# "San Diego Zoo" Turkey diet



## Dubya (Nov 28, 2012)

I found this discussion on "The Tegu" forum and am posting it here. I use this basic diet, but chicken instead of turkey and I add a lot of other things to it. There is a post that contains an e-mail from the man who did the research and came up with the diet. Check it out.

http://www.thetegu.com/showthread.php?636-The-quot-SDZ-(San-Diego-Zoo)-Diet-quot-A-Discussion/page3&s=60db39f30277bcd94bfcbc8f574e50de


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## TegusRawsome80 (Nov 28, 2012)

I personally would always advise against using an item such as ground turkey as a staple for any large lizards diet. I am a big fan of whole prey as it has proven to work time and time again and provides everything the animal needs food wise. I would like to see a long term study comparing the two but until then I will stick with whole prey since it is simply a more natural and supportive diet.


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## Little Wise Owl (Nov 28, 2012)

I completely agree with the post above. Even monitor owners no longer utilize this diet. I'm sure it's fine in a pinch but as a staple, I wouldn't recommend it.


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## TegusRawsome80 (Nov 28, 2012)

I would also like to add that there is more to be looked at than growth rates or one time reproductive episodes. The animal's long term health and ability to reproduce repeatedly is the most important factor to look at.


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## Dubya (Nov 28, 2012)

TegusRawsome80 said:


> I personally would always advise against using an item such as ground turkey as a staple for any large lizards diet. I am a big fan of whole prey as it has proven to work time and time again and provides everything the animal needs food wise. I would like to see a long term study comparing the two but until then I will stick with whole prey since it is simply a more natural and supportive diet.



I put that out there because there is always talk about it. I myself base my tegus diet on a mix of chicken breast, gizzards, hearts, liver, eggs, a little beef heart, and calcium with no D3. I supplement with fruit, fish, scallops, krill, freeze dried bugs, etc. He seems to be doing great. I am going to experiment with adding organic spirulina into the base mixture to see how it works out. I keep packs of the base mixture in the freezer and add other things afterwards because my wife is funny about bugs in the fridge.


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## TegusRawsome80 (Nov 28, 2012)

I think more tegu owners should follow in the footsteps of those monitor breeders who are having such great success and try what they use. I'll give you a hint, it's not the San Diego Zoo diet.


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## Little Wise Owl (Nov 28, 2012)

Again, I have to agree. I feel like the tegu community is a little behind in the husbandry/care area. The San Diego Zoo diet seems like too much of a hassle to ever be of use, to be honest. I personally think a varied diet of whole prey, ripe fruits and vegetation should be the tegu staple with ground meats, organs, and meat chunks kept to a minimum. 

This is a very up-to-date care guide for Water Monitors. I know many people used to feed them meat scraps and a diet similar to how many feed tegus now (ground meats, organs, etc): http://www.vitalexotics.com/water-monitor-black-dragon-care-sheet/

This part talks about homemade diets- particularly the San Diego Zoo diet.


> Before getting into the proper food items, there are many things to avoid. One of the most common mistakes new keepers make is following the advice found online referring to “home-made” diets of ground turkey, misc meats and vitamins mixed together. While these diets can be used in a “pinch” or as a supplement, they are not appropriate no matter how much “stuff” you add to them. Monitors need insect shells, animal bones, fur and feathers to help keep their digestive tracts working properly as well as the nutrients that they supply while being digested. These “home made” diets are a lot of work to make or create, messy, fast to spoil and stinky while in the enclosure. They also result in very messy and more foul smelling feces, something that I am sure everyone wants to minimize as much as possible. What you want to use as a staple, is a well varied diet of ‘whole prey” items, not chicken legs, pieces of raw meat or hard boiled eggs, while these can be used as “treat” or supplement, they should not form the bulk of the diet. Some monitors can easily get “hooked” on some of these items and once a monitor gets “hooked” on one item, it can be very hard and frustrating to get them to switch back to a complete and healthy diet.



Now I know tegus aren't monitors but they're very similar in their care needs. I've spoken to other tegu owners who've started housing their tegus like how monitors are housed (deep, dirt/sand substrate with leaf litter, high humidity and high basking spots) and have had great results in doing so.


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## laurarfl (Nov 29, 2012)

I think it is because less research has been done on tegus than monitors. And people try to keep tegus like monitors...which they aren't.


Even the original thread was posted in 2006-2007.


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## TegusRawsome80 (Nov 29, 2012)

So you don't think tegus would use deep substrate or high basking spots?


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## Skeetzy (Nov 29, 2012)

She didn't imply anything, just that tegus aren't monitors, and we need more research. 

I'm assuming by high, you mean high temp. I believe if you provide a large enough basking spot, with a good gradient, you can provide a high temp area. My log ranges anywhere from 120-125 on the hot end, and 105-110 on the cool end. The few times mine has been out to bask, he moves to where he wants. I think the issue with high basking spots would be only providing a very hot spot. They thermoregulate themselves from what I understand. 

Now as far as the diet goes, I agree with Laura. There needs to be more research. I will stick with my ground meats from hare-today, which include the bones and organs, along with a variety of fruits, whole prey, and what not. Until there's good research done, this has seemed to work great for most with tegus. Look at Biggin on this forum. He's HUGE in the 4 months the guy had him(can't remember users name), and he's been brought up on the hare today meats and a mixed diet.

Just my 2 cents


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## laurarfl (Nov 30, 2012)

TegusAreAwesome, I was responding to your post and didn't read all of LittleOwl's. Since the topic was focused on diet, I was thinking of diet and not temps or substrate. However, on THAT off topic issue, no, I don't think tegus would prefer temps as high as monitors because tegus are tropical species and their native habitats have lower temps. I do keep my temps higher than a lot of people seem to report though.


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