# Weird Behavior?



## Kelsey (Nov 29, 2009)

I have a young tegu who is about a foot long. I'm not sure what age he is, but he has no green on his head whatsoever. I think I remember the guy saying a few months, but wouldn't he be bigger by now? I bought him at a reptile show a few weeks ago, and I'm not sure about how he was cared for before. Anyways, my mom takes care of him during the week, and I take care of him on the weekends. Since I have been home for a whole week for Thanksgiving break, I have been noticing some strange behavior.

First of all, I haven't gotten any sleep in about a week because he seems to think he's nocturnal. Usually at around 5 or 6 in the morning when its still dark, he is running around his cage and climbing, falling, jumping, etc. A moment ago I saw the poor guy launch himself at the cage door. He also enjoys climbing the background of his exo terra, and usually falls. He makes a whole bunch of noise for a good amount of time, and then eventually buries himself in the cypress mulch to sleep. I came in my room at 2:30 AM to find him awake. Lately, he is only awake at night. He hasn't been eating as much. I'm concerned that he's not getting the proper light, because it's turned off at night, and I'm also afraid he's not eating enough. I went ahead and left 3 dusted F/T pinkies in a dish in his cage, hoping that they won't go bad. I accidentally left 2 in overnight the other night, and they were gone in the morning, so I figured at least he'll eat. I normally take him out and feed him in a seperate bin with no substrate, but he isn't out in the day hardly anymore and he gets cranky when I dig him out of his mulch. I hope this doesn't make him cage aggressive. When he is active like this, he will gladly crawl out on to my arm. I don't want to lose his trust by constantly waking him up everyday to try to get him to eat when he probably wont. Is he bored? Just exploring? The cage is a exo-terra that is the same size as a 40 gallon breeder. He has the proper lighting and a heat lamp. His basking spot is in the 100's and other areas of his tank are in the 70s, so he has a lot of choice. He also has a water dish that he can fully submerge in, though I've never seen him do it. I took the readings using a temperature gun. I just gave his tank a good misting too.

Any advice on what to do? Is this normal behavior? It's like he's looking all over, even at the 'celing' of his cage, just looking for somewhere to do. Sorry for all of the questions, I'm just new to tegus and I want to make sure he's ok. Thanks so much!


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## rrcoolj (Nov 29, 2009)

First off welcome to tegu talk!

Well there are alot of tegus that will go on wierd schedules especially since they usually slow down for hibernation or brumation this time of year. My tegu would get up at 6 so I just adjusted his lighting. I find it easier to adjust the lighting to his/her schedule. This also explains why he might not be eating as much. One time though he did wake up at like 11. I simply picked him up, held him a little bit, then put him in his hide.


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