# How much should a baby B/W Tegu eat?



## dragonqueen4 (Feb 26, 2009)

Hi, I bought my tegu Trooper about 2 months ago and I have no idea how old he is. Hes about 18" long, thats including his tail. He doesnt seem to eat much though. He will eat maybe 8 superworms in one day OR a few small pieces of chicken hearts. Thats it. My beardies eat way more than that. But he is growing and he is nice and fat. Hes also being treated for MBD (which he had when I bought him). Im just wondering how much everyone elses baby tegus eat???


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## PinkPunisher (Feb 26, 2009)

Generally I just put a nice fat chunk of thawed ground lean turkey in her bin with 10 crickets and Alice will just go to town on the crickets then eat as much turkey as she can. I couldn't tell you how much exactly but I would say if it was all crickets she could probably eat 40-50 but she is almost 25" s though.

That isn't much though for a tegu that size. Do you have any pictures of the animal? I'm just curious as to how bad the MBD is as that probably has a huge role on how much it eats. One a side note when feeding the tegu just keeping giving it food until it feels the need to stop.

Spencer


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## dragonqueen4 (Feb 26, 2009)

These were taken about 2 months ago when I first got him, I'll post some recent ones soon. Hes only grown about 2 or 3 inches in the past 2 months. I do give him more food and leave it in his dish and he just doesnt eat it. He seems to get full really quickly. And he wont chase crickets either. Hes very lazy, I guess because of the MBD


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## MMRR - jif (Feb 27, 2009)

I would try to introduce some whole prey items into the diet. My Chacoan won't even look at bugs any more so his diet consists of mostly mice fuzzies (80%) with ground turkey, beef liver, fish, and eggs making up about 20% of the diet. The whole prey items will also speed the recovery from MBD. Robert eats 3 fuzzies per meal now! What a porker!


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## crimsonrazac (Feb 27, 2009)

My 14 inch B&W eats two fuzzies a meal o_o What size is robert?


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## mr.tegu (Feb 27, 2009)

At 18 inches and in your care for two months. Has this problem with feeding been going on for two months or did it just start.


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## PuffDragon (Feb 27, 2009)

mr.tegu said:


> I think that with color of tegus its kinda like a litter of puppys. Some lighter then others, some darker then others. It might of had a dark mom and a light dad so you got the shade in the middle. Im not positive but thats my understanding on it.



Did you mean to post this somewhere else?


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## mr.tegu (Feb 27, 2009)

opps i sure did. under the topic how red should a red be. sorry puff


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## PuffDragon (Feb 27, 2009)

I was just curious since it had nothing to do with the topic lol. It's cool.


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## dragonqueen4 (Feb 27, 2009)

Thanks for the info!
It seems I have a picky Tegu!!! I tried boiling an egg, I took it out of the shell though.. he wouldnt touch it. 
Ive also tried ground turkey, he'll lick it, then walk away. 
However, he does love rodents. But I gave him 5 or 6 pinkies one day and then he became constipated and ended up with a prolapsed cloaca. I had to take him to the vet to get it put back in. 
Maybe I'll try him with just 2 or 3 pinkies a day for now and see how that goes, along with the chicken hearts. 
I have some fuzzies and hoppers here, but they have fur, and from what I understand they have trouble digesting that?? 
He also wont eat any food that has calcium powder on it lol I have to inject his food with a liquid calcium. Hes a picky little guy.


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## MMRR - jif (Feb 27, 2009)

crimsonrazac said:


> My 14 inch B&W eats two fuzzies a meal o_o What size is robert?



Robert is approximately 18-20 inches long.


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## dragonqueen4 (Feb 27, 2009)

mr.tegu said:


> At 18 inches and in your care for two months. Has this problem with feeding been going on for two months or did it just start.



Yep, hes been this way since Ive had him. But he also had MBD when I bought him as well. I took him to the vet shortly after I bought him, but the vet didnt know anything about Tegus ( we do not have a herp vet in Newfoundland ). This is also my first tegu, so I had no idea of how much they should be eating until I got on this forum. Im assuming he doesnt eat much because of the MBD. I take him to the vet now every 2 or 3 days for calcium shots. When I first brought him in, the vet thought he was full grown, at 18". When I told him otherwise he agreed to the calcium shots.


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## LouDog760 (Feb 27, 2009)

Fuzzies and hoppers are better than pinkys, its more of a full meal. S/he won't have trouble digesting it, when they get bigger you can feed them large rats. If you want to, I would look into some roaches. blaptica dubia are great, they don't smell, climb, fly or bite. 

Also what kind of lighting do you have?


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## dragonqueen4 (Feb 27, 2009)

thank you so much for that info.. i just sent off an email to where i buy my feeders to see about the roaches. im going to buy some fuzzies too and try feeding him those. is it ok to feed him fuzzies everyday?
i use a 10.0 uvb bulb made by hagen. he hardly ever comes out of his cave though, and when he is out basking, as soon as someone walks in the room, he runs back in his cave. he also wont usually eat when im there either. im guessing hes a very shy timid tegu. hes very gentle though, whenhe eats, he picks up his food very slowly.. hes not an aggressive eater at all.. im starting to think my tegu is not normal lol


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## mr.tegu (Mar 1, 2009)

WOW, sounds like you have tried everything. Have you tried beef liver,chicken liver,chicken gizzards,chicken hearts.


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## PuffDragon (Mar 1, 2009)

Here's a long list of things to try feeding your tegu: <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.tegutalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1353" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1353</a><!-- l -->

Just keep trying new things. A variety is alot better than rodents everyday. Roaches are great and might provoke a feeding response due to them moving about. Feeding fuzzies everyday has the possibility of impaction so be careful. 

Have you done a fecal float to see if he/she has any parasites as well? This typically costs $15-20 dollars at the vet, but if you have access to a microscope you can do it yourself!


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## LouDog760 (Mar 3, 2009)

dragonqueen4 said:


> thank you so much for that info.. i just sent off an email to where i buy my feeders to see about the roaches. im going to buy some fuzzies too and try feeding him those. is it ok to feed him fuzzies everyday?
> i use a 10.0 uvb bulb made by hagen. he hardly ever comes out of his cave though, and when he is out basking, as soon as someone walks in the room, he runs back in his cave. he also wont usually eat when im there either. im guessing hes a very shy timid tegu. hes very gentle though, whenhe eats, he picks up his food very slowly.. hes not an aggressive eater at all.. im starting to think my tegu is not normal lol




I wouldn't feed them everyday, try twice a week. And are you from the US? If so I can give you a few links for the roaches. And Read the post above!


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## dragonqueen4 (Mar 6, 2009)

Hey, thanks guys! Ive been feeding him fuzzies every few days.. just one at a time. And superworms and chicken hearts other days. Since his last fuzzy about 3 days ago, he hasnt gone to the bathroom.. so I havent fed him since. Has any of your tegus ever gotten impacted from mice?


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## dragonqueen4 (Mar 6, 2009)

Oh, and no, I dont live in the US, I live in Canada.. thanks though!!


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## Dylan koch (Mar 12, 2020)

I'm curious as to how this turned out he could of been used to live only


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## Leezard (Mar 16, 2020)

MMRR - jif said:


> I would try to introduce some whole prey items into the diet. My Chacoan won't even look at bugs any more so his diet consists of mostly mice fuzzies (80%) with ground turkey, beef liver, fish, and eggs making up about 20% of the diet. The whole prey items will also speed the recovery from MBD. Robert eats 3 fuzzies per meal now! What a porker!


We actually found out from our vet that our weekly feeding of 2 adult mice and 1 baby chick was too much and verging on the territory of early fatty liver disease and suggested one mouse and one chick every two weeks instead and already he's lost his excess weight and has more energy.


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## Dylan koch (Mar 16, 2020)

How old is the tegu though? My babies eat daily but only right now mainly bugs and once a week fish and meat, turkey or quail rarely pinkys or fuzzy


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