eating substrate

[t0m541]

does it do the lizard any harm if he eats some woodchips by accident when eating his food. do they spit them back out or just pass them any advice ppl please

[daniel1983]

Depends on how big the piece of substrate is in comparison to the monitor. If it is just a little dirt here and there...no big deal.

What type of 'woodchips' are you using and what type of monitor do you keep?

[t0m541]

the woodchips are aspen and a bit of vermiculite, hes a sav monitor about 9 months old

[daniel1983]

As long as the pieces are not big enough to get caught in the monitor's throat, I would not worry.

I am not a big fan of woodchips for monitors.....top soil, vermiculite, and peat moss is the way for me

[t0m541]

yeah i guess they most probably ingest stones and stuff in the wild without too many problems when they catch wild creatures

[daniel1983]

Yep....unless the object is too big to be swallowed or passed...there shouldn't be any complications.

[Razaiel]

I prefer to use soil mix for my monitor (sav) - he also has some dried leaves chucked in too. It's interesting to watch him eat when he grabs a locust as he kind of sieves out the soil and any bits of leaf that also go in.