# Does your tegu try to eat rocks?



## Guest (Jul 27, 2010)

When I take my Red Tegu outside and it comes across a smaller sized rock it always puts it in its mouth. As soon as this happens I take the rock away. Does any one else have this problem. I have to watch it like a hawk, even on the lawn. As it will dig one up.


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## DMBizeau (Jul 27, 2010)

Mine do it, they seem to find rocks everywhere in the dirt and try and eat them. I believe they do it in the wild as well to help aid digestion. I always find pieces of cypress in the stools of my larger tegus when they go to the bathroom in the shower as well and have seen them eat pieces personally. Bobby and I talked about it awhile ago and he also thought it was a digestion thing.


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## txrepgirl (Jul 27, 2010)

Yes, our big Leonidas did that before. Tegus do this to help them digest things better ( that's what I have read before ).


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## DMBizeau (Jul 27, 2010)

yeah, I forgot to mention all the cypress they eat are the small blocky pieces not the big long ones lol. Weird thing is they are mostly digested when they come out.


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## Guest (Jul 27, 2010)

Mine ate a large piece of bark once and had a rectal prolapse. The large intestine was hanging out about 1 1/2 inches with the bark stuck inside. I had to work the bark out by hand. Then cleaned it out with water. I then soak it in the tube over night till it retracted to keep it from drying out. It has been months now and everything seams to be going great. I now use a smaller bark.


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## laurarfl (Jul 27, 2010)

I have a mad rock eater! She ate substrate once and when I added fiber to her diet, it stopped. I know not every one feeds fruit, but I add it as a natural fiber source.


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## Toby_H (Jul 27, 2010)

Nice reading this thread, O'm not alone... Mine not only eats rocks, but has a favorite type of rock...

There are little white 'chalky' rocks all over my yard that are calcium based. My Tegu prefers these to all other stones that are around. I wondered for a while if he was lacking calcium so I increased the supplements. He still eats them...

I do what I can to keep him away from them and to take them away when I catch him with one. But a few have slipped by me. I worried a lot at first, but he seems to be doing quite deliberately so I can only assume he feels he needs them for something. A digestion aid makes sense.


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## DMBizeau (Jul 27, 2010)

Funny thing is one of my tegus stumbled into the dog food dispenser today and ate a piece, now whenever she is down she tries to get over to the dog food.


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## reptastic (Jul 27, 2010)

i used to find small rocks in neros poop, i think she got a hold of them while roaming outside. i too think its a digestion thing because she never had a problem pooping them out.


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## Jefroka (Jul 27, 2010)

Mine eats rocks, dead leaves and dines on dog or cat **** if he sees any of these items before I do.


...Jefroka


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## laurarfl (Jul 28, 2010)

Oh yes, the dog poo. And my male eats his sperm plugs. I can't seem to find a logical reason for that one.


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## Adam87 (Jul 28, 2010)

Buddy snags a rock or 2 even after he ate i just thought he was hungry haha now the question is now that our tegus eat rocks do we put calcium on them haha jk


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## Monica Markel (Jul 27, 2016)

Are your tegus still alive? Did any of you take xrays?


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## James Smith (Jan 20, 2019)

I know this is a an old thread but, this is a issue I have as well. I caused it because I put some small river stone in the substrate to give it a natural feel to the substrate. Now I think I caused a massive issue for BOGA.


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## Walter1 (Jan 20, 2019)

Watch his poop schedule if you're concerned about a blockage. If it's been a long time, then not an issue. 

A main factor in choosing substrate.


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## James Smith (Jan 20, 2019)

If it's been a long time since he poop then it's not an issue???


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## AlphaAlpha (Jan 24, 2019)

I added some pea gravel to my substrate and had the same problem but luckily it just passed straight through Alpha.... Usually when annimals do this its because they smell or taste the minerals in the rock so you might want to buy some reptile multivitamin.


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## James Smith (Jan 24, 2019)

I think you are right. Do you have a suggestion of what kind to use?


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