I have a idea on this...

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Posted by Bosse on April 22, 2001 at 10:53:11:

In Reply to: Iguana Substrate.. Pine bark? cypress mulch? posted by BillS on April 20, 2001 at 07:27:01:

...and that is that it MIGHT really be a hazard for your animals to use such substrates. HOWEVER, I use pine bark, and have done so for a lot of years with NO problem ( I know I sound like everyone that says that animals proteins are good since they have been using it for years and years with no problems :-) ). I think that it has to do a lot with how the cage is set up!

I draw a parallell with Leopard Geckos, where sand is considered dangerous because they may eat it and die from it. Sand is a natural substrate in their habitat, so why should it BE dangerous. Propably because they are in captivity and their natural behaviour gets altered due to a lot of circumstances. One is lack of both food and calcium which makes them try anything. I've seen that people that have had these geckos repeatedly near death due to sandconstipation, regularly have them on a poor diet. After changing the amount of food and calcium they have stayed on sand and no more intake of sand have occured!

I've never seen my igs down on the ground actually trying to eat it, just licking on it. IF there have been food on a chip and the chip have gone in WITH the food they have spitted it out. Once again, I think that my cages size also have something to do with it. Living in a small cage I think that the risk increases! ( JUST a footnote here, over here I believe the REGULATIONS on cage size on Iguanas are different than over in the States. For a five foot Ig you HAVE to have a cage larger than 40 squarefeet bottom and six feet high, and free roaming is NOT an option!! ).

With this I'm not saying that you should use Pine Bark in your cages, since we've seen a lot of Igs die from impaction of it, it was just meant to be a subject for discussion. What do you all think of my theories?

I include a picture on one of my exhibits.

Best

Bosse

Additional pics on my homepage

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Re: I have a idea on this... Craig Loose 04/22/01 (0)

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: ...and that is that it MIGHT really be a hazard for your animals to use such substrates. HOWEVER, I use pine bark, and have done so for a lot of years with NO problem ( I know I sound like everyone that says that animals proteins are good since they have been using it for years and years with no problems :-) ). I think that it has to do a lot with how the cage is set up! : I draw a parallell with Leopard Geckos, where sand is considered dangerous because they may eat it and die from it. Sand is a natural substrate in their habitat, so why should it BE dangerous. Propably because they are in captivity and their natural behaviour gets altered due to a lot of circumstances. One is lack of both food and calcium which makes them try anything. I've seen that people that have had these geckos repeatedly near death due to sandconstipation, regularly have them on a poor diet. After changing the amount of food and calcium they have stayed on sand and no more intake of sand have occured! : I've never seen my igs down on the ground actually trying to eat it, just licking on it. IF there have been food on a chip and the chip have gone in WITH the food they have spitted it out. Once again, I think that my cages size also have something to do with it. Living in a small cage I think that the risk increases! ( JUST a footnote here, over here I believe the REGULATIONS on cage size on Iguanas are different than over in the States. For a five foot Ig you HAVE to have a cage larger than 40 squarefeet bottom and six feet high, and free roaming is NOT an option!! ). : With this I'm not saying that you should use Pine Bark in your cages, since we've seen a lot of Igs die from impaction of it, it was just meant to be a subject for discussion. What do you all think of my theories? : I include a picture on one of my exhibits. : Best : Bosse

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