Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My boyfriends uro looks like he has swollowed a billard ball... He has had this problem before recently but it went away. Getting a fecal today. I dont have him right here infront of me so I dont know the temps. Fluffy is a he so he's not pregnant. He's by himself with a substrate of 2 parts soil, 1 part vermiculite, 1 part sand. He pretty much lives in his burrow (a plastic box with holes in the top -underground-). He also eats well, when he comes out. Yesturday, he had the biggest stool that we have ever seen from him, but it was solid. What could be the problem?
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*~*Erin*~*
0.1 Jazmin -leopard gecko- April 17, 2004
1.0 Blaze -bearded dragon- March 20, 2004
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How did you come up with the idea to use a soil/vermiculite/sand mixture? It really isn't a safe choice of substrates to use. If your uro ingests the vermiculite it can cause a blockage any perlite in the soil will also contribute to the problem. Soil and vermiculite also hold moisture which isn't healthy for your uro either. I use washed play sand for my adult uros. It is cheap, easy to clean and is similar to their natural habitat. small amounts of ingested sand aren't likely to cause impaction.

Soil mixes aren't necessarily bad. You can look for posts from screen name 'robyn@proexotics' outlining their experiments and success with various soil mixtures. Here's the fact on his site proexotics.com/FAQ_answers_substrate_and_soil_mix.html. I think they used a soil/sand/vermiculite mix. Keep in mind that in the wild, uro hides are often a bit more humid... it's just the ambient that's not.

Personally, I've always used sand. I've had my uro in it for over a year now and she looks in great health so I didn't see any reason to change. However, there is something to be said about a mixture that allows true burrowing like they'd be able to in the wild.

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(¯`·.¸¸.·´Kane`·.¸¸.·´¯)