# Tegu Hair Balls



## DaveDragon (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm sure many have seen flattened hair balls in their Tegu's enclosure. All of our have done it. 

My question is: Which end does it come out of??? 

Since it's nothing but hair (rodent fur that's not digestible) I'm assuming they cough (throw) it up. 

Our male Blue threw up twice in 3 days a week after we got him. Since I've seen that happen to a couple of dogs I figured he was impacted because I was feeding him too much (he'll eat whatever I put in front of him!). I was told he was less cage aggressive when he has a fully belly. I guess I filled it up. We took him to the vet and they did an x-ray (read - Expensive!!). He was definitely impacted so they put a tube down his throat and gave him some mineral oil (I was told not to try to feed him any at home) and they gave us a tube of Laxatone, what looks like cat hairball medicine. 1ml in a mouse. I did it only once and all was well. Until 2 days ago and he threw up again an hour after eating a bowl of fruit & fish. He had a small BM on the floor the day before. And another (looser) yesterday. Today I found the flattened hairball in his enclosure. I figured since he got it out it would be OK to feed him 2 small adult mice with the laxative in them. We'll see what happens.


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## AB^ (Jan 2, 2008)

You inspired me to go do a little digging (literally) and I came up with this lol

I found a hairball and it seems to be held togther by presumebly by fecal matter. I dunno my money is it comes out the rear lol.

As far as you impactation goes did they pinpoint it on rodent fur?
Have you double checked your baskin temps lately?
I dont use rodents heavily most of the time but when that's all I have then my tegus will get their fair share. I always try to keep my basking temps on the higher sides of the range to avoid digestion probelms.


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## redtail2426 (Jan 2, 2008)

Yeah I would have to say not to feed rodents to often especially when they are smaller because all that undigestable fur just looks like a good recipe for impaction.


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## DaveDragon (Jan 2, 2008)

AB^ said:


> I found a hairball and it seems to be held togther by presumebly by fecal matter. I dunno my money is it comes out the rear lol.


This was all fur.



AB^ said:


> As far as you impactation goes did they pinpoint it on rodent fur?


I think he was backed up from eating too much too often. I gave him a bowl of fruit & veggies every day and he'd clean it! Rodent once a week.




AB^ said:


> Have you double checked your baskin temps lately?


I'll check again tomorrow. He's under a 75W halogen. He's about 14" to 16" from it. Should be upper 90's.



AB^ said:


> I dont use rodents heavily most of the time but when that's all I have then my tegus will get their fair share. I always try to keep my basking temps on the higher sides of the range to avoid digestion problems.


He, and the female Blue, get (2) small adult mice once a week. We ran out of large adult mice, they used to get one. Fruit & veggies every other day with some fish one day during the week. He always cleans the bowl. The other adults are semi-hibernating and don't eat often. I'm not even offering rodents. The 9 month old gets (2) hopper mice every other day with some fruit.


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## DaveDragon (Jan 2, 2008)

redtail2426 said:


> Yeah I would have to say not to feed rodents to often especially when they are smaller because all that undigestable fur just looks like a good recipe for impaction.


Our male & female Blues are 3 years old. Our male Red is 6 years old. Our B&W Arg. is 9 months old.


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## AB^ (Jan 2, 2008)

> I'll check again tomorrow. He's under a 75W halogen. He's about 14" to 16" from it. Should be upper 90's.



I keep my basking spots quite a bit hotter than that, I always try to stay 110-120 

I also use 2 flood bulbs to heat the entire basking spot.
They have halogen floods but most the halogens in pet stores (i.e. zoomed) will be in tight beam format as to not heating the whole animal which could lead to trouble. Considering the massvive amounts of food they can eat I strongly feel the animals should be able to be fully heated at high temperatures to digest the large portions they ingest.
Just a thought


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## AB^ (Jan 2, 2008)

hmmm, looking at this picture maybe ill add another ceramic fixture in the middle to have even more level heat come down for better effeciency


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## DaveDragon (Jan 2, 2008)

AB^ said:


> I keep my basking spots quite a bit hotter than that, I always try to stay 110-120
> 
> I also use 2 flood bulbs to heat the entire basking spot.
> They have halogen floods but most the halogens in pet stores (i.e. zoomed) will be in tight beam format as to not heating the whole animal which could lead to trouble.


I use outdoor halogen floods from Home Depot. It projects a beam that covers his whole body. I could bump it up to a 90W tomorrow after I check his temp first. The Red has a 90W because I read they need slightly higher temps.

What watt bulbs do you use and at what distance??


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## DaveDragon (Jan 2, 2008)

AB^ said:


> hmmm, looking at this picture maybe ill add another ceramic fixture in the middle to have even more level heat come down for better effeciency


It would be less expensive to change to halogen floods.


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## AB^ (Jan 2, 2008)

I have some of those too, a couple 150 watters.
Though it seems that the lower wattage floods closer together dont affect the ambient temps as much as the halogen floods.


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## DaveDragon (Jan 2, 2008)

AB^ said:


> I have some of those too, a couple 150 watters.
> Though it seems that the lower wattage floods closer together dont affect the ambient temps as much as the halogen floods.


I tried regular floods and the temps were WAY lower than halogen floods. The difference was amazing!!

Are the floods you're using 150W???


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