Eating substrate

[SteveP]

I did some searching on this topic and most answers were about eating cypress mulch.

My concern is when Flash's food falls off his dish in to the topsoil/sand mix, he is eating the substrate on his food. Any issues here?

 

[Kristina]

As long as he is well hydrated and healthy, then no, there should not be any issues. In the wild they end up eating some dirt, too. It is when they are dehydrated and eating larger quantities of dirt/sand/rocks that it starts to become a problem and cause impactions.

Keep an eye on his feces, if you can really SEE the dirt inside it, then I would take steps to prevent him from eating it. You can set his dish on a piece of slate tile (Home Depot or similar, $1-2) to keep it from falling in the substrate if you are really worried.

 

[SteveP]

Thank you for the info Kristina!