# Tegu hates turkey



## Styx (May 8, 2012)

So I made up the ground turkey food mix for my almost five month old red tegu like here:
http://www.tegutalk.com/showthread.php?tid=5976#axzz1uJ7RIWPG

My tegu hates it. S/He'll eat anything else, except that.

Now my question. What do I do? What's the best course of action? Should I wait it out and the tegu will eat when it gets hungry enough? Or is there an alternative to turkey that I can use? Should I try mixing in a smidgen of honey or fruit since I know my tegu has a serious sweet tooth?


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## Aardbark (May 8, 2012)

I have the oppisate problem. My tegu will only eat turkey and wont eat anything else. I think the waiting till they are hungry idea might work, but Im to much of a wuss to do it, lol.


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## AP27 (May 8, 2012)

Honey might work. That's how I got Odin to eat things he didn't like.


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## monstruo-the-tegu (May 8, 2012)

maroon will not eat anything but turkey but u should mix the turkey juice on something u want yur tegu 2 eat


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## Ujarak (May 8, 2012)

Let him get hungry and then offer the turkey with honey on it and it might work. One of my tegus was really picky aswell and i found if i mix his fav food ( strawberries ) in i can get him to eat anything.


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## TegusRawsome80 (May 8, 2012)

Or you could feed it a natural diet... If the tegu doesn't want to eat ground turkey then feed it something it will eat as long as it's still nutritious, ie frozen/thawed rodents. I wouldn't recommend feeding a tegu honey.


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## laurarfl (May 9, 2012)

You can try lean ground beef, fillets, fish, etc. And like the post above, F/T rodents.

It is reported that tegus eat honey in the wild. But I don't know how much and I'm always worried about diabetes and insulin issues in captive animals. I like to try raw egg personally.


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## naturboy87 (May 9, 2012)

my guys also love Honey they will eat just about enything with it on it ... its the only way i can ever get then to eat eny greens ...


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## AP27 (May 9, 2012)

I watered down the honey when I used it so I wouldn't be giving him a whole lot.


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## TegusRawsome80 (May 9, 2012)

Wait are you supposed to feed tegus greens?


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## Styx (May 9, 2012)

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try those and see how that goes.


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## AP27 (May 9, 2012)

TegusRawsome80 said:


> Wait are you supposed to feed tegus greens?


You can, but you don't have to. Not many seem to like them much anyways.


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## laurarfl (May 10, 2012)

I have one that will eat some.


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## naturboy87 (May 10, 2012)

i offer it mayb once a month as a fruit salad toped w honey sum times its all gon and other times they wont even tuch it ... just my experences thow ...


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## TeguBuzz (May 10, 2012)

A bit of honey would do the trick, no harm done.


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## Dana C (May 10, 2012)

I should count myself lucky. Eva loves turkey, fish, liver etc. but won't touch a FT mouse.


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## Styx (Jun 3, 2012)

Okay, so back to this again. 

Took him to the vet when he started refusing most food because I freaked out, just in case anything was wrong, got x-rays done ect ect. Vet didn't find anything wrong. She said he's probably just picky (joy).

SO. He dislikes most everything now. It's easier to list what he will eat:
Salmon
Ground buffalo
Fruit (I haven't given him any in weeks, but I know he will always eat fruit)
Boiled eggs (not scrambled, apparently, only boiled)

...That's kind of it. He'll sometimes eat a pink but doesn't seem to want them much. Rarely he will eat a couple crickets. Rarely he will eat a piece of chicken heart. Still hates the turkey. I have also tried the Repashy Meat Pie - which is apparently, according to my tegu, paramount to poison. He completely flipped out when I offered him that. Bought him the Zoo Med Monitor Diet as per my vet's suggestion. No dice. Tried some Phoenix Worms. Big no there.

I have tried feeding him in different places, different times of the day, ect to see if any of that would make a difference. He seems to prefer being held while he eats, but otherwise usually does not want to be picked up. When I say held I mean sitting on my hand, btw, not with my fingers wrapped around him. I don't mash it in his face or anything, I will just put the food in a small dish and hold in in front of his face, and he will lean forward in my hand and eat. But he'll just lick it and then turn away if he's not in my hand.

So, any other suggestions? Would the buffalo be okay if I mixed it with the beef liver and cod liver oil and varied it as much as possible? I am willing to try and buy anything, just hit me with more suggestions.


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## laurarfl (Jun 4, 2012)

Try anything you are eating: chicken fillets, ground beef, beef pieces, any organs. If he takes chicken, try a day old quail chick. Try all sorts of seafood: fish, shrimp, squid, sodium free sardines packed in water. Will he eat raw egg? Sometimes that is an enticer as a dipping for other foods. Have you tried canned insects?


How about Wysong 100% meat canned foods? They have a huge variety of top notch meats on their website. They are sold in specialty pet food stores, too. By the way, buffalo is fine.


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## Styx (Jun 4, 2012)

I didn't even think of shrimp or anything like that. Thanks a lot. I will make a list and give all that a try.

I haven't tried the raw egg, but I will see if he'll eat something dipped in it.

Haven't tried canned insects, just a lot of different live ones. But I will pick up a can of canned ones and see if he'll go for that.

I can buy the Wysong no problem. My dogs actually eat grain free dog food (Orijen) so the store I get that at carries a lot of all meat grain free high end products. They even have some frozen grain free all meat patties I suppose I could also try. And if he doesn't like them - I can always feed it to the dogs. haha

Thank you very much, made me think of how much I haven't offered him that he might still like instead of everything I have and he didn't like


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## laurarfl (Jun 6, 2012)

Just some tricks I tried through the years and different foods I have found that my tegus like. As for the pet foods, I had an old Border Collie with Lupus, then an 18yo cat with cancer, and now two ferrets with diet related chronic illnesses. I really get into physiology and nutrition, so began to check out some of the newer pet foods coming out. Now I just have to get on the bandwagon and clean up my own eating habits, lol.


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