Cyprus Chomper!!

[Mark R.]

My little guy "Bowser" has been eating his cyprus! Today I had to "rescue' him. He had a huge chunk stuck in his mouth and was jumping all around! I have always fed outside his enclosure in a seperate tub. I think he gets some food juice on his feet and when he goes back in his tank, he can smell it later. I have since removed all the mulch and replaced it with several inches of green moss. that's all i could find for tonight. he seems to really like it. he's been digging in it for a couple of hours now. My question is this, Does anyone know if this green moss is harmful for tegus? The bag said it was all natural and safe for terrariums and reptiles. I was just asking. And also, will he be okay on cyprus when he gets bigger? I've already seen some little chunks in his poop. ...thanks , Mark

 

[AWD247]

Im not really familiar with Moss, never used it before, but maybe this might help you out since it works great for me.
After your feeding routine you should setup a warm bath, I do this cause I noticed my Gu walks in the food every once in a while and might transfer food to the enclosure without you noticing or might have some food on his mouth he couldnt get off, also theres a plus side, usually after sitting in the warm water for a few he poops in it, which also keeps the enclosure a lil more cleaner.
Give it a shot if you go back to the mulch, it might work for you.
Goodluck

 

[Anthony]

my tegu ate her mulch everyday.... i called bobby and he said he never heard of a tegu do that before... everyone told me dont feed in the tank ... i explained i wasnt feeding in the tank.... it was a everyday thing and i think she got impacted slightly i gave her mineral oil and she pooped pure big peices of substrate.... i switched to eco earth by zoo med and havent had a problem since... i suggest u do the same good luck

 

[Mark R.]

Thanks for the replies! I'm going to leave the moss in for right now, and see how he takes to it. right now, he's completely buried himself in it! I can't even find his tail. It was a real big scare for me today when I saw him "choking" on that big piece of cyprus. It sucks too because I went ahead and bought 20 bags of it when I read that most people keep them on it. I did'nt want to be stuck without any this winter.

 

[simon021]

same problem I'm having. The last 2 stools were good to go, but the 3 before that all each had a tiny piece of mulch in it.

I just bought 5 packs of 3 bricks of eco earth and will be switching him over to that sometime this week. Better safe than sorry.

I'm looking forward to trying to Eco Earth. The prep seems a bit lengthy, but it looks like a pretty good substrate. I'll be sure to update on how I like it.

 

[Tkeller]

I use Eco Earth and I love it, and actually the prep is very simple, I used a 35 gallon trash can filled it with the correct amount of water threw the bricks in, waited the 30 minutes (actually watched some tv while I waited) rolled up my sleeves mixed the expanded substrate real well to make sure it was all broken up, dumped into my enclosure. It says to ring it out to remove the moisture, but just use a little less water and it comes out moist not wet. I just mist it down every other day, keeps my enclosure at about 70% humidity, plus my Tegu loves to dig in it.

 

[Mark R.]

Okay, update time.
It's been three weeks on the green moss and all is great! Although, it does have a "river bank" type odor. Bowser loves it though. I will be switching to eco earth in a few weeks now that I have heard people using it with good results. The moss dries out about every other day, but with misting, I keep it at 65-70.