# Slow Grower?



## Mutablekitty (Apr 29, 2020)

I've had Rueben since last fall and he was at first growing like a weed! but lately it seems as though his growth has plateaued. He is acting normal and fine. Just had a shed and is eating well.When I got him he was around 4/5 months now he is around either 10/11 months and he isn't very big compared to the photos of other tegus I see around that size. Last time I measured him he was just over a foot long. Honestly he looks to be around the same size as then. What could have caused his growth to plateau? Anyone else have anything similar happen to their tegu?


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## Mutablekitty (Apr 29, 2020)

I took this photo a few minutes after making this post. 

just to reiterate. He’s fine in all other aspects he is just small .


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## rantology (Apr 29, 2020)

he may have slowed down during the winter, if not outright brumation. Did you notice him sleeping more? I'd say as long as he is eating well he'll probably pick back up on growth soon and you shouldn't need to worry.


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## Godzilla Earth (Apr 29, 2020)

he looks just fine. I agree with rantology so thats probably it


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## Mutablekitty (Apr 29, 2020)

rantology said:


> he may have slowed down during the winter, if not outright brumation. Did you notice him sleeping more? I'd say as long as he is eating well he'll probably pick back up on growth soon and you shouldn't need to worry.


He was sleeping more and hardly eating so i do think he was in some form of brumation. So you're probably right! Thanks for replying to does help put my mind at ease haha!


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## Godzilla Earth (Apr 29, 2020)

yeah, lots of nice peeps here so go out and get to know some people


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## AlphaAlpha (Apr 29, 2020)

I agree and probably just the winter slow down....I'm sure his appetite will soon spike.


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## Godzilla Earth (Apr 30, 2020)

yeah, nothing to worry about


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## Debita (May 6, 2020)

Don't forget about his space - I can't tell from the photo if he has enough, but it looks like maybe not? Have you ever seen what happens to chickens that are kept in tight spaces, or containers that are too small? Their growth gets stunted, as if they know that they have to stay small. It's very strange, but I just thought I'd throw this into the mix! Tegus are explorers....they like a lot of space.

Also - chickens can regain their growth potential when moved to bigger spaces, but they do actually shut their growth down if they're crowded. Do lizards do this? Not sure, but It wouldn't surprise me.


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## Godzilla Earth (May 6, 2020)

crocs do it but Idk about lizards


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## AlphaAlpha (May 6, 2020)

Debita said:


> Don't forget about his space - I can't tell from the photo if he has enough, but it looks like maybe not? Have you ever seen what happens to chickens that are kept in tight spaces, or containers that are too small? Their growth gets stunted, as if they know that they have to stay small. It's very strange, but I just thought I'd throw this into the mix! Tegus are explorers....they like a lot of space.
> 
> Also - chickens can regain their growth potential when moved to bigger spaces, but they do actually shut their growth down if they're crowded. Do lizards do this? Not sure, but It wouldn't surprise me.



Isn't there some belief round this for fish too???


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## Godzilla Earth (May 7, 2020)

Hmm, I have heard that goldfish/koi do that too


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## Debita (May 7, 2020)

Can't quote - but yes, lots of animals conserve their growth if they are enclosed in space that they perceive is cramped or too small for them. I've personally had chicks do this, and I know I've heard that it happens with some fish varieties that are large, and yet contained in a aquarium that's too small for them. A survival instinct I suppose. I'll have to look that up - it's strange.


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## Mutablekitty (May 19, 2020)

Debita said:


> Don't forget about his space - I can't tell from the photo if he has enough, but it looks like maybe not? Have you ever seen what happens to chickens that are kept in tight spaces, or containers that are too small? Their growth gets stunted, as if they know that they have to stay small. It's very strange, but I just thought I'd throw this into the mix! Tegus are explorers....they like a lot of space.
> 
> Also - chickens can regain their growth potential when moved to bigger spaces, but they do actually shut their growth down if they're crowded. Do lizards do this? Not sure, but It wouldn't surprise me.


Hi, he is slowly growing out of his current place but still has plenty of space to run and turn around or do whatever he pleases. With that being said I have been working on his final enclosure which is almost finished- just having some complications with the door.


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## rantology (May 19, 2020)

Mutablekitty said:


> Hi, he is slowly growing out of his current place but still has plenty of space to run and turn around or do whatever he pleases. With that being said I have been working on his final enclosure which is almost finished- just having some complications with the door.


Oh man I can relate to this


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## Mutablekitty (Dec 2, 2020)

Bringing this thread back since he is still pretty small. He has grown A LOT since I made this but he doesn't look like a 1year old (+ a few months) tegu. I'm starting to think that he might've been small when we first got him over a year ago. I mean he barely looks like a 6-7m old tegu. He does have his large enclosure and we take him out often to let him run around and explore, Could he be a runt? 
Also I should mention he has little to n interest in food compared to other tegus.
His temperament is fine.
He did drop his tail the DAY we got him and it has been growing back nicely. Could that have stunted his growth too?
Thanks <3


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## Debita (Dec 2, 2020)

So - if he dropped his tail on the very day you got him, I think the whole event REALLY freaked him out. Maybe other animals scared him, or he just somehow couldn't deal with it.. They do it as a defense mechanism - it distracts the predator. Here's what the austrailiangeographic.com site said:

"A *LIZARD* SEVERS *its tail* as a self-defence mechanism in order to distract *its* predator – this is known as autotomy (literally from the Greek 'self' and 'sever') or self-amputation. ... The pulling apart of the muscles causes the *tail* to fall off along the line of weakness."

Apparently the tail keeps moving (twitching) while the lizard makes it's escape. Better that my tail's eaten, than my whole body. It seems like it would be a last resort though - like he/she knows she's had, and she bails on it. 

Don't worry about it's size - I've heard other owners wonder if they have a problem animal, and it has always ended up that on the Tegu scale, they're just on the smaller end. I'd call it a blessing!!!


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## Zyn (Dec 3, 2020)

Also without his tail he’s missing a lot of fat storage


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## Roadkill (Dec 9, 2020)

Within single clutches of eggs (so all the progeny of one pairing from a single mother in a breeding season) there is typically 3 cohorts among the siblings that are distinct by their growth rates. There's usually a few that grow exceptionally fast, a few that grow exceptionally slow, while the majority exhibit an "average" growth rate, even though all are kept and growing under the exact same conditions. It is my hypothesis that this is actually a deliberate evolutionary strategy for dealing with stochasticity in the environment. In regular years, the slow and average growers have the benefit. In bountiful years, they all have the benefit but the fast growers have a greater probability of contributing to the population sooner and thereby turning bountiful resources into population success on a shorter time scale. In bad years, the slow growers have the benefit because they actually require fewer resources, and therefore act as an insurance to the population where the others are more likely to fail. Slow growth is not necessarily the health hazard everyone seems to assume it is. I've seen many tegus spend 2-3 years being barely larger than a hatchling, and then all of a sudden put on a growth spurt to match up with the rest of their siblings despite them all having the exact same care.

Actually, Zyn, it really isn't. Don't get me wrong, there is some fat storage there, but it is not the "surplus" storage people think it is. The tegus have a much greater storage in their abdomen, a paired set of organs called the fat bodies. They are literally just fat with a bit of blood supply, running from the post-hepatic septum (just behind the liver, so fairly close to where our diaphragm would be) all the way back, down each side of the belly, to pretty close to the cloaca. That big belly you see most tegus sporting in captivity, that's mostly those fat body organs. In comparison, the fat in the tail is minor. However, with a loss of tail, instead of supplies going to regular growth and maintenance, a lot is going to go towards regeneration of the tail, thereby likely having an impact on overall growth.


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## Debita (Dec 10, 2020)

I love this forum. Now, I gotta go look up stochasticity.

_Stochastic : of or relating to a process involving a randomly determined sequence of observations each of which is considered as a sample of one element from a probability distribution._


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