What is the Best Brand of Cat Food to Give a Tegu?

[carcharios]

Two Questions:

On those random occassions when you do feed your Tegus cat food, is there one brand that is better than others? Does one have a better ratio of vitamins, etc.?

Diego had been hibernating for about 10 months and FINALLY woke up and is quite skinny. I want to fatten him up ASAP now that's he's finally coming out of his hide, sunning himself, and eating. I've been feeding him blackberries with Ca supplement, grapes, and crickets. However, he's still really skinny (he's only been awake for two weeks). Can someone recommend a food source that will help him put on some lbs?

 

[isdrake]

How about pinkies and superworms? Those are fat.

I have heard that Oliver, Orijen, Eukanuba and James Well Beloved are good catfood. But I don't think catfood for Tegus are such a great idea.

 

[carcharios]

Thanks for the info. I forgot about superworms. I'll have to pick some up. As for cat foods and dog foods, I've been reading that many brands now don't include preservatives. There was a canned dog food by the name of canidae that is said to be presevative free. True, some of these brands have both grains and meats but Tegus are omnivores by nature anyway so that shouldn't be an issue. Here is a link rating some of the brands that also gives decent descriptions of the products as well:

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[HorseCaak]

Just don't feed cat and dog food. Chicken Livers and Chicken hearts are super cheap and super easy to feed and tegus LOVE EM!

 

[carcharios]

I have to stop by the market today. I'll definitely pick up some chicken hearts and livers. My little guy REALLY needs the extra nutrition right now. He has a long way to go. His tail is very skinny. I guess 11 months of hibernating will do this. I'd be worried about him if he didn't have energy. Even though he's really undernourished right now, he's still moving around fine.

 

[VARNYARD]

Cat and dog food are garbage, why not feed them a good proper diet?

 

[chelvis]

Cat and Dog foods are formulated to meet the requirements for cats and dogs, not for lizards... let alone tegus. So even if there are no perservatives (and yes there are some great dog foods and cats food out there now) i would never feed them to a tegu. Alot of cat foods have added copper to them becuase cats need this for proper eye development there is also a lot of fat in cat foods, both of these are bad on reptilian livers.

Fatting up reptiles is a long process (notice how it takes 11 months to get skinny). Its gonna take a month or two of good feedings to get him going again. Stick with chicken, turkey, pinki mice (although not too long they are just fat), superworms, waxworms are also high in fat. Crickets really don't have much to them so i would just forget those they spend more energy catchin them then the get from them. Ground truckey with egg and cod liver oil is like a super food for tegus just make sure to vitmize it before feeding with a good reptile vitamine.

 

[Guest]

Cat and dog foods aren't even that good for cats and dogs, themselves :S

Could you imagine eating a processed cereal your entire life? I'd just forget about the idea, myself. There are some cat foods like EVO canned that are 95% meat but again, I'd not even bother.

 

[Mrdeadink]

Cat and dog food are garbage, why not feed them a good proper diet?

There is high quality dog food out there , once you learn to read the labels you realize that the nutrition is on point(if your willing to spend the extra coin)