Dear iHerp Members:

The problem with all commercially available substrates? My male tegu, Jagua, like others of his species, loves to dig, tunnel, plough around in his substrate. But no mater what I've used, he eventually gets small slivers or filaments or accumulated, moistened dust of the substrate stuck along the inside of his lips, especially towards the front of his snout. Needless to say, this causes problems. I have to remove the material with tweezers. If I don't notice such imbedded material right away, a mild infection can result. I have had to treat with anti-biotic ointments. No, not talking 'mouth rot' here or anything that serious. But extracting the substrate material from his mouth can cause temporary, minor bleeding, etc.

Although it seems criminal to do so, I now have him on newspapers - the old standby. He does have two large hides, one a long, upside-down planter box with holes cut in the bottom edge to permit entrance and exit. He spends much of his time inside the latter. But this is a poor substitute for digging (which is good for him, and natural for the species) and burrowing into a substrate.

Even the usually recommended substrates - like the extremely expensive cypress mulch (which around here one has to order!) - or coconut fiber, etc., cause the same problem with his mouth. I've tried aspen shavings, even the bark offered by ZooMed. This last was a desperation measure, and I was resistent to using anything that contained fir tree resins - depite ZooMed's personal assurance through emails that their bark substrate was safe for a tegu. The same problem occurred shortly after I tried using it: tiny strands of the bark were forced/crammed into his lips during burrowing.  Making sure the correct humidity is present does not help.  In fact, if any portion of the substrate itself is too moist, this alone can exacerbate the problem. 

I hesitate to use dirt for two reasons. Obviously, 1) dirt is a mess and 2) it's very hard to find dirt that is genuinely "clean" of potentially dangerous parasites, micro-organisms, pesticides/fungicides, etc.  I've had "organic peat soil" recommened (as opposed to peat moss or sphagnum), but the cost is truly prohibitive. 

Any ideas?

Thank you!

Dan