Eating Orchid Bark

ShellingtonTheFirst

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At the moment Shelly is in a mix of 80% coco coir and 20% coarse orchid bark which I was planning on soon changing to 100% fine grade orchid bark. Well now I’m double guessing that choice as yesterday I caught him trying to chomp down on one of the bits of bark! He stopped after biting it twice (they’re too big for him to swallow) and then went to his food instead but I’m worried if I switch it all to fine grade bark he’s going to end up eating it for whatever the reason is he tried to eat it yesterday. He has a good varied diet, though I’m heavily relying on store brought stuff at the moment thanks to the UK’s never ending winter - frisée, radicchio, lambs lettuce, small amounts of cucumber and courgette, chicory, pak choy and spring greens are what he’s rotated on, usually mixed with tiny bits of Arcadia Optimal52. He has access to a cuttlebone that he chomps on from time to time and gets calcium sprinkled on his food every Sunday. His temps are correct, his lighting and UV is correct, he’s in a 6x4ft viv (I know this isn’t what is recommended but he seems to do fine in there for now until I can get him outside in the warmer months) so don’t think husbandry is the problem.
 

wellington

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Buy a cuttlebone for him. Be sure his food is fed on some kind of plate or shallow bowl and as long as he gets along okay on the substrate he has and it's working fine, I would just keep using that.
Substrate should last a very long time before needing to be changed. Spot cleaning food and poops and your substrate should last months even a year.
 

TammyJ

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I would not change the coarse bark to fine grade yet anyway. Did he suddenly start chomping on the bark when he saw the food being put down? If so, that may just be an instinctive reaction to the sight of the food. Make sure you put his food down on a flat tile (rough side), and that you give him a large amount so he is not still hungry after it is finished. Always have some left over on his tile until night comes, and then you remove any that is left when he goes to sleep. If he still keeps trying to eat the bark, then maybe you will have to make it coco coir alone, 100%.
 

Tom

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At the moment Shelly is in a mix of 80% coco coir and 20% coarse orchid bark which I was planning on soon changing to 100% fine grade orchid bark. Well now I’m double guessing that choice as yesterday I caught him trying to chomp down on one of the bits of bark! He stopped after biting it twice (they’re too big for him to swallow) and then went to his food instead but I’m worried if I switch it all to fine grade bark he’s going to end up eating it for whatever the reason is he tried to eat it yesterday. He has a good varied diet, though I’m heavily relying on store brought stuff at the moment thanks to the UK’s never ending winter - frisée, radicchio, lambs lettuce, small amounts of cucumber and courgette, chicory, pak choy and spring greens are what he’s rotated on, usually mixed with tiny bits of Arcadia Optimal52. He has access to a cuttlebone that he chomps on from time to time and gets calcium sprinkled on his food every Sunday. His temps are correct, his lighting and UV is correct, he’s in a 6x4ft viv (I know this isn’t what is recommended but he seems to do fine in there for now until I can get him outside in the warmer months) so don’t think husbandry is the problem.
Sounds like you need to up the fiber in the diet. Add in the soaked ZooMed pellets of soaked horse hay pellets.
 

ShellingtonTheFirst

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Buy a cuttlebone for him. Be sure his food is fed on some kind of plate or shallow bowl and as long as he gets along okay on the substrate he has and it's working fine, I would just keep using that.
Substrate should last a very long time before needing to be changed. Spot cleaning food and poops and your substrate should last months even a year.
He has a cuttlebone that he regularly chomps on as mentioned in my post. He’s fed on a big slab of concrete that he steps up onto to avoid the mess of the coco coir getting all over it (which still happens anyway, just less so than before,) which is why I want to switch to 100% orchid bark. The coir is so messy and he gets it e v e r y w h e r e.
 

ShellingtonTheFirst

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I would not change the coarse bark to fine grade yet anyway. Did he suddenly start chomping on the bark when he saw the food being put down? If so, that may just be an instinctive reaction to the sight of the food. Make sure you put his food down on a flat tile (rough side), and that you give him a large amount so he is not still hungry after it is finished. Always have some left over on his tile until night comes, and then you remove any that is left when he goes to sleep. If he still keeps trying to eat the bark, then maybe you will have to make it coco coir alone, 100%.
I did hand feed him a little while he was basking (I can’t help it lol) and it was immediately after that he walked to the bark, sniffed it and then chomped down. I’m hoping it was just instinctive.
 

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