# Tegu bites hurt...but not how I expected them to hurt



## Sean32817 (Aug 3, 2021)

Long story short - Rex managed to get outside on me and it wasn't until twenty four hours later that I finally found him hiding under the pool pump, meaning he had spent the night outside, was definitely hungry and likely scared as well.

I didn't help matters as being so thrilled at finding him I ran straight over, resulting in him panicking and putting up a fight. There were too many places he could have escaped into where recovering him would have been difficult so I had no choice but to be firm rather than backing off and coaxing him onto my hand the way I normally do.

End result was that he chomped down on my left wrist and didn't let go for a good thirty seconds.

That was all me and I would have happily taken a dozen more bites to get him safely back into his home, so instead, let's focus on the bite.

Rex is getting close to three feet from nose to the tip of his tail, although he has a long, healthy tail so maybe fourteen inches of that is body - I figure he weighs around five to eight pounds, although that's all muscle.

While he did manage to thrash a little during the bite, unlike my knight anole, there was actually very little in the way of tooth damage - he's drawn more blood with his claws when resisting being picked up.

There was a ton of bite force though and I could really feel it in my bones.

He didn't break anything but I did think he might have inflicted some deep bruising initially due to how much pressure he applied.

I've taken hits from ball pythons and other snakes as well but they didn't come anywhere close to Rex's bite.

As such, I'm inclined to say that, based off of that bite, that a broken bone is the greater danger from a tegu bite than a laceration since I've never seen him draw blood when dispatching rat pups but have heard bones crunch.

I just did a search for "adult tegu skull" and looking at the teeth, while there are some fangs towards the front, they look pretty short, so yeah, that and the fact that they tend to swallow food whole rather than tear off chunks seems to confirm that crushing rather than ripping/shredding bites is their SOP.

Still, I won't be offering any part of myself for Rex to chew on to test that theory.

The important thing though is that he's safe and home - the bite was just educational.


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## Sean32817 (Aug 4, 2021)

Update - was doing some research just to make sure I my arm wasn't going to fall off from an infection or anything and came across this tidbit -

*As a result of their huge jaw muscles, tegus possess the strongest bite of any lizard and are capable of generating bite forces of 1000 N. Unlike most reptiles, tegus have differentiated teeth much like a mammal. The teeth in the front of the jaw a pointed and incisiform, several bladelike caniniform are on the sides for seizing prey, and the teeth in the back are blunt and molariform for crushing.*

To put that into perspective, a human can bite with anywhere from 1100-1300 N or 162 pounds per square inch.


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## Dutch213 (Aug 11, 2021)

Thanks for the cool info!


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## Debita (Aug 11, 2021)

My adult male accidently bit my thumb after lunging at a mouse I was dangling. I had to pry his jaw off me, and it hurt for weeks. It is still sensitive in a particular spot on the knuckle where I assume he hit the bone. Glad I still have a finger. He was surprised, and it wasn't his fault. Def mine for feeding with my hands. Live and learn. Glad you're ok!


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## ToadHallBetty (Aug 12, 2021)

Tonks, my hybred tegu bit me with purpose, she came to me with a fear of humans, my hand was lacerated, got blood on my favorite pants.


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## Debita (Aug 17, 2021)

Ugh! We could start a thread of the worst bites between us - I hear people talk about very mild bites, and their comments are "they aren't as bad as people say" or "it didn't hurt that bad!".......then they have to admit that "well, she was only 3 months when she bit me". Lol - Until an adult bites your hand with the pressure of a vice - you can't brag about your bite.


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