After years of research

[Oinari]

Finally bought one! Was at a reptile show here at a local university and went in with the intent to grab a b&w tegu.

I have lurked on this site for a few years, stopped for a while, then went through a bad breakup a few months ago (8 year relationship). Roommate ran out and got a Boa, which encouraged my want for a tegu. I think he's a couple months old, still some green on half his body.

Bought a 40 gallon tank so he has tons of room to walk around and explore. Nice big water bowl he can swim in, and a large false stump to hide in or bask on. He's basking atm, as he ate maybe 30 minutes ago.

After many stories of people getting tegu's on here I have to say; He's very non aggressive, when not soon after feeding he makes no attempt to run from your hand, seems he was handled a fair amount and is used to humans already. Very active when he wants to be (I picked the most active out of the group for sale).

First fed him lean ground turkey, today he got ground turkey and mealworms with some Repti calcium sample that came with the new lamps. Says without D3 though. Right now I'm keeping an eye on temps in tank and on the basking log (Infrared temp sensor) as well as humidity (In Florida, miminum humidity with the a/c on and lamps on during the day is 50%. Misting to try and get it higher)

100watt basking lamp, and cfl uva/b bulb.

I was surprised that he takes being picked up and handled so well, but he did hide when my noisy roommates came in for a peek.

Currently he's basking on his false stump.

www.foxdude.net/tegu.jpg <-- Earlier under his temporary hiding place.
www.foxdude.net/tegubask.jpg <-- Currently getting some heat/uv's

Looks like the surface of the stump hits 113 at the highest, averaging 80 on the cold side (We keep the house at 80 during the day, 78 at night during the summer)

 

[laurarfl]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new little friend!

When you get a new substrate in there, the humidity should be easier to manage. Cypress mulch used to be highly recommended, but a lot of people are switching over to soil mixes. It helps with the shedding and hydration.

 

[TeguBuzz]

Welcome aboard.

 

[Oinari]

Thanks for the substrate advice. Which types of soils are people liking? The small amount I read about them was worry over any grittyness and the smaller particles. One person stated that sand can build up in the gut rather than get pushed through making compaction a "Will happen" rather than "might happen". Will make sure to look into it some more. Took half a bag of mulch to fill give him enough to walk on and a few spots to dig into. He was feeling very exploratory yesterday after basking on his new false stump.

 

[Tannaros]

Thanks for the substrate advice. Which types of soils are people liking? The small amount I read about them was worry over any grittyness and the smaller particles. One person stated that sand can build up in the gut rather than get pushed through making compaction a "Will happen" rather than "might happen". Will make sure to look into it some more. Took half a bag of mulch to fill give him enough to walk on and a few spots to dig into. He was feeling very exploratory yesterday after basking on his new false stump.

I generally use a roughly 50/50 mix of peat moss and sand for my monitors. This seems to hold burrows well, resists mold, and retains moisture reasonably enough.

The idea of sand impaction has been around for a long time - I know some people personally who have experienced it happening when they've kept animals on entirely sand, but I personally have never had any negative experiences with my mix. For some of the smaller species I keep I just feed them in their enclosure and they do fine, though for my tegu I generally just bring her out every day to explore around the yard and I feed her then.

 

[Oinari]

Tried to take him out so he could explore the room a bit. He gave no care to being picked up and carried out of his enclosure and set on my bed. But any attempt to pick him up was met with squirmy resistance. Finally got him to walk onto my hand but he was jumpy at this point and when I attempted to give any pressure to hold him he tried to make a jump for it and I ended up with a hold about 1/4 down his tail. Fearing he might drop it I let go as I was just over his cage where he dropped down into it. I promptly walked around his basking false stump then climbed up, laid down and has been staring at me since. Doesn't run when I peer over the top into his enclosure, though the opening/closing of the lid gets his attention.

Hope I can get him out for his meal here soon. Found a tub I can use for feeding for probably a year. I will say this. Shortly after he started walking around the area he fell in, and tried jumping his way out,

 

[Tannaros]

Tried to take him out so he could explore the room a bit. He gave no care to being picked up and carried out of his enclosure and set on my bed. But any attempt to pick him up was met with squirmy resistance. Finally got him to walk onto my hand but he was jumpy at this point and when I attempted to give any pressure to hold him he tried to make a jump for it and I ended up with a hold about 1/4 down his tail. Fearing he might drop it I let go as I was just over his cage where he dropped down into it. I promptly walked around his basking false stump then climbed up, laid down and has been staring at me since. Doesn't run when I peer over the top into his enclosure, though the opening/closing of the lid gets his attention.

Hope I can get him out for his meal here soon. Found a tub I can use for feeding for probably a year. I will say this. Shortly after he started walking around the area he fell in, and tried jumping his way out,

I would probably suggest to aid in the bonding process you take your tegu out, but do so in a confined area. I've read some other members having good success by taking their baby gu out and putting them on themselves while they lay in the tub. I would start to allow some exploring time perhaps when they're a bit bigger - that way he's good and used to you, and a little less afraid of, well, everything.

Just be prepared that he might not eat when you do take him out the first time. It can be somewhat unnerving for an animal to be removed from its normal surroundings. However, for the most part young tegus are garbage disposals and this shouldn't be a problem for long, if at all.

 

[Oinari]

He ended up eating plenty easy without issue. To avoid the taking out of cage thing, I put a small plate with his meal while he was basking. In a few minutes he was curious or smelled/spotted it and finished everything, then went straight back to basking. My ex wanted to handle him (Says out of the 20+ tegu's he's taken care of, none cared about being disturbed from their hidey hole) but I wanted to wait till it was active and basking to let him.

ex let him roam hand to hand for a while (tegu was trying to get to his shirt to climb up higher), had to be cautious getting him back into his cage though as he was willing to jump onto anything he could, but stayed calm the whole time and even took to being pet while sitting on a hand. The tub thing sounds like a great idea, if we didn't only have stand up showers! Going to clean up my room when I get home from work, but it'll take a lot of work to make sure he can't run off and hide under something. Will probably have to stick to handling him in his enclosure for a while.

Plan on moving out of my ex's place when I get a chance and will definitely have less places for him to hide once all my stuff is spread out in an apartment.

 

[chitodadon]

U can use the stand uo shower

from Samsung Galaxy S3