Help!

[Moody]

I am a new tegu owner, today while I was feeding him he ate a pretty good size piece of mulch, more like a stick really. I know they probably ingest all kinds of objects in the wild, sticks and the like and he is not captive bred. He was just rescued from the wild a week ago and he is 3--4 months old. I tried to grab it but was afraid he would bite me. His tank is 105-110 degrees, and has a heat rock in the middle of the tank, not under the lights. Should I take him to the vet or just wait and see if his appetite decreases or doesn't have a bowel movement? I tried to give him a warm bath but he doesn't like water so much. What should I do?

 

[dpjm]

Depending on the size of the stick, he may or may not have trouble passing it. I would not take him to the vet right away, but watch for appetite decreases or lack of regular defecation. Those are signs of impaction. If the impaction is not too severe, you may be able to help him pass it at home using various means of stimulating defecation. More severe impactions require vet assistance - they would use x-ray to see where it is and how large the object is. You'll just have to watch him closely for awhile and make sure to check any feces for that stick.

This is not uncommon for lizards to ingest substrate but it is really not a good thing when the substrate is large pieces. This happens either because the substrate sticks to the food they are eating at the time or because they drag their food around over the substrate, causing it to smell like food. I would try to arrange some other place to feed him. For instance, you could have a section of the enclosure where there is a different type of substrate and feed him there or feed him outside of the enclosure. A substrate I have liked using is packed composted material. We have piles of this stuff at our facility because we do a composting operation there. If it is wet it packs together like clay. I think you could get this stuff in bags at a garden store and it would probably work just as well. Having two or more types of substrate is good for other reasons as well, one being that it provides variation for your animal.

 

[Moody]

Thanks that makes me feel a little better. I hand feed him, for a tegu that was wild caught he is extremely docile, has never tried to bite me and takes the food gingerly out if my hand after licking it several times. This instance I thought he had it and it dropped on the mulch all I saw was the big piece in his mouth then it was gone. We will no longer be eating in the enclosure, that is going to change today lol. I don't really think he will care anyways. He loves to come out so that will be one more reason he can spend some free time. Thanks so much I feel a little better but I'm going to keep an eye on him.

 

[Moody]

Ok now I'm worried.. I did manage to give him a soak in a very warm bath and he seemed to enjoy it... He didn't eat tonight and hasn't had a bowel movement since Tuesday. He's active and doesn't act like anything is wrong. Wednesday and Thursday he had a very big appetite and ate a lot. He slept most of the day but I'm a third shifter and he was out from midnight to 4am last night, when he did wake he was active and acted normal.

 

[dpjm]

Is he usually pretty regular with bowel movements? Would you expect him to have gone by now under normal circumstances? How long since he swallowed the wood piece? Was him not eating on Friday unusual?

 

[Moody]

Well I just got him Tuesday.. He swallowed the wood piece on Thursday. He had one bowel movement that I know of on Wednesday. He ate every day pretty healthy appetite except for Friday.. He wouldn't eat.

 

[Moody]

He did eat today.. Not as much as he had been but he was cranky

 

[Walter1]

Add mineral oil to his food.

 

[Moody]

Thanks I will do that today

 

[Walter1]

Thanks I will do that today

Good luck and please provide updates.

 

[Moody]

For sure I hate for something bad to happen.. He's so sweet

 

[beardeddragon111]

Have you tried giving him a warm bath? Sometimes that helps them in pooping lol.

 

[Moody]

Yeah I did, hes not too fond of water but the one time I got him to chill he sat in the water for about 30 minutes. Still no poop. He's not acting differently, full of spunk.