Rachel is right unless you are feeding him small crickets. If he eats 3 dozen adult crickets, then when he poops it must be like Armageddon and you have to call the haz-mat team to clean it up! =)

Eating subtract can be a reflex from his past experience. I once adopted a dog that ate his own poo because he was chained to his dog house and left without food for days. After a few weeks of regular food, he began cutting down his poo and after a few months, stopped eating it at all.

__________________
Wish list: Blue Tongue Skinks and Uruplatus =)

Yeah, I think i'll try the shelf liner, as long as he can't get the corners up, he probably wont try to eat it. He is just a pain in the behind! I try not to feed him too much, because you're right, dragon poop after 3 dozen crickets is not pleasant...but if I pay my sister off she'll clean it up :-D I dunno. Hopefully he doesnt eat the shelf liner.....ugh....frusterating....

Not feeding an animal properly in order to limit the amount of waste clean up is not a good idea. It may in fact be the reason for him eating the substrate. He's hungry and looking for food!
The simplest way to cut down on cage cleaning is to water train them. If you take them out a bit after the lights come on and place them in a sink or tub with a couple of inches of warm water they will do their business there and not in the cage. Just be sure that if it is a sink or tub used for human use that you disinfect it afterwards. Both my Bearded Dragons as well as my iguana are trained in this way. It definately cuts down on the maintainence!

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

I don't under feed my dragon. He eats plenty and is very healthy aside from his predisposition to eating substrate. I am not by any means starving him. My iguanas are trained to go outside of their habitats, but the dragon has been stubborn to repeated attempts to train him. He goes every day at about the same spot in his tank, but he wont go outside of his cage. He has a couple times, but never regularly. I'm going to take him to the vet, but I am between vets at the moment, my last vet proved his idiocy to me in treating my iguana and I will not be using him anymore...I dunno, its time he got a check up anyways, from someone who know what he's doing.

I apologize if I misunderstood but that is the way it came across!
Anyway the behavior could be the result of the dragon having been underfed when your friend had him.

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

you could also try having a few pieces of tile, maybe a sandy color or something to put down for substrate, they can even come textured, but I dont think he could get this up to get in his mouth...just a thought, good luck!!!

__________________
Jayr & Mandy Robinson
J&M Herp Shack
"Are you watching closely?"

yeah, maybe tile, but it would have to be textured, because I feel so bad for him when he slides around his cage trying to catch crickets! I don't know, I'd probably have to cut it to fit since it is a custom enclosure and it is an odd size, good suggestion though, i'll keep it in mind.

It's okay that you misunderstood merlin, he's a real pig, but it could be from previous mistreatment, I dont know, he's just so frusterating! Agh!

wow.. you have a pretty determined dragon when it comes to eating everything.. maybe he feels the need to eat what he can, when he can, kinda like shelter animals..

regardless.. i would try the tile if he tries to eat the shelfliner.
in the meantime (and im sure you know this) give him as much salad as he will eat. i do not think a diet of alot of salad items would cause the problem that big protien diet would cause.

Yeah he's been eating fewer and fewer greens lately, he seems more interested in trying to eat anything that is not edible...he had a go at a bath towel last night, he would not let go! I found some carpeting that i'm going to try, i'll just have to secure the edges really well. How does everyone feel about calci-sand? Not for the substarte eater, but i'm looking into getting another dragon, and i've heard good things and bad things about it. So frusterating.....Also he seems really restless lately, since I took alll of the lining stuff out of his cage he just sits and trys to dig at the corners all day.

__________________

"If you're not falling, you're not trying." - Sonni Trotter

~*~Lacey~*~

My Photos

I would steer clear of the Calcium Sand. It is NOT as digestable as they claim and actually encourages them to eat the substrate resulting in impaction! If you intend on sand (for adults only!) washed play sand is your best bet.

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!