I lost a beautiful Tegu a few years ago when it ate cyprus mulch and ended up getting a prolapse as a result of struggling to pass it. I always fed my tegu in another room outside of his enclosure and made sure he carried no food on his feet back into his enclosure. He was fed the proper diet and the proper amount as recommended on the Tegu breeder sites, but he still ate his substrate. When I researched this, I found out that tegu's eating their substrate is a common occurence, that's why I always removed him from his enclosure to eat. I changed his substrate to eco-earth which is similiar to peat, so if any is swallowed it will pass easier than pieces of wood; but the damage was already done. Keep an eye on your tegu, their intelligent, but sometimes act like little kids by putting things in their mouths that they shouldn't.
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. I haven't seen you around for a long time. I'm very sorry to hear about what happened to our Tegu. I lost a very beautiful female blue/red hybrid Tegu because she ate some mulch. She didn't get impacted. But when I found her dead in the enclosure she had a piece of mulch stuck in her mouth and her gum had dried on blood. We thought that when she poked her gum open a infection got into her blood stream and killed her. I just held her the day before. She was the best eater ( out of our five Tegus ). She ate more fruits and veggies then the others. Tegus do get into alot. She also got impcted the year before with a rubber cap from a metal door stopper spring. She pooped it out. May your Tegu R.I.P.
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