Biting/snapping on food plate (slate)

[peanut20]

Hi all- Hope you're having a good week

Our baby hermann has been biting/snapping on the edge of the food plate, which is a slate cheese board. It's biting on it hard enough that I can hear it snapping.

I haven't seen it bite on anything else. We have a couple cuttlebones which he's never touched (unless I smoosh ZooMed on it).

Not sure if it's something we should be concerned about. I will try to capture a video to upload.

If you've seen or know of any familiar behavior could you let me know?

Thank you!

 

[peanut20]

Here's a video of how he's biting. He's snapping so hard, I'm afraid he's going to hurt himself in the process.

Every time we see him do this, we've moved him to a different section of the enclosure and he forgets about it for awhile. We catch him doing this more than 3 times a day.

Could he have something itching his mouth? We have tried washing the slates in hot water multiple times.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Interesting. Good for sharpening/scraping/wearing down its beak, thats for sure. Have you tried wedging the cuttlebone there? I doubt if it will hurt itself, but it sure does seem determined!

Maybe move the slates around.... not sure it’s a bad thing.

 

[peanut20]

Interesting. Good for sharpening/scraping/wearing down its beak, thats for sure. Have you tried wedging the cuttlebone there? I doubt if it will hurt itself, but it sure does seem determined!

Maybe move the slates around.... not sure it’s a bad thing.

Thanks. We've placed the cuttlebone in that corner but he seems to bite at all parts of the slate board.

I'm still watching for any other strange habits. He's been snapping at it and eating his substrate (coco coir) so we're making sure he's getting enough vitamins.