crazy tegu!?@

[reptastic]

i just cant win for lose with pyro lol, so i just went into my reptile room a few minutes ago and guess who has escaped his enclosure, yep mr. pyro this is his third escape this week and i have tried putting weights on of his screen until i finished the enclosure that i was building for him and achilles, but apparenty he is strong enough to push the screen off even with a 5lb. weight on top, and today he attacked nero, poor nero i was petting her because i wasnt sure how she would react to pyro, he had went right over to her basking spot and strecthed out and she started heading that way, so now she is near him and i was petting her when he starting puffing up and then he just bit her luckily nero has tougher skin than me and it didnt phase her much but she looked very shocked :yik! but he started to posture and move toward me next, i had to just grab him as fast as possibly, and he just freaked out, he still just dont like me , its starting to become a real challenge to get him to a feeding tub especially since he is doble the size he was when i first got him and a bite at that size did leave a nice cut i cant imagine what he could do now, and i dont intend to find out! i just cant understand why he is such a angry lil guy lol, even achilles who was like this calmed down within a few weeks, i tried the t-shirt, the empty tub, empty room and even the sweater methods to calm him down but no luck, evryday he seems more aggresive than nervous or shy! maybe once he is in a huge enclosure rather than a 40 breeder he will be more happy i dont know, i just hope i dont end it with a 4'+ tegu that needs a muzzle lol!

 

[mastroj]

Sounds like my water dragon. He is beautiful but has been completely nuts since I got him. He escapes from the cage on me sometimes when I need to go near him, and getting him back sucks. I have to grab him and then he attacks me. IT isnt going well.

 

[reptastic]

i call him and my rhino iguana evil twins seperated at birth and species lol since i got them around the same time and they were both the exact same length when i got them but more so because they both act exactly alike and now pyro has taken to pooping on me when i pick him up just like my hino iguana its crazy daling with these 2 from day to day, i got a 4' male green iguana who is very aggressive and even he dont giveme this much trouble lol!

 

[TanMan57]

Zero is also a little escape artist. He has aslo escaped three times in the last week. The first time I cought him half way out of the enclosure. The second time I found him under the dog bed in a completely different room. Today I found him fighting with my window blinds. But neither of my tegu's will bite me out of anger. Kilo will bite when shes hungry unfortunately, she also has the biggest appetite EVER! Lol I put a small rat in the enclosure for zero after I fed kilo turkey until she was stuffed, I left the room and when I came back she had the rat half way down! This rat was huge compared to her! I didnt think she could eat it but she did. I had to go get more food for zero right after that :/

 

[reptastic]

lol i havnt met a tegu yet that wasnt an escpe artist ha, but with pyro its the whole getting him back in thats a problem for me since he is "agressive" i know its not hunger snce like kilo he eats a ton of food each day, never seen a tegu this size eat so much, i wonder were he puts it. but i do think he has a bit of teritorial issues because he will rush out his hide and pace the entire tank anytime something goes near his tank and do the arching up and hissing!

 

[carcharios]

Reptastic,
Kimo (my new adult tegu) has been aggressive too. Every time I get near their outdoor enclosure, he lunges at me with mouth wide open - and man does he have teeth! I just put my hand up against the screening and let him lick my hand through the screen so he gets used to my scent. I hope this will help him get accustomed to me being around.

Some people say that the Tegus are being aggressive because they're hungry. Not the case with Kimo. He's fed plenty but I can tell that when he lunges, he's going for the kill. This tegu is fearless! At some point, I know I'm going to get bitten and by looking at his teeth, I know they're going to draw blood. I just hope it doesn't hurt as much as I anticipate because he's got one huge mouth. I'll be wearing thick leather gloves when I do eventually get around to getting him out of the enclosure for more exercise.

He's constantly trying to escape as well. His nose is worn down a bit and was a little bloody from rubbing it on the screening. He's got plenty of room in his 5 x 7 right now but he's still intent on escaping. On the other hand, Frieda is content as always and never pulled any of this stuff. Not sure what to make of it all other than that he's either protecting her or just doesn't like me. His old owner held him when I picked him up and had no issues at all. Even on day one, when I had Kimo in the garden with Frieda, he didn't attack me when I repeatedly picked him up. This behavior started when I moved him from the rubbermaid to the outdoor enclosure. Ever since he's been in the enclosure, he's copped a major attitude.

 

[preston897]

sounds like he just needs a good spanking haha

 

[chelvis]

Man I'm glad i don't have this problem. I've been biten once my Bosco and it was a half hearted bite. I had him on the couch and scratchin his head. My poor old dog wanted some attention too so he jumped up on the sofa on the other side of me. Bosco didn't mind till i stop scratching him and started to pet Fluke. That didn't go over so well. He went ahead and the hand i wasn't using went up and just littly bite two of my kunkles. I very glad he did a lite bite becuase it still hurt like #?*! But i've seen what he does to his food so i know it could have been 1000's of times worse.

Sounds like pyro is just being a teenager. I remember reading about alot of young male tegus (10 months to 20 months old) go through a phase where they just don't like to be messed with. At about two years for some reason they just mellow out. It's funny though i haven't read too many new post about ppl having this trouble anymore, me thinks people get rid of them when they become work. I know how much you work with your tegus so i don't think its a handling issue, i would bet his just going through the terrible tegu twos.

As for aggression in outdoor enclousures, not unsusal. For some reasons alot of tegus get an additute when outiside. Best way to deal with it is just to implament the same taming techinques that you'd use indoors. there use to be alot of older memembers on this board that had the same problem and managed to get through it.

 

[carcharios]

I wonder what it is about being in outdoor enclosures that sets them off so much. Even my little guy, Diego was fine inside but the ONE time last summer that I brought him outside, he sat for a few seconds on the driveway and then took off running. I have him in his own outside enclosure and ever since moving him outside a few weeks ago, he runs into his hide the minute he spots me. When he was in the 30 gallon inside, he NEVER did this. Frieda, my female, did this last year when housed outside but she doesn't pull this anymore.

 

[reptastic]

I wonder what it is about being in outdoor enclosures that sets them off so much. Even my little guy, Diego was fine inside but the ONE time last summer that I brought him outside, he sat for a few seconds on the driveway and then took off running. I have him in his own outside enclosure and ever since moving him outside a few weeks ago, he runs into his hide the minute he spots me. When he was in the 30 gallon inside, he NEVER did this. Frieda, my female, did this last year when housed outside but she doesn't pull this anymore.

well it is thought tat when reptiles are exposed to te sunligt they tend to have their wild instincts kick in so now when they are outside they think everything is going to eat them, i guess with the open skies and birds or planes flying over their head, they percieve them as predators and anything else thats bigger than them and can eat them. i have never had any problems with nero when outside and i have been taking her out since she was still a hatchling never used a leash or harness. she was always such a calm tegu gave me no trouble until she got much bigger and it was time to go inside lol!

 

[carcharios]

Keeping them outside though is SO much easier. Inside, their enclosures can really smell and you have to deal with the expense of lighting, etc. Outside, they can get natural sunlight, have a realistic diel cycle by which they can sleep and be active, have more stimulus, etc. I just need to find a way to deal with the aggressiveness...

 

[mastroj]

The one common thing between all of these aggresive tegus, seems to be, males paired with females, where the male is aggresive. To find out what is going on, you can try and seperating them but keeping them outdoors. IF they stop or reduce their aggresiveness then you know what is causing it. Maybe they are in heat and having the female around is getting them all crazy. If that doesnt work bring them back inside and see what changes. Atleast then you will know for sure what is causing the new found aggresive behavoir and you could have more of a handle on correcting the problem logically. I dont know if this would necasarily change the taming technique but if you have an idea of what is going on in their heads you have a better chance at earning that trust back.

 

[carcharios]

Yeah, having them outside AND with a female means two variables to deal with so you've got a point when you say we need to eliminate one of them. The problem right now is that I don't have another enclosure inside big enough to house them separately. I'll have to see what can be done about this.

 

[mastroj]

What about putting a divider up in the outdoor cage. I dont know if it will be as effective as bringing the female inside but it might make a difference. It also might only need to be for a short time to see a difference. So maybe if you just bring the female in and leave them with someone inside while you go out and try and handle the male. Just having her not there for him to protect could make a difference.

Good luck, I am interested to see if any of this makes a difference.

 

[carcharios]

A divider may work. Truth be told, I'm going to wait until I upgrade their enclosure to the kennel type enclosure I've had my eye on. It will be much easier to set a new one up from scratch than altering the one I have now. I'll definitely let you know how it works out.