Ridge tail and sand

[Chameleon Company]

Good day everyone

Just a quick question, when feeding my ridge tail it chases the crickets and roaches a sometimes gets a bit of sand in its mouth and then swollows this sand with the prey.

Should this cause any problems?

The sand is "play pen sand" and is extremely fine, so no coarse sand is in the cage, and its not like the monitor gets mouth fulls of sand, just a bit of sand once in a while.

Should I be concerned? the lizard is defacating normally so i guess a bit of sand wont do much harm?

[Warren Klein]

I keep and feed my Ridge tails on sand aswell with no problems. Most monitors will ingest a bit of sand during feeding which is quite natural.

[Silvrav]

Keep an eye out for compaction if you just want to be 100%. if you see any signs, rather try and feed on a flat surface.

[Chameleon Company]

Thanks for the replies!

I had Bosc monitors that also were fed on sand but these were huge animals and a bit of sand would never hurt them.

The ridge tails are a smaller species hence the nature of my question.

Every feeding I just keep an eye on how much sand the monitor can swollow and its never mouth fulls so it should be fine.

Thanks again

[Leon_Kun]

Hey Paul, nice to see you also have other pets then you chameleons.
They should be fine like Herphabitat said, and its a good thing that you are keeping an eye out for the amount of sand intake.
Like with any dragon/gecko/lizard when young (and small) they should try not to get to much sand inside their meals as it does cause compaction (sand can't be congested, and forms a small layer at the bottom of the stomach).
Bigger ones shouldn't have to much problems.

[Chameleon Company]

Leon I dont breed chameleons anymore, but that doesnt mean I wont still hve herps.

I always like varanids, Especially the bulky species.

[Westley Price]

Just as an interesting point to follow up:

I think you do get calcium-based sand which is easy for any reptile to digest (to a certain extent) and acts as a calcium supplement too.

I'll see what I can find on it.

[Leon_Kun]

Hi westley.
I think I know the sand your talking about, its called calci-sand.
Its got a lot of calcium in it, the trick is not to overdose them on the calcium (like with beardies that grabs a lot of sand when eating)
Why don't you breed chameleons anymore paul?

[Chameleon Company]

Yes I heard of that product. There is also one that is made up of crushed egg shells.

Guess I just got bored of breeding chameleons hey, plus I think there is no future for chameleon keeping in ZAR.

[Chamssss]

How could you have goten bored of the beasts?

I wouldnt say there is no future for them anymore...the market for chameleons is going to change soon.

How many monitors are you keeping Paul? Planning on breeding?