Shannon's Lizzards
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[/size]Hello I am new on these forums. My husband set up account, want to start out by saying I can spell lizard correctly. LOL. So anyway I work at an Emergency/ Specialty Animal Hospital in Tampa, FL. I own or have owned, fixed, multiple species of lizards, snakes, turtles you name it. Well I recently acquired a 2.5 year old Columbian Tegu. He was hypocalcemic, legs flippered back for days prior to coming into our facility. He weighed 360grams. Seems small for his age? Thoughts? We gave injectable calcuim for days with only slight improvement. Radiographs were obtained looking for pathological fractures. Non seen. Not to say they weren't there. We splinted him for a week, poor thing he was pissed,will post pic of splint. and I was tube feeding with oral calcuim and Carnivore Care. The good news is he is using his legs now, no tremors. YEA!!! I have him in a 20 gallon tank with a Power Sun, not ideal tank size, I know. My plan is to build an outdoor enclosure. I have seen ideas on this site, just minor changes to suit my needs. My main question is DIET. I see so many of these Tegus with MBD, heart failure, and fatty liver due to diet. Found some studies of Tegu diets in the wild. Frogs were a large percentage, anybody know what kind or where I can purchase. Also I know roaches are good, but not to pull the girl card I HATE them. I also saw snails in the study and queen palms that grow in Florida everywhere. So how do I feed him without the prey escaping, and how do I transition him to a better diet, all he will eat is canned cat food. Any sites, information or personal feedback will be greatly appreciated. I named him Edwin and plan to keep him. Just want him healthy.
