Skinny Red Tegu

[SterlingAce]

Hi I recently got a red tegu male,around 80cm but he is very skinny. What foods are good to help him pick up weight quickly without compromising his health?

Thanks

 

[Ntyvirus]

There's a pretty expansive food list on here somewhere that'll be able to steer u in the right sirection

 

[Ujarak]

http://www.tegutalk.com/showthread.php?tid=6452

 

[SterlingAce]

Thank you but I'm not sure which is best for them to help pick up weight?

 

[james.w]

Rats, what is your setup like. Size, temps, humidity, substrate, uvb??

 

[SterlingAce]

At the moment he is with my 2 other red females indoors in a 3m fish tank because it's still a bit cold outside. They are slowly busy coming out of hibernation now.
There is 10.0 uvb light in it and a 250w spot light on the hot side.
Struggling a bit to get the humidity up it's at around 60%,temperature on the hot side under the light is 36c and on the cool side it's 26c.
Substrate is a mix of fine gravel and coco peat about 30cm deep. In their hide box are dry leaves and hay.
All of them are fed separately outside the cage so I can see how much they eat.
Before I bought him the previous owner took him to the vet who gave him a parasite flush and a clean bill of health. I got him about 3 weeks later and about 2 weeks after that the tegus started eating less and less to go into hibernation.

Sorry I'm not very good with conversions of length and temperature

Thanks

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

Congrats on the new tegu.
What's the rush, as long as he's healthy feed him the same thing you feed your other tegus and he'll gain weight in due time.

 

[SterlingAce]

Thank you
I'm a bit of a paranoid tegu owner,don't like skinny animals. I only want the best for my animals

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

I gotcha, it's just a red flag for me when I see threads about people's tegus not growing fast or quick enough for them. Quick growth isn't always a good thing especially with out proper nutrition and husbandry. Just get him on a varied diet and he'll gain weight. Good healthy weight, bone and muscle mass not just fat.

 

[SterlingAce]

Thanks again. I don't want to compromise his health in any way. Should I feed him as much as he will eat or small portions more often?

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

YW,..for any tegu what and how much they eat can determine how often and how much to feed them. Whole prey are heavier meals and take longer to digest. So they're not as hungry as often as they would be with meaty meals that are easier. He's a big boy so he can go either way, small meals more often or one large meal every few days or so. In time he'll let you know what works best.

During this time of year a lot of tegus start to slow down even if they don't hibernate, when they do fewer meals are required.

 

[SterlingAce]

I'm from South Africa and summer is starting now and they are slowly beginning to wake up. I'm going to wait until they are properly awake before I start feeding them.
I will try different portions and see what works best

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

Okay,.. then get ready for their activity and appetite to pick up. For future reference it helps to have your location posted in your profile so that it shows in the stats in the upper right corner of your post. That way people know where you are and can better assist with information that may be a little different for you.

Also just in case there's someone near by who can help and reccomend some people, places or items as well that we may not have or even know about here.

 

[SterlingAce]

Awesome will fix that now Does the male need to be in top condition to breed with the females?