Reptile & Amphibian Forums

im using the vacumed blocks that u add water and they expand, but my coloumbian gets his turkey in it and then it sticks, it says to be digestable ,and he likes to burrow in it so i dont wanna chage it, but what is every body using and so you think this is a problem?

I would possibly reccomend feeding your tegu in another place.. ex. I use a large rubbermaid container with nothing in it. This does 2 helpful things. One they dont get substrate with their food. Two it helps out knowing that things that are in the tank are not food items(hands with fingers). I use coconut substrate that my tegu loves to burry itself in and it practically lasts forever if you spot clean it. I used that stuff you used before and my tegu hated it b/c it stuck to his eyes and I was worried about infection no problem with this new stuff i have been using for a while now. Im sure like food though everyone uses something different. No problems with bugs ever being in this stuff either. Creature travelers soft chips.
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Are you using the soft chips or the loose coconut substrate? i've been using the loose substrate and me and my tegu like it very much. doesn't smell, keeps moist for a long time, doesn't get moldy, and he can make his little burrows in it.

i would use cypress mulch, but it's pretty impossible to find in southern california.

I use the soft chips. I buy the huge bag from him its like 5 of the 20 oz ones for like half the price or so. Ill be getting more from him soon or at the next IRBA show on the 15th. Not as messy. Daryl did give me a sample of the other stuff soft bed but it makes entirely to much of a mess when I went to clean it. Very dusty. If I get an enclosed hide box I might try the soft bed again though.

I was planning on trying to soft chips at the next IRBA show too. Do you go to Pomona? I keep the soft bed stuff moist (not wet) and diggable so it's not dusty at all and Tinkerbell has no problems with shedding. Do the soft chips expand when wet?

nope the one in SD del mar fair grounds. It never compares to the NARBC one but I can meet up with Darly and get some more chips and Im getting me tegu probed from the vet on Friday so I will know 100% what the sex is. I might be in the market to get a mate for it. Ive also been talking to Bert at Agama. We'll see. THe soft chips dont expand when wet not at all. I just mist them though, dont have a humidity gauge but these things work great. You could use both the softchips for normal and the soft bed for the hide. If you see him in person you should buy the huge burlap sac its a better buy.

I went to the vet today and he told me that it 99/9% a male. Im super happy cause this means it has the potential to get really big, I know Russ said for its age its small but Im thinking if I start feeding it a little more along with the combination of its new enclosure 6'x2'x2' it will help him grow at a faster pace. I can call it a him now I took him in for the annual and the vet told me he looks really healthy and everything. I want to get him a mate but Im kinda afraid cause I dont want the new one to bring any parasites in with it or to have them fight and mess up one another wouldnt be good either. Ill think about it I guess
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1.0 Argentine B&W Tegu
0.1 French Bulldog

Cool! How old/big is your tegu? Mine's around 9 months and 27-28 inches. I want to get my tegu sexed but I don't think any of the vets here have any experience with that. LLLReptiles said she was probably a female but they didn't know for sure.

Mine was hatched in Sep. I got it in Oct. So it is a little over a year 25'' or so. Just recently got it a huge 6'x2'x2' enclosure but before that it was housed in a 60 gal reptile tank for like 7 months. I feed him like every 2-3 days not huge quanitities but I am starting to feed it a little more now.... like feeding fruits between rodents too. I am in SO cal. SD area I go to an avairy and exotic vet in Mission Valley. Ive taken it there before when it had a mild prolapse and they gave him an enema. I heard a lot of people go to Dr Greek in Yorba Linda. You pay money like mine was $41 for the visit(pretty much its annual exam) and they probed it for free. I trust veterinarians who are reptile specialists who know what they are doing. They say you should take it in once yearly just to make sure its good and healthy, He told me mine looked really good and healthy...... Its so nice though to know the sex though. You should be able to tell the sex visually though if its in the 28'' range
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1.0 Argentine B&W Tegu
0.1 French Bulldog

I use cypress mulch. It's less than $2 for a HUGE bag at Home Depot. It's easy to spot clean. It holds humidity well. And because it's cheap it allows me to do whole cage cleanings on a regular basis without going broke. I give my tegus their food in a bowl which for the most part does away with getting substrate in the food. Orchid bark works well too and is fairly cheap.