How about feeding hairless rats

[Frankie.d]

Hi all,

Miko my 3 year old b&w tegu has stopped eating ground turkey and hearts? I gave her turkey cutlets but she's not really taking anything but rats. If I wiggle a nice size frozen thawed rat in front of her she goes crazy? I know people say don't feed it to them all the time because of the fur but what if you feed them hairless rats doesn't that negate the fur issue or are there other issues? She's also sleeping a lot if she starting hibernation should I turn her heat lights off? Right now her lights and heat are 12 hrs on and 12 hrs off?

Thanks
Frank

 

[kellen.watkins]

You could cut down the hours of light at first to 8 or 10, wait til she doesn't come out for a couple weeks then I would kill the lights. And yeah hairless rats would kill the fur issue, I would still look for other foods in the meantime.Try tilapia ground lamb (ground lamb is very fattening though) turkey necks gizzards and hearts.

 

[dragonmetalhead]

If you're worried about fur, try feeding smaller-sized rodents. Kodo is capable of eating small adult mice and has, but I usually give him fuzzies to keep him getting blocked.

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

Fur isn't the only thing that causes impactions there are other factors at play as well. It's still debatable what role fur plays in the process since it's not digested. Some say it helps to clean the pipes so to speak and moves things along. The same goes for feeding more smaller prey rather than one appropriate sized and which ones better or safer.

But when ever there's an impaction you should look at husbandry as well, mainly diet and hydration. Yeah they're scavengers and sometimes eat things they shouldn't whether we see it or not. But depending on the size of it, varied diet and they're kept well hydrated it will pass on it's own.

Hairless aren't easy to come by as feeders frozen or live and they cost more. You would be better off finding a coupe of pairs and breeding your own. Even with hairless a varied diet is best, too many hairless and you still have the same weight and health issues as feeding too much whole prey. You can tack on a supply issue if the tegu refuses to eat anything other than hairless.

There are way more things they can eat besides turkey, hearts and rats. When you feed the same things too often they can and will get tired of it and stop eating it.