reasons some insects do, to destroy evidence of their being there, so predators don't find them...
Re: Do Blue Tongue Lizards eat their shed?? (mine did?!)
Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2024 9:12 pm
by AusKitty
Rather confused as I have 5 baby blotched bluies and they all exhibited classic shed signs (moody, dull in colour, lots of burrowing and not very active) one has successfully shed and left skin all over the enclosure. The other four haven't shed yet as far as I can tell. I was wondering if maybe they ate the shed before I could see it.
Do bluies eat their shed often?
Re: Do Blue Tongue Lizards eat their shed?? (mine did?!)
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2024 2:10 am
by bluemingsar
Some lizards do it to help digest leftover skin or reabsorb nutrients. As long as she's still eating and acting normal, I'm sure she's fine. Her being aggressive before was probably just pre-shed crankiness. If you're ever concerned about her digestion, you could try a warm soak to help things pass. But for now, I wouldn't stress. She's probably just being a quirky little bluey as they often are.
Re: Do Blue Tongue Lizards eat their shed?? (mine did?!)
Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2024 6:47 pm
by bluemingsar
No need to worry - it sounds like your blue tongue lizard eating its shed is a perfectly normal behavior. A few of mine have done the same thing from time to time. I think @splashy07 and the others are right that it's probably just a natural part of the shedding process for some reptiles.