Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a baby red tegu, he is only about 12inches right now. Currently he is in a 30gallon breeder tank but my fiance and i are about to build him his permanant home. We are going to build him a tank that is 6-8ft long, 4ft wide, and 3-4ft tall. Do these dimensions sound ok?

My second question is what should I use for a substrate? He loves to burrow so i would hate to use carpeting ane make it so he cant burrow, but i dont want to buy reptile bark that is super expensive. I was wondering what some other people use?

thanks
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1.0 green iguana-Deitrich
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0.1 Mexican Black King-Morticia
1.1 Bearded Dragons-Unnamed, Hanabil
1.0 Albino San Diego Gopher-Unnamed
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0.0.1 Rose Hair Taruntla-Unnamed
2.0 Leopard Geckos-Reptar, Pogo
4.1 cats-Tucker,Poe,Abhib,Emerald, Felicity
0.1 Bullmastiff-Asha

Yeah,that enclosure sounds great.Tegus like bark but if you dont want to use bark because of its cost, then I suggest you get cypress mulch,but bark would be best for your tegu.

I just finished mixing up about 60-75 gallons of T-Rex Forest Bed Expandable Substrate Giant Size - 12" x 12" x 6" which is around 8-10 cubic yards. The cost was only $30, that is cheaper then pet store bark and much cleaner then landscaping mulch or potting soil. Below is a link to get it the cheapest I have found.

Here is the stuff filling 1/3rd of a 150 gallon Rubbermaid Stock Tank

Lucky checking out his new sleeping den before it's complete.

Link

I use cypress mulch. Cheap and does the job great. Dimensions sound fine. I always let people know not to forget about the 2 story cages. Saves alot of floor space (= less substrate you have to buy/changes out), looks cool, and provides lots of excercise. My guy seems to love running up and down his stairs!

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-Bill

1.0.0 Albino California Kingsnake
0.1.0 Colombian Red Tail Boa
0.1.0 Leucistic Patternless Leopard Gecko
0.0.1 Red Flame Crested Gecko
0.1.0 Orange Crested Gecko
1.0.0 Jackson's Chameleon
0.0.1 Argentine Black and White Tegu

My Home Page

BoidsNTegus@insightbb.com

Where can you buy cypress mulch? Do they sell it at places like Home Depot?
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1.0 green iguana-Deitrich
1.1 Common Boa-Un-Named, Ursula
1.0 Ball Python-Anabell (go figure!)
1.0 Red Tegu-Uteg
1.0 Albino Cal King-Pig
0.1 Mexican Black King-Morticia
1.1 Bearded Dragons-Unnamed, Hanabil
1.0 Albino San Diego Gopher-Unnamed
0.1 Hermans tort-Esio
1.1 JCP-Milton, Medusa
1.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn-Unnamed
0.1 Snow Corn-Unnamed
1.0 Hypo Okeetee Corn-Unnamed
0.1 Motley Okeetee-Unnamed
1.0 Western Hoggie-Wyrm
0.0.1 Rose Hair Taruntla-Unnamed
2.0 Leopard Geckos-Reptar, Pogo
4.1 cats-Tucker,Poe,Abhib,Emerald, Felicity
0.1 Bullmastiff-Asha

the cage that you're building sounds great! It would be best to get cypress mulch, the expandable brick bedding, or aspen bedding, but news paper works ok too. Put a whole bunch on the bottom, that way they can go under the layers instead of having to borrow. The downside in that when it gets wet it smells, they may shred a bunch of it, and it doesn't absord odder or moisture very well. Some people may say that the ink is toxic to the animal. They use to be right, but the ink that they us now is non-toxic, because little human kids were getting sick from it, so they had to make it safe for consumption.