Free Roaming Tegus?

[donut]

My wife and I are interested in getting either one or two Tegus, but we want to make sure that the Tegu(s) will be happy with us! I have been doing some reading, but a few things are still uncertain from my web-searching:

1) Is it better to have a single Tegu, or a pair so that they keep each other company while me and my wife are at work?

2) If a pair is better, are two females better than two males?

3) Is it possible to have the Tegus roam freely throughout the apartment without supervision similar to cats? Or must they be supervised when roaming freely?

Thank you in advance!

 

[reptastic]

1) Is it better to have a single Tegu, or a pair so that they keep
each other company while me and my wife are at work

they dont "keep each other company" but they can cohabitate

2) If a pair is better, are two females better than two males
if you arent breeding the sex really dont matter, i have 2 males that are kept together, breeding females get very aggressive and will need to be seperated from all other tegus when nesting

3) Is it possible to have the Tegus roam freely throughout the
apartment without supervision similar to cats Or must they
be supervised when roaming freely
I think its possible since i have done it, first off i would reccomend a small bedroo thats locked and the room be thourghly tegu proofed, second i wouldnt do it with a tegu under 3', and lastly make sure the room can handle the requirments a tegu need ie. Temps, humidity, thermo-regulation and hides

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

How many you have is up to you,.. when I had more than one I kept them separate. They are solitary animals that come together for mating,... maybe feeding and hibernating.

It's people who force them to be together in captivity,.. they may get along,.. but that can always change. When one reaches maturity before another, becomes more territorial or during breeding season. It doesn't matter if you have 2 of the same sex or one of each.

As for letting it free roam with no one home,.. I've heard of it being done but I wouldn't recommend it. Some times its hard enough to maintain proper husbandry inside of an enclosure. Especially since they require a lot of humidity,.. good luck with that inside of a house or apartment.

Just like baby proofing,.. tegu proofing is just as important when you let them free roam,.. supervised. Since they can and will go and get into anything or any where they can fit. Even places you may not think they can fit. You can add eating things they're not suppose to as well. Which adds other issues I would like to avoid.

 

[herpgirl2510]

^^Agreed. I let Tonka free roam while I am at home them I put him in his enclosure when I leave. Aside from the reasons above if they poop while you are out and it hardens it is such a pain to get out not to mention the smell would not be pleasant. I have two males together right now. I have no idea how long they will be able to stay together I think maybe the problems are more likely to start themore mature they become. I have another enclosure ready but they really like basking and sleeping together for the moment. I had a male red for awhile he was so territorial he would go up to my other lizard enclosures that had a male in them and try to get in to attack them. I wuld say it depends on the tegu.

 

[donut]

Where I live, the humidity is usually quite high (50-60%). So if I had a high-humdity hide that the Tegu could move freely to if he were uncomfortable, would that be enough?

For the pooping issue, I read a few threads where people manage to potty train them, either on newspaper or in a tub. Is this easy to achieve? Do they poop only once a day?

Thanks again for all the good advice!

 

[Toby_H]

1) Is it better to have a single Tegu, or a pair so that they keep each other company while me and my wife are at work?

Tegus are not 'social' with one another so they will not be "happier" with company...

They are generally very tolerant of one another, provided there is not need to compete for resources. But the dominant animal will certainly take the best of everything and the other animal will get whatever's left. For this reason I would not be comfortable housing them together unless there were considerably more resources than necessary (massive enclosure, multiple warm hides, multiple cool hides, multiple moist hide, multiple basking of each gradient, etc, etc).

And even then, you run the risk of them having a territorial dispute. If this happens when no one is around to break it up, it could be dissasterous. I highly advise againt housing multiple Tegus together.

2) If a pair is better, are two females better than two males?

Though I would not house them together... it seems males interact with less potential conflict than females or a male female pair. Also if you ahve a male and a female you will either need to take steps to prevent them from breeding, or deal with them breeding. Above you never mentioned breeding so I would assume it is not a goal of yours.

3) Is it possible to have the Tegus roam freely throughout the apartment without supervision similar to cats? Or must they be supervised when roaming freely?

I often let my Tegu free roam freely while I am home, but not paying him any attention. I do not worry about him 'getting into trouble'.

But, I would never let my Tegu to have free roam at will. It just leads to the potential of having Tegu poop randomly placed throughout the house and that is just something I could live with.

In time, it's practical to get used to your Tegu's schedule and then let him free roam when he is 'empty' so there is little to no concern about him leaving a mess behind.

 

[herpgirl2510]

Maybe tonka is weird. but sometimes he pees and does not poop. He can do this more than once a day I keep my humidity at at least 70% Plus my guys like to bury under the mulch. I know people have trained them to go in a tub or water. I don't think I have ever heard of anyone having them potty trained like a cat but mybe that would be cool.

 

[Toby_H]

You cannot "train" a Tegu when or where to pee or poop... but you can learn when and where your Tegu is more likely to go and work with that...

For example, being submerged in warm water will often prompt a Tegu to relieve himself... this is not "training" him in any way, instead is learning a natural response and using it to your advantage...

We've had plenty of people make claims of potty training Tegus... Though if/when these claims are looked at deeply they tend to be easily explained by natural preferences or more likely inconsistent coincidences or exaggerations...

 

[reptastic]

TobyH i agree, in my experience tegus have specific places they want to poop and i just worked with that, i cant say i potty trained any of my tegus, for instance i knew my tegus nero and gozar prefered to go in grass, so i took them outside to poop, the rest would go in the tub, storm and rayne will usually get a soak daily but even on days i cant get them out they havnt pooped in their enclosure, i think most tegus dont like to poop were they sleep so when you take them out its their chance to relieve theselves,i cant say this is a fact because my red tegu went a few times in his enclosure, just find out what your tegu prefers and work with it

 

[donut]

I was thinking that I could bathe the Tegus every morning, and see if they take to going to the bathroom then. Assuming they only poop once a day, that shouldn't be too tricky. I figured I'd leave a box of newspapers for them to pee in throughout the day.

I live in a large apartment and figured I could give them free roam of the entire living room (~200 sq feet). I thought maybe I could setup a couple of hides, a warm sunny place, a cool place, and a bath for them to walk in/out freely. If I did that would I still need a 6'x3' enclosure? Or could I get away with something smaller?

 

[Jason Berryman]

The subject of tegus living with one another is somewhat complicated. I’ve seen cases of tegus of the same sex living with each other in groups and somewhere I remember there being some evidence of social behavior in the species. However, they seem perfectly fine without the company of other tegus and certain individuals can be aggressive to each other. I’d say something akin to an introverted cat in their social mannerisms.

 

[Guman]

The other problem I have with free-roaming is often the animal is not provided the correct, heat, and humidity!