Stubborn Tegu wont eat anything but mice, suggestions?

[westcoastnavy]

The back story:
I have two black and whites, one male one female. I have had them about a year and half. For the first 14 months, they were great eaters. They started off with crickets and I slowly worked in some fruits and veggies. Once they were too big to reasonably feed them crickets as a protein source we switched to ground turkey, raw chicken, Hard boiled eggs and mice.
The issue:
As of about four months ago, they started to get picky. They would eat around all the other fruit and just pick out any pineapple. Then they started to refuse chicken then eggs then turkey then the pineapple and now they will only eat mice.
I tried to coax them with literally anything i could find at the store. If the food item is listed online anywhere as being safe to feed a Tegu (or suggested as Tegu snacks from someone else s experience) then ive tried it and they have refused it.
For a kick i even gave them crickets once. While hilarious and good exorcise, its not, as you can imagine, a reasonable food source.

And Ill admit I got a little frustrated at this, so I didn't feed them for a few days and even as hungry as were, they wont touch anything.

Suggestions?


Also, they have never had any behavior issues nor do they exhibit any now, and continue to cuddle with each other everyday.

 

[N8bub]

Did you feed live mice or dead? Reason being you stated that you fed crickets and they went for them indicating IMO a reaction bite. Are your tegus overweight which may have led to them being picky? Do they recieve a good amount of exercise I.e. free roaming, baths, as this should stimulate appetite. Also try some dubia, if they are into live prey there is way more nutrition in those big roaches than crickets.

 

[N8bub]

Also they may just be picky might have to wait em out more than a couple days. They will eat sooner or later

 

[westcoastnavy]

Fed them dead mice. They are pretty lazy, which I believe is par for the course, but they apparently love to chase to crickets, but they have never had live mice. Also, we have used various tongs and tricks to encourage their prey drive.
They are not overweight according to my vet.
Currently, they have both had 3 adult mice each (pre frozen) over the last 16 days. so 7 days of nothing, then three mice each, then nothing for 9 days.
The Tegu habitat is 4ft wide by 6`8 long and 2 ft high and it has an upstairs that is the same size. So total SQFT is 26.667. They often move between floors and are either digging into the substrate (coco fiber), soaking in their pool or laying under the heat lamps on the top floor. They have UVB on both levels.
Once a day I let them out to roam, but that lasts a short period of time (approx. 10 minutes) before they both go and hide under their cage and sleep until i drag them out and put them away.

We bred and fed Dubia for a long time (they smell so much better than crickets). They used to eat them if hand fed, but neither will bother to hunt them as the Dubia run to a corner and sit still. Currently, they will not eat Dubia even if had fed.

Ive read they eat less when hibernation/Brumination but they seem far to active to be doing either. How long can i reasonably go with out feeding them?

 

[Trede]

Well, rather than add a thread, I'll just comment here that I was wondering the same thing: How long with no food before I worry? The tegu I adopted/rescued has still shown 0 interest in food, in spite of being active and seeming to adjust fairly quickly.

 

[Skeep]

Well, rather than add a thread, I'll just comment here that I was wondering the same thing: How long with no food before I worry? The tegu I adopted/rescued has still shown 0 interest in food, in spite of being active and seeming to adjust fairly quickly.

Depending on the age, if they are active they should eat regularly. Might just have to find the right food, or maybe get the temperatures up, or maybe he's still adjusting. If it's possible it might be a good idea to ask what he ate previously. My tegu was lost for 4 weeks and didn't eat during that time. She was still okay but she was just hiding and only came out once in a while, definitely not active.

 

[Josh]

How long has it been since the animal has eaten @Trede?

 

[Trede]

I was told she last ate 12/2.

 

[westcoastnavy]

Sorry for the lack of attendance, holidays and what not.
Ok update:
Last week, they finally started to eat again. Total time without food 22 days.
Just got up, to check on them and they were clambering to get out. Once they were out thay started to try to eat anything they saw. A a random boot, my foot, my hands, table leg, chair leg, wall you name it.
Between th two they ate a large chicken breast with calc powder and vits.
Since they they have eaten almost everyday but refuse fruits or veggies. They have no interest in either of those, just meat.

It probably is not a great diet, but im just happy they are eating again.

In that time frame of not eating, nothing else seems to be out of place. humidity and temp. stayed constant, they didnt bother each other, just weird i guess.

 

[marydd]

I make a kind of meat loaf with fruit and veggies in it. I do this with the ground Turkey I give her. I chop up the veggies super small. I also will chop them very fine and crack an egg on top. I have to be sneaky to get her to eat veggies.

 

[westcoastnavy]

tried that. a veggie fruit puree with ground turkey also a finely chopped chicken with various fruit (kiwi, mango, banana, sweet potato,) you name it. they would touch it. now they will eat anything. Seriously, anything. not sure what happened.

 

[N8bub]

Perhaps a proto hibernation? Not quite going down, but enough of a winter slow down to put them off their feed.

 

[westcoastnavy]

That is what I am guessing? sort of. i dunno.
They ate voraciously for the past few days and now one is doing what I assume to be a mating thing.
Head bobbing and gentle biting while trying to mount.

The other one sometimes is down, and other times is not down. I have individual hides built for them, so she can hide from the other.
Honestly I didn't think they were old enough.

 

[Jackie & Hellboy]

What are their basking temps? Also the ground turkey I would avoid feeding, while prey only is better for them, but I mix it up with chicks, quail, guinea pig, and mice and rats. They need the guts and bones and weird stuff inside those animals, their digestive systems are built for that, not raw ground up turkey IMO. Obviously insects are fine but I would only use the turkey meat thing as an only in a pinch type of food, if you can't wait for shipments of chicks rats and such or are out of insects. When I used to feed mine that type of diet they always had runny stools the day after, but since, I've only had the occasionally soft pile (still a pile though) with typically firmer more healthy looking stools from both my red and B&W

 

[Jackie & Hellboy]

Whole prey not while prey*

 

[Jackie & Hellboy]

Breeders use the ground turkey diet because it's cheap, not because it's ideal, the average keeper should stick with a more natural diet if you have the means to afford it.

 

[westcoastnavy]

Hi end temp is 120f low end is 70f approx.
Not quite sure why you think I am providing a large turkey diet or that i have not offered any live prey?

I think you missed the part of the post where i was offering literally anything and everything i could possibly find to encourage them to eat anything as they consumed nothing for almost a month?

But any advice you have on what causes argentines to ignore any and all food for a month would be helpful and appreciated!

 

[Jackie & Hellboy]

I'm sorry I didn't know they'd eaten nothing for that long. I'm not trying to be rude at all about the turkey thing, I've just learned that over my time working with mine that it's not for me, both of mine are picky eaters as it is and I'm trying to avoid them being too chubby no matter how cute it might look it took some time for them to eat any fruit that wasn't in ground turkey and I was concerned but one day like a month later they picked up where they'd left off! Do whatever you can to get them healthy and eating for sure. I wasn't suggesting live only prey I use frozen thawed rodents/chicks the only live prey being insects but mine only eat very large grasshoppers and katydids since they're both almost 4 years old and all other bugs seem to just bother them being too small (wish I had a big colony of hissing cockroaches but not yet). But again sorry if I seemed rude about the turkey I've also heard they can become stubborn to only wanting it, which is one of the reasons I stopped using it a few years back. Hope I could help in any way and if your temps are still normal like that I don't see why they'd start brumating, mine never have (at least noticeably) since I didn't plan on breeding them.

 

[westcoastnavy]

Oh, hey no worries, i think you just missed the first portion of this post is all!

Hissing roaches and dubia are not that great, tried it
They just bunker down in a corner and my tegus end up ignoring them. I donated both colonies to a local wildlife group as feeders.
But i have never tried katydids, though i do drop like 30 large crickets in once in awhile to get them a little exorcise. They LOVE to chase those around. Its like what I imagine a realistic version of a real life jurassic park mishap in LA would look like.

Ya, i couldnt get them to eat for about 22 days, and after the third week, i would have offered them a virgin sacrafice if it would have gotten them to eat!!

They did start taking food, any thing and everything for a week or two but now refuse any veggies. just fruits bugs and meat (and egg). so not ideal, but my vet says they are pretty spot on a target weight. Still not sure why they quit eating, but now one hides and the other is trying to mate.....
Ive had to split em up for a few days, but now that has stopped so who the heck knows what is going on any more!
My vet suggested it might have been sort of a brumination before mating season, but even he isnt so sure. But they do have a fairly large cage with two levels, so it is possible they just chose to keep to the cooler first floor more often when I am not home. but ya, just weird ya know?

 

[Jackie & Hellboy]

That is strange, I could understand one of them refusing food for a bit but BOTH refusing for the same amount of time! That must have been quite worrisome, so I understand your concern no doubt. But I'm happy to hear that they're eating and healthy weight. I catch the katydids and grasshoppers wild in the fields and clearings around here that I'm sure are pesticide and insecticide free, but I'm planning on starting a colony of grasshoppers as I've learned they're very simple to breed, they just aren't as fast as roach and cricket colonies, but you can grow your own wheat grass and other grasses simply and that's all grasshoppers eat, and they get all their moister needs from their food and need dry hot conditions. Great part is that the nymphs or young grasshoppers are safe to live with adults, crickets you have to worry about giving the young room to escape the adults or they'll be canibalized potentially, so I'm going to get one of those going soon hopefully