# How fast do they grow?



## E_M (Mar 10, 2013)

So, I'm new here and I'm getting my first b&w tegu in 3-4 weeks, a juvenile. I'm curious as to just how quickly they grow. Is there any difference in male/female when it comes to growth rates? Like if a tegu is 6 months old, would a female be slightly smaller than a male at this age?

What size can I expect that my Tegu is at:
6 months 
1 year
2 years


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## mike97 (Mar 10, 2013)

E_M said:


> So, I'm new here and I'm getting my first b&w tegu in 3-4 weeks, a juvenile. I'm curious as to just how quickly they grow. Is there any difference in male/female when it comes to growth rates? Like if a tegu is 6 months old, would a female be slightly smaller than a male at this age?
> 
> What size can I expect that my Tegu is at:
> 6 months
> ...


 from what ive heard they can grow 3ft in a year!!!


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## E_M (Mar 10, 2013)

mike97 said:


> from what ive heard they can grow 3ft in a year!!!



yeah, but that must be above average?


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## anelk002 (Mar 10, 2013)

It seems kinda early for hatchlings already. But my old one did not hibernate and grew 3 ft in a yr the one I got last yr did hibernate so only had grown about 5" since august


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## E_M (Mar 10, 2013)

anelk002 said:


> It seems kinda early for hatchlings already. But my old one did not hibernate and grew 3 ft in a yr the one I got last yr did hibernate so only had grown about 5" since august



They were born this year. Is that odd? Okay, yeah I know they don't grow during hibernation. Growth rate seems ta vary a lot, guess I'll just have to wait and see.


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## anelk002 (Mar 10, 2013)

Do you know where they were bred bc I know in America the don't breed until spring and usually hatch round July.


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## E_M (Mar 10, 2013)

anelk002 said:


> Do you know where they were bred bc I know in America the don't breed until spring and usually hatch round July.



They are cb hatchlings from Germany.


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## Dubya (Mar 10, 2013)

Gwangi is 9 mos old and has just passed 40 inches.


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## E_M (Mar 10, 2013)

Dubya said:


> Gwangi is 9 mos old and has just passed 40 inches.



Wow, that's impressive!  Male I presume?


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## Dubya (Mar 10, 2013)

I am not sure if it is a male for certain. I was told it was a male when I got it as a hatchling, but I haven't seen sperm plugs yet or hemipenes when he/she poops. The jowels are getting bigger though. It is a Bobby Hill "extreme". I will post a pic maybe tomorrow.


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## E_M (Mar 10, 2013)

Dubya said:


> I am not sure if it is a male for certain. I was told it was a male when I got it as a hatchling, but I haven't seen sperm plugs yet or hemipenes when he/she poops. The jowels are getting bigger though. It is a Bobby Hill "extreme". I will post a pic maybe tomorrow.



I wonder how they sexed him/her as a hatchling. Probing? Please do, would love to see a pic! Do you know what the average adult size of extreme giants is? Male/female


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## BatGirl1 (Mar 10, 2013)

Zoocreatures did probes on theirs for me because I wanted a male.  and niles was averaging about an inch a week before he went down for hibernation. Then slowed eating until refused altogether...so of course growth stopped too.


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## E_M (Mar 10, 2013)

BatGirl1 said:


> Zoocreatures did probes on theirs for me because I wanted a male.  and niles was averaging about an inch a week before he went down for hibernation. Then slowed eating until refused altogether...so of course growth stopped too.



That's like 4 inches a month, they really grow fast! Since the one I'm getting was born this year, I'm guessing he/she won't go down for hibernation until around October? How common is it that tegus don't hibernate?


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## Dubya (Mar 10, 2013)

E_M said:


> Dubya said:
> 
> 
> > I am not sure if it is a male for certain. I was told it was a male when I got it as a hatchling, but I haven't seen sperm plugs yet or hemipenes when he/she poops. The jowels are getting bigger though. It is a Bobby Hill "extreme". I will post a pic maybe tomorrow.
> ...



I think Bobby Hill just takes his best guess by looking at the hatchling. I think Hills extremes may go to about 5 feet for males, but I am no expert on tegus. I may have my vet probe him soon to make sure.



BatGirl1 said:


> Zoocreatures did probes on theirs for me because I wanted a male.  and niles was averaging about an inch a week before he went down for hibernation. Then slowed eating until refused altogether...so of course growth stopped too.



I thought you had a restraining order from Zoo Creatures. I bet the deformed alligator is in your bathtub.


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## E_M (Mar 10, 2013)

Dubya said:


> I think Hills extremes may go to about 5 feet for males, but I am no expert on tegus. I may have my vet probe him soon to make sure.


5 feet is huge! Would need an entire room to house that thing 

Not really following on the restraining order and aligator thing here..


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## BatGirl1 (Mar 10, 2013)

Shhhh... the feds might be monitoring this thread.haha. ( dubya teases me because zoocreatures in plaistow has/had a rescued alligator I REALLY want to adopt, but don't have the money or space. Haha)


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## chitodadon (Mar 10, 2013)

*Re: RE: How fast do they grow?*



BatGirl1 said:


> Shhhh... the feds might be monitoring this thread.haha. ( dubya teases me because zoocreatures in plaistow has/had a rescued alligator I REALLY want to adopt, but don't have the money or space. Haha)



Lol look out

from Samsung Galaxy S3


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## reptastic (Mar 10, 2013)

You ever seen lightning strike? Lol yeah its kinda like that....if a tegu hibernates they can hit 3' easily if they dont hibernate they can hit 4' dosnt matter male or female the first 2 tegus in my siggy are my 2 tegus at a year old and they both hibernated


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## Dubya (Mar 10, 2013)

E_M said:


> Dubya said:
> 
> 
> > I think Hills extremes may go to about 5 feet for males, but I am no expert on tegus. I may have my vet probe him soon to make sure.
> ...



Gwangi will be moving to a 10x12 or 12x12 outdoor enclosure when the weather allows. Starting this fall, I will be hibernating him. I kept him from hibernating this year because he was small and I didn't feel that he had enough fat on him.


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## BatGirl1 (Mar 11, 2013)

I didn't think it was possible to keep them from hibernating. :/ if they really want to. Cuz i have done everything lately to get niles up and eating and he's like "nope " and goes back to sleep  i don't want him to deplete reserves... ugh


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## Roadkill (Mar 11, 2013)

> Do you know where they were bred bc I know in America the don't breed until spring and usually hatch round July.


If you know what you're doing, you can breed them any time of the year that you want to.



> I didn't think it was possible to keep them from hibernating. :/ if they really want to.



It's not a case of "if they want to", it's about how you control the zeitgebers that influence their physiology. Amongst hibernators, there are two kinds, obligative and facultative. Obligative hibernators don't need external cues to tell them to hibernate, it is governed almost exclusively by an internal clock/genetics and therefore these hibernators will hibernate every year at the same time no matter what you do. Facultative hibernators require zeitgebers to align their physiology with their environment, without the zeitgebers they will not go through the proper physiological adjustments to prepare themselves for hibernation or enter hibernation through normal means. While to many it may seem that tegus are obligative hibernators, there's one simple fact that disproves this notion - in North America they hibernate according to OUR weather patterns (ie. during our winter). If they were truly obligative hibernators, they'd retain their hibernation cycles from where they originate - South America, and therefore would be active during our winter and hibernate during our summer.


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## BatGirl1 (Mar 12, 2013)

I wonder, then, why upping temps and resuming the lighting etc has not triggered anything in his 'waking ' process. He had begun refusing food on his own regardless of temps and light pattern. So I had no choice but to 'let him ' go down for fear of him depleting reserves. I stopped light/heat and he eliminated rest of tummy contents etc. Now in new enclosure I resumed reg temps and light but he's still not getting up to bask and eat. While I hear others ( in same climate etc as me) not hibernating. And people in warm climates ( fla and so on) that 'do '. Confusing that the same animal types 'may or may not ' hibernate... and possess this internal clock. I wish niles would set his damn alarm already. :/


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## Dubya (Mar 12, 2013)

[attachment=6627]Batgirl1, try this.


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## Deac77 (Mar 12, 2013)

Kirby is nine months old an looking female but unsure on sec, and he's well over 3 foot


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## BatGirl1 (Mar 12, 2013)

*Re: RE: How fast do they grow?*



Dubya said:


> Batgirl1, try this.



 that gives me an idea... cafepress has clocks you can customize


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## Teg (Mar 13, 2013)

Teg was 14inch and 3 months old in oct 25 .... He's now a whopping 42inch and just on 8 months and weighs in at 5lbs 8 oz !! lol


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## E_M (Mar 14, 2013)

What do u guys feed your tegus?? Growth hormones?!? 

This one guy I know has a 17 months old tegu that's "only" 27.5 inches. Is that considdered a small size at that age?


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## Roadkill (Mar 14, 2013)

I wonder, then, why upping temps and resuming the lighting etc has not triggered anything in his 'waking ' process.

This seems to get overlooked every time I post it, but here goes again: If there is a window in the room where you keep your tegu, even if the light from that window isn't directly falling upon the tegu, even if that window isn't large, that window is such an overwhelmingly powerful signal to the tegu's physiology compared to what you are trying to manipulate artificially. Your artificial manipulations compared to the information streaming through that window is like you trying to have a conversation with someone on a cell phone while you're standing in front of the speakers at rock concert.

Another aspect to consider, although I don't have much concrete evidence to back this up, is that in nature it is likely that it isn't the constant length of the day or the constant elevated temperature (ie. basically what we give them at home) that they respond physiologically to. It is more likely that what they are responding to is the continuous change in these variables (the daylength gets greater/lesser every day; temperatures, particularly night time temperatures, gradually increase/decrease with changing seasons). So a one time change from 20C to 28C isn't likely going to do much to convince them to leave hibernation.


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## Ripkabird98 (Mar 14, 2013)

My Tegu is a freak then. He did NOT hibernate. And he was born in September(?) and has grown like 3-4 inches.


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## BatGirl1 (Mar 14, 2013)

Ok I think I get it. It is strange to me though how some are so affected by this while others just go about their normal routine despite being in or exposed to the same 'conditions '. . . (Like natural daylight/etc) in new england or some that hibernate even though in florida or other similar places. Kind of freaks me out a little. :/


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## Roadkill (Mar 14, 2013)

Keep in mind that average growth rates are just that - nothing but an average. It means nothing if your tegu is above or below the average. The average may not even reflect what is common. Say you have 20 tegus, 9 grow 20 inches in a year, 9 grow 2 inches in a year, 1 grows 11 inches in a year, and the last one grows 13 inches in a year. The average works out to 11.1 inches a year. If the average means something, then 1 tegu is normal, one is above average, and 18 are "freaks". Now, how likely is it the that the average represents what is normal? Does it even reflect what is common? Averages mean nothing in regards to growth rates.


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## Dubya (Mar 14, 2013)

E_M said:


> What do u guys feed your tegus?? Growth hormones?!?
> 
> This one guy I know has a 17 months old tegu that's "only" 27.5 inches. Is that considdered a small size at that age?



No hormones. I feed a mix of 1/3 cocktail franks, 1/3 Hillshire farms Lil Smokies, and 1/3 saurkraut. If you mix in 1/2tsp of caraway seeds, it may reduce gas somewhat, but Gwangi is still unpleasant to be near in a small room. :s


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## Teg (Mar 14, 2013)

Well ... About a month ago we had a small tremor/earthquake which is very rare around here !!!
It happened just after I went to bed at about 10-45pm when i was still wondering what the hell was wrong with Teg. He was mental from around 7pm onwards, very restless, launched at me a couple of times, very unusual behaviour from him !!! I did not believe all of that crap that animals could sense things but .... Now i do !:-/ 
Our weather here in West Wales is of damp, wet, warmish and windy low pressures from the Atlantic... Ranging temps from 8 - 14 c over the winter ! and Teg has been fine up until 2 weeks ago where he has slowed down considerably, I wouldn't say he was hibernating but it looks as if he fancies the idea !! and what have we had since 2 weeks - a cold Scandinavian North Easterly wind pattern - temps -5 to +3c !!! Although the temps are the same in the viv and house, again I'm wondering if they read/feel/sense these pressure/weather patterns etc .... Just a thought, please don't shout at me for being so silly !!! Lol


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## BatGirl1 (Mar 14, 2013)

Well i know my joints hurt and I get headaches when storms are coming... ;p and also my aunt had 2 chipmunks that would 'tell her ' when it was going to rain, etc. Barometric pressure etc def affects some of us! Haha


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## E_M (Mar 17, 2013)

What do you guys feed your hatchlings/juveniles/sub-adults? What insects and what other kind of foods?


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