# Tegu sudden aggression



## firfy (Jul 23, 2019)

I dont know what has been going on lately, my female blue tegu will try to bite me no matter what! Today she bit my hand two times and yesterday she bit me once. I never pulled away to show im scared of her mouth and she cant be associating me with food because I feed her in a separate bin and she never even sees me put the food in there. So what can be going on? None of the bites have been aggressively. Yesterday she bit me in her cage and I never feed her in there! Any help will be appreciated!

Update: she was biting as much as she could even with the glove on then I put her back in the enclosure and she was fine. Any ideas on why she was biting me?


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## Shacky (Jul 24, 2019)

Have u tryid to push her away, just a little push and talk to her at the same time. Mine has also been test-biting the last days. I did this and it seemed to help, like he knows it's me now


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## Merlot (Jul 24, 2019)

When mine does this I definitely talk to him and I ball my fist up and put my fist towards his mouth and keep it there so even if her bites (which he hasn’t but tried a couple minor times) then he kind of gets confused and backs up, looks at me and my fist and all is fine. Then I lay my hand down on the soil to let him smell me and walk up to me. Don’t pick him up first time he/she comes up to you, let your gu get more familiar. Also, I would check that your feeding enough. Mine was going through big growth spurt and I had to increase food intake and the aggression pretty much went away totally


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## firfy (Jul 24, 2019)

Yea mine is a bit weird in that you have to offer her food more then once to know for sure if she is full or not, if I just offer her food once and she doesnt take then I have to offer it later then she probably will take it. Also when I push her away she just gets more mad at me this was her a couple of days ago





As you can see completely tame and even is sitting on me


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## Merlot (Jul 24, 2019)

To be honest the gu looks good, yeah just keep up the persistence with ensuring the Gu is fed enough. When mine would get a little cage aggressive I would still take him out for some social time and a bath before feeding. It’s the cage part when they usually show that aggression. Once out they’re good. YMMV


What a beaut tho!


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## firfy (Jul 24, 2019)

She doesnt attack me in her cage, besides the one time she test bit me, when she was out she went crazy on me and just circled me trying to bite, I let her out and interact with her everyday I dont know what is wrong


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## Merlot (Jul 24, 2019)

Damn well make sure you don’t smell like food and put some old T-shirt’s in the cage to get your scent constantly familiar. Man that must’ve been a little scary with a strong tegu circling you trying to size you up


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## firfy (Jul 24, 2019)

Yea the worst part is she was NEVER like this before for the almost 2 years I have had her also right after she was biting me and circling me I pit her back then took her out again and she was her normal self


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## firfy (Jul 24, 2019)

Also she was going through shed that might have something to do with it


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## Merlot (Jul 24, 2019)

Very strange. But I could see that with growing and all the hormones possibly coming with the shed. But when mine sheds I give a nice bath to help peel the feet and tail but lately with all the cod liver oil I have been giving him I barely need to assist in shedding at all. But he would be very calm when I do it like he knows what I’m doing. Just the very very tip of tail sometimes. The feet even come off as nice full paws of shed, pretty cute lol


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## firfy (Jul 24, 2019)

Yea I gave her a bath yesterday! I hope that this was only a one time thing!


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## firfy (Jul 25, 2019)

Wow right after this she tried to bite again


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## Walter1 (Jul 25, 2019)

In the past, I've yelled NO and had a squirt bottle of cold water.

Just puzzling why this behavior is happening now


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## firfy (Jul 25, 2019)

Yep no idea, she was completely tame before all this happened the humidity has been a little tough to keep up though as my room is really dry and hot, she is currently in shed too, she might just be a little grumpy because she was in shed and it is not coming off as fast as it was suppose to, but I dont know for sure


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## Merlot (Jul 25, 2019)

How old is your tegu? Seems like it’s approaching or approached sexual maturity based off that size? I saw your pic were she almost snapped at you again? Maybe there are som eggs under the substrate? Just pissing in the wind on ideas


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## Merlot (Jul 25, 2019)

I too like the “NO” method and I got a big a$$ adjustable pressure mister bottle if Blaze is feeling froggy when I open the enclosure I hit him with the water and I make a fist so he doesn’t possibly think my fingers are food. Then I rest my fist there next to my gu and then he will walk all calmly past it


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## firfy (Jul 25, 2019)

She is definitely passed that stage she is also 40” long she is almost 2 years old


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## Merlot (Jul 25, 2019)

I hear it’s 3 years is when they are sexually mature and sounds like she is in the terrible 2’s


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## firfy (Jul 25, 2019)

I remember going through this when she was like 1.5 yrs old but you may be right so i will keep that in mind too!! Thanks!!


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## firfy (Jul 27, 2019)

Update: yesterday she never even tried to bite me and was sitting on me again and being all nice again!!


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## AlphaAlpha (Jul 28, 2019)

It's just testing boundaries and keeping you on your toes making sure you don't slip.... I've never known any animal or CHILD that doesn't go through this..... Just stay strong stick to your guns and carry on.

Alpha is also being a **** at the min and is unpredictable on a daily basis.


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## Mamasaurus (Jul 31, 2019)

Ooooooh she's being a brat lol. I have had this issue only once so far but my Gu isn't that old either. I'm sure it will happen again. Like others have said maybe feed more but if it is out of the enclosure I would pay attention to lighting as shadows will put my boy on edge sometimes and also too if the shed isn't coming off that could be it. That was when he was flying across his enclosure at me for two days and he never shows aggression otherwise. They're a little weird like me I think. Won't lump you in with me though lol. She's beautiful


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## firfy (Jul 31, 2019)

Thanks for the advice!


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## Merlot (Aug 1, 2019)

Been good since it noticing any aggression? Mine just gave me a small test bite on the under fat part of my thumb. Didn’t bite hard at all but I felt his mouth on me. Kind of scared the **** out of me lol so I yelled no and balled up my fist and put it towards him as if I’m not scared lol and he ran back to one of his hides. Kind of my fault-ish. I have been feeding him in the enclosure (while this has never been an issue, I notice this guy in particular has a huge food/prey drive so I have been doing it for a while) and lately I haven’t been. I notice his “chase” is getting much stronger and pretty concise. He eats a lot more then my female red did at his age now. Like a lot more. And he had a prolapse recently and have been scared to feed him full full. But he got a fat meal today after his bath and i stuck my hand in there pretty quick to pull out the dish since I didn’t tongue feed today I just had it ready in the enclosure when the bath was done


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## firfy (Aug 1, 2019)

She was doing good until today, she started biting me again and the spraying thing doesn’t work she will just keep biting she probably is smelling my other gu too, I dont know what to do anymore


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## Walter1 (Aug 1, 2019)

Well, I'm stumped too.


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## firfy (Aug 3, 2019)

Guess I am stuck with 2 mean tegus


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## Walter1 (Aug 3, 2019)

That's hard for me to believe. Terribly abused animals may never cotton to folks. Your's were not abused. Simething changed either outside or inside them. Could be a strange growing phase. The worst Argies are just disininterested.


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## firfy (Aug 3, 2019)

Hmm ok I guess I will wait and see if things get any better for me


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## Walter1 (Aug 3, 2019)

Keep in touch closely. I want for things to to work well for you.


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## firfy (Aug 4, 2019)

Ok I will, thanks!!


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## firfy (Aug 4, 2019)

Also my mom suggested to put toys in there with them so they can just bite them, but I dont even know of they will have any interest in the toys.


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## firfy (Aug 4, 2019)

My other tegu is now biting whenever I open the cage and I cant even spray the cage with out him biting he is 1 yr old. But anyways I continued with spraying her every time she bites, and the bites have been reduced but she still will bite when she is out


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## Debita (Aug 9, 2019)

Sounds hormonal to me. Between her age, and shed - she's having a bad day... or week. Humans can be such a nuisance to deal with, what with all their expectations. = ) 

I'm always a little more careful with my movements when they're shedding. They seem grumpy, and they want to blame us for all their problems. Hmmmm...reminds me of my kids.


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## Debita (Aug 9, 2019)

Fickle Females - Go figure!


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## Walter1 (Aug 11, 2019)

They seem a little prickly during part of the shed cycle. Maybe an uncomfortable feeling.


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## firfy (Aug 11, 2019)

Yea


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