baby dino won't stop eating rocks

[jntann]

every time i let him out of his cage, which is everyday he eats rocks,
some as big as marbles. can someone help, is it normal to help with digestion?????

 

[JohnMatthew]

rock eaters

We used to have a rock driveway(river rocks - tumbled smooth) at my old house and the local gopher tortoises would sometimes eat a few of the rocks.

I thought this was just some weirdo occurrances but now I keep a couple burmese brown mountain tortoises and they do the same thing. I have small tumbled pebbles around their water pool to keep them from dragging too much crap in it when they take a dip/drink.

I assume they know what they're doing - it's not like they're being fed on rocks and accidentally ingest some. They're purposefully eating the smooth rocks for some reason. Anyway, I don't worry about it, they seem to crap just fine and i've found a few pebbles in their poop too so i know it's passing.

If anybody has additional info on rock eating I'd be interested to know too.

 

[Magik]

Well I know that species of crocodillian eat rocks to help break up food so maybe thats it but Im far from an expert on the subject!!

 

[jntann]

thanks for the help i appriciate it.