BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

yester day my bluey pooped on his feedin bowl, right after he pooped, he gobbled up all of the poop!! is this bad? if so how do i prevent it, 'cause this is the 2nd time it happened. any help?

Consider yourself lucky, I wish Rollie would clean up after himself so easily.

KW

It's never socially acceptable to eat poop.

If your bluey keeps eating it, I'd try to get in there faster and clean it up. Most animals that eat their poo are trying to get more nutrients from it, but in this case, I'd bet he's mistaking it for food.

Consider yourself lucky, I wish Rollie would clean up after himself so easily.

KW

when i first saw the post i was like "ummm, right then, maybe someone should tell this person its not ok to eat their own poo" then i cam in and was very relieved to see that it was your skink...

go with others on this, i just had to say that...zach will hunt me down now im sure of it...my turtle does that sometimes and he just gets bigger, although he eats my fish and the algae off the rocks and walls too lol

Alot of baby lizards are *big word warning* coprophagous. As someone said earlier, they eat poop, usually their parents', to get nutrients. Iguanas I believe do this. Your bluetongue however, probably shouldn't. Digesting feces containing natural gut flora can become a problem because it can throw the digestive system out of whack.

bluetonguemad wrote:when i first saw the post i was like "ummm, right then, maybe someone should tell this person its not ok to eat their own poo" then i cam in and was very relieved to see that it was your skink...

I thought the same thing when I saw the title. "Ummm, well, in a word.....no its not ok to eat poop."

Thank goodness its your bluey. LOL

KyleWeiss wrote:Consider yourself lucky, I wish Rollie would clean up after himself so easily.

KW

LMAO, i can always count on you for my daily laugh....you're a nut

Kris

hey can you have a poll for how nutty kyle is?

Chase wrote:Alot of baby lizards are *big word warning* coprophagous. As someone said earlier, they eat poop, usually their parents', to get nutrients. Iguanas I believe do this. Your bluetongue however, probably shouldn't. Digesting feces containing natural gut flora can become a problem because it can throw the digestive system out of whack.

I'm so going to tell people at my work they can go coprophagous and expire, especially when they p!ss me off. Good word, Chase.

Is there any evidence to support this is necessarily a bad thing for blueys?

KW

I can't think of any animal species where this is actually a problem besides the gross factor.

Many animals require this (rabbits, baby iguanans, etc).

If he is eating it, he is either hungry, or not digesting his food well enough.


What is your basking temperature?

They seem to love chomping dog doo with no ill effects, would they eat the D.I.Y. poo if for some reason the stomach bacteria count was low?

maybe it was an accident.. thought he was eating chocolate or something.

Leigh wrote:They seem to love chomping dog doo with no ill effects, would they eat the D.I.Y. poo if for some reason the stomach bacteria count was low?

And it goes the other way too. If they eat poop and their levels are normal they'll get abnormally high levels of bacteria....which isn't good. That's why you shouldn't let your bluey eat his poop.

NomadOfTheHills wrote:I can't think of any animal species where this is actually a problem besides the gross factor.

Many animals require this (rabbits, baby iguanans, etc).

If he is eating it, he is either hungry, or not digesting his food well enough.


What is your basking temperature?

In the wild it isn't, but in captivity it's not hard for bacteria levels and or parasite levels to spike and become a problem.

Well, he said that he ate it right after, so no time for that to happen

You all realize this is a very long conversation on the subject of feces, right.




I honestly don't think there is any real harm in it, as it has been said many species do it and some can't live with out it.

If you don't try to mimic your bluey's habit, I think you'll be ok.

~*Luce*~