Eating Rocks

[Murkve]

Hey guys.

I just want to survey: Who among us here has a Tegu that eats rocks?

Mine does, and has been for the last 3 weeks or so. Scares me to death every time I see or hear her gobble up a pebble from my soil/sand mixture. I know why they do it - to aid in digestion - but honestly it's infuriating.

Since I've discovered it, I've resigned myself to the view that I can't stop it, so I perform a "search and destroy" mission on all the big, possibly harmful rocks. In the future I will be filtering my sand as well. Everytime I see a rock eaten, I wait with baited breath for poo, and mix extra veggies in her food for the next couple days.

The Cycle: She eats. She eats a rock later that night. I get worried. I feed her extra fiber. I wait 2 days. I get really worried. She poops. I breathe again. I feed her. She eats...

Ugh.

 

[laurarfl]

Yes. The mom to that one you have there is an avid rock and dog poop eater. We have a lot of smooth stones in our landscaping and she likes to eat them. Some are about the size of a chicken egg, but not as much volume. She a huge one once, but passed it. Now I make sure I'm right next to her in the yard. She also tries to eat the screws that bolt down my screened porch. When she was little she would try to nom the buttons on jeans and such. My kids gave her old jeans to play with. She tries to eat the bathtub drain, the faucet. But she doesn't bite, go figure.

She's also the great enclosure destroyer. She has torn or pushed heavy mesh, pulled the stripping from divider panels, pulled astroturf from hide boxes, scratched her face trying to eat huge basking slate rocks. She's like destructo lizard.

 

[naturboy87]

my blue tegu loves rocks it drives me nuts im alwase following his but around stoping him frum eating rocks rock head lol

 

[Murkve]

Yes. The mom to that one you have there is an avid rock and dog poop eater. We have a lot of smooth stones in our landscaping and she likes to eat them. Some are about the size of a chicken egg, but not as much volume. She a huge one once, but passed it. Now I make sure I'm right next to her in the yard. She also tries to eat the screws that bolt down my screened porch. When she was little she would try to nom the buttons on jeans and such. My kids gave her old jeans to play with. She tries to eat the bathtub drain, the faucet. But she doesn't bite, go figure.

She's also the great enclosure destroyer. She has torn or pushed heavy mesh, pulled the stripping from divider panels, pulled astroturf from hide boxes, scratched her face trying to eat huge basking slate rocks. She's like destructo lizard.

Dog poop?! Eww. I imagine that is really nice coming back out again.

Why do you think she does it? Give herself a healthy pro-biotic load? I mean, I've heard of fecal enemas, but eating dog poop?

... I guess she can't give herself a fecal enema though. That only leaves one option.:s