# New B/W Tegus



## themedic (Jan 28, 2010)

Hey everyone this will be my first post but certainly not my last.

I just received my package from Varnyard, what a great guy and speedy shipping also.

I purchased 2 tegus, un-related male and female, they are awesome I have not measured them but I would say they are about 13-15 inches long although I could be wrong, I will be sure to dock there length tomorrow so I can measure each month and track there growth.

They are in a custom cage I built, and will more then likely spend there entire life cycle in it unless I plan to move them outside in a bigger enclosure.

I took them out of the shipping box and they were pretty cold so after holding them for about 30 mins I decided to put them in a warm bath and let them chill for a while they seem to really enjoy it and one of them even pooped, which is a good sign!

Do tegus get darker or get lighter with age?

One is definetly darker and has less white, I am thinking this is the male, and one is alot lighter with more white, guessing this is the female, they are both equally cool and cant wait till they start putting on some weight.

I offered them a sliced up boiled egg, but bobby from varnyard said they were in hibernation so to my suprise they werent hungry. No biggy I just wanted to make sure if they were hungry they would have something to eat.

I know the tank is kind of tall 3ft to be exact, but I am making a custom design inside of the enclosure to enable them to climb up towards the light if they desire! 
Hopefully in a couple of months they will come out of hibernation.[attachment=2]


----------



## Jefroka (Jan 28, 2010)

Welcome to Tegutalk!

They're too young to know for sure what sex, but call Bobby and ask him if he sexed them. Bobby's very good at sexing even young ones.

The cage is not big enough for two full grown adults. If you do make another one you can subtract a foot of height. Nice design though.


...Jefroka


----------



## mis jaksin (Jan 28, 2010)

Congrats on the new gu's! The enclosure looks nice (not sure bout the width/depth of it), but i'd be cautious with them getting nose rubs. When my gu wants out he rubs his face up against the glass until I open it. With that screen, they could hurt their noses pretty quick.


----------



## themedic (Jan 28, 2010)

Thanks for the criticism , its like a hard plastic I wanted to go with metal but the plastic was a little more affordable, next build I will use metal for sure.

The dimensions are 60x27x36, I was going to make it wider but I decided to make it 27 inches instead because at first I thought I was going to have it inside.

Its outside right now, under a car port so I dont have to worry about rain and heavy winds.


----------



## isdrake (Jan 28, 2010)

I agree with the others. This cage looks REALLY good.

It's hard to tell the size in the pictures. But I seriously doubt that it could house ONE adult Tegu.


----------



## themedic (Jan 28, 2010)

Yeah thanks for the props, it was my first time I ever build a cage it took me one day then another to do 2 coats of grey paint other then that it was pretty easy.

Now I am wishing I made it 2ft tall instead of 3, and wishing I made it 3ft wide and 6ft long. This should hold them least for a year or so, then maybe then I will build another cool cage for them to live in.

They really love to burrow I think its pretty cool, they basked today for about 5 hours and then went to burrow agian so I turned the lights off round 7, I have a 10.0 UVB light, and a 150w heat lamp for them, I will get a hydrometer and thermometer for them tomorrow so I can monitor temps and humidity levels.

thanks agian i'll keep you all posted with new pictures every so often!


----------



## themedic (Jan 29, 2010)

is it safe to take wake my tegu in hibernation to give them a warm bath just to make sure they poop if they have too and stay hydrated through there skin with the humidity dropping due to the temp change and no light humidity will drop obviously in the cage.

I've read some articles they say just to leave them completely alone.


----------



## reptastic (Jan 29, 2010)

congrats on the new guys, to answer your question yes some b/w tegus do get darker with age. I wouldnt worry to much about em in hibernation, i got a tegu from bobby about 6 months agoad she decided not to hibernate and grew alot, and i got my other tegu in mid december and he was hibernating with bobby and stayed under for a few days when i first got him now he is up eating everyday. so they may abandon hibernation ut if not just leave fresh water in there cage if they re thirsty they will come out and drink


----------



## themedic (Jan 29, 2010)

Thanks for the info, I decided to bring them inside its going to be in the 30's tonight, the 40's tomorrow and the 50's the next day. although I am sure they can handle these temps in the wild i didn't want to chance it since they are babies.

So they are chillin in a plastic Tupperware with about 6 inches of mulch, ill check on em everyday to see how they are doing, I wish they were out of hibernation so they would eat. I ordered 200 frozen pinkies and that should last a while, also I am breeding my own meal worms and crickets.

I know your not supposed to hand feed, but through my personal experiences if you hand feed from a young age I view that the feeding response isn't as aggressive, if I am going to hand feed I should start now cause If i try to do it when they are bigger obviously they will be more prone to bite me.

I guess when they come out of hibernation I will know, if they are very aggressive even at this age eating out of my hand I'll probably just use the bin method but yesterday I had a spray bottle and I was misting the mulch, one of the tegus starting to lick the mulch like it was thirsty so I started to lightly mist at the tegus mouth and it start to just drink right out of the mister opening as I slowly sprayed water in his mouth, I thought this was a great response and agian its showing the tegu that I am a friend and I am trying to help it.

I think these animals are smarter then most people think, I am very impressed on there alertness.


----------



## Pikey (Jan 30, 2010)

pinkies aren't the best (mostly fat) but you can get some very small fuzzies (less fat & not much bigger)

if you can get Dubias they are WAY better than crickets & breed better

TheRoachRanch.com (best prices i've found cuz $25 & up get free shipping)


----------



## themedic (Jan 30, 2010)

Wow thanks for that tip brother.

Seems like Dubia Breeding is way easier and more effecient.

Do you breed your own roaches?


----------



## Pikey (Jan 30, 2010)

yup i have a collony of dubias & hissers


----------



## themedic (Jan 30, 2010)

Nice, how often do you feed your tegus roaches, i bet they just devour them, does it take alot to fill them up?


----------



## Pikey (Jan 30, 2010)

well the big guys only two of them eat the roaches they get them as like a treat (every once in a while)

Harley my li'l one eats them every 3rd day (he gets them when he eats mice/rats)
on rodent day he'll eat like 5-8 big dubias & then 2-3 hopper rats or a small adult mouse
he used to eat 10-15 of them every other day then he went down for 2 months then woke up and was eating them faster than my collony of 250 could take got down to less then 60 big ones left with 10 adults so i had to order 100 big nymphs to add to them cut down his intake of the dubias and now i have 2 totes one of breeding and a feeder collony (i dont feed out of the breeders but if the feeders get low i dump some of the breeder babies in the feeder tote)

i got like 40 or so hissers


----------



## themedic (Jan 30, 2010)

Nice. yeah seems you have a pretty good rotation, I just bought 2 gu's from bobby they havent eaten yet cause they are in deep hibernation. hopefully they come out soon, if not im prepared to just let them stay asleep as long as it takes. man you can get a good 100-250 colony goin for like 80 bucks, thats not bad....


----------



## themedic (Feb 4, 2010)

heres a pic of one of them basking, the other one was asleep under the mulch


----------



## themedic (Feb 4, 2010)

and another


----------



## txrepgirl (Feb 4, 2010)

How cute  . I don't want to be rude but I was just wondering what are the temps right under the basking spot ? How far away is the UVB light ? the lights just seem to me to be a bit to far away from the Tegu. It UVB light hast to be a sertain distance ( 12" I believe ) in order for it to work right.


----------



## Pikey (Feb 5, 2010)

i'm worried about the screen front letting out the humidity, but if it's a MVB light i think the range is 3ft max (the tube lights are 10-24")

And you might not want to use a clear hide it can make them feel unsafe


----------



## lazyjr52 (Feb 5, 2010)

Very nice cage and gu. Just a suggestion but you might want to move the lights a little closer and use plexiglass instead of screen. 

And it's great to see a tegu with that much living space. I'm sure he's happy.


----------



## themedic (Feb 5, 2010)

thanks for all the criticism, the basking temp right in the center of the beam sits at 100 degrees, as far as the coolside of the tank its much cooler around 75.

as far as humidity goes, the relative humidity is around 50% as in texas its almost always humid, i do know that the humidity in the lower levels under neath the mulch is much much higher, i woke the tegus up yesterday to flip the mulch over since it dries on top within a day or so plus I want them to get used to me
interacting with them and their cage. the mulch underneach is very moist not, moldy moist but i can assume humidity is about 100% under neath which is where they spend about 99% of there time right now due to hibernation.

I dont have a humidity guage, I'll probably place one 2 inches above the surface in the middle of the cage to give me an average of humidity its obviously going to be higher on the hot end because of evaporation.

but as far as temp goes they are in a good range i would assume after about 5 mins under the light they are very warm to the touch and are alot more active.


----------



## themedic (Feb 5, 2010)

also, i can lower and swivel those lights, they can be lowered another 3-5 inches.


----------



## Pikey (Feb 5, 2010)

it will be higher on the cool end where it's best to place the gauge you want it 65-80% in the air


----------



## Infidel_03 (Feb 5, 2010)

Jees....you guys really jumped this guys case. Everyone frustraqted your tegus are hibernating or what? Powersuns are good up to 6' for god's sakes Cool tegus medic.


----------



## Pikey (Feb 5, 2010)

no just trying to help him out (i did not know they were good to 6' thats good to know) 

& no none of my 4 tegus are hibernating


----------



## themedic (Feb 5, 2010)

thanks indefel, yeah they are hibernating right now, but i have food waiting for them when they wake up. critisism is always good i felt i had to lower the lights anyways, but i didnt want it to be to warm for them i suppose they would just go to the cooler side if they were too hot though, they are smart enough to not get roasted haha


----------



## txrepgirl (Feb 6, 2010)

I didn't mean to give him a hard time. Thanks for letting me know about the light.


----------



## lazyjr52 (Feb 6, 2010)

Infidel_03 said:


> Jees....you guys really jumped this guys case. Everyone frustraqted your tegus are hibernating or what? Powersuns are good up to 6' for god's sakes Cool tegus medic.



No one was jumping on him, just giving friendly advice...


----------



## TanMan57 (Feb 6, 2010)

The only concearn I have is the screen, I had a screen on the front of my old cage and my tegu I had now would be the only one of my gu's to climb up it and I was always concearned he would get hurt. So just keep an eye on them when they wake up.


----------



## themedic (Feb 6, 2010)

Yeah my father was like "They dont climb up those screens" and I was like "No, they shouldnt" I later find out they can climb really good but, if they do manage to be able to climb, then hold there weight while upside down then yeah they might be able to climb out, but hopefully this wont be the case, otherwise I'll have to build another cage that is shorter like maybe 2ft, or so cause this one i built 3ft, I was originally going to put a couple of pythons in there but I decided to get these lizards instead, ive owned every boa and python ever born lol, decided on getting a lizard species they are much more active lol


----------



## themedic (Mar 9, 2010)

So its been about a month since I got my tegus.

Everything is going good, low maintenance since they are semi hibernating, coming out every now and then to bask, drink water, and eat.

I havent held them for a while since they are hibernating and today I woke them up so I could mist there cage a little and put some food in there, the male was acting very pissy he wouldnt let me get near him and would actually charge at me if I got close.

it was pretty crazy, they lunged at me so i thought twice about trying to pick them up, I just misted there cage and fed them and left them alone, im guessing they are just getting territorial with there "cage".

Plus having a male/female combo doesnt help as he is very protective over her.

Its not really a problem though. They are small and think I am a predator and although there aggression will not improve with age I am sure once I get into my house and allow them to roam around they will be a lot more comfortable and less aggressive.

This is a picture of my female, being territorial... lol


----------



## themedic (Mar 31, 2010)

Well my male will not let me get close to him, when I get near the enclosure he runs to his hide and burrows, the female lets me take her out and hold her, she loves to crawl on my shoulder and sit there when I watch TV.

When I go to take her back the male is basking and when I go to open the cage he runs back and burrows.

hopefully he will cheer up.


----------



## themedic (Mar 31, 2010)

Note - they are both eating everyday alot.

I feed them a hand full of dog food/chicken/tuna/egg mixture they love it and eat it all up, i put there food in there and its gone an hour later, i want to re-feed them but I dont think its necessary.


----------



## TanMan57 (Mar 31, 2010)

themedic said:


> Note - they are both eating everyday alot.
> 
> I feed them a hand full of dog food/chicken/tuna/egg mixture they love it and eat it all up, i put there food in there and its gone an hour later, i want to re-feed them but I dont think its necessary.


Dog food and cat food is not good to feed tegu's despite what some people say it is full of preservatives and other chemicals that may be ok for mammals but not reptiles. If you read the back of the cans you can see all of the bad items that no animal should eat.


----------



## First Time Tegu (Mar 31, 2010)

I would be careful with feeding them in their cage, they will eventually get more aggressive. They will associate your hand with food...only put it in their cage when you have no other option (if you cannot remove them).


----------



## themedic (Apr 1, 2010)

They never actually see me put the food in their cage, they are pretty much always burrowed, I cant exactly pick up the male, the female is cool but if I could take the male out I would putt hem in a bin, the female shows no interest in me when i open the cage just looks at me and doesnt move, even when I get close to pet her she just sits there and doesnt move she is very mellow.

I would pick the male up if he would let me but he just runs away and goes under the mulch, I dont want to mess up his hide and try to pick him up.

There really is no way to feed them but in there cage, I mean the female will eat anywhere, im pretty sure even out of my hands but I havent tried that yet.

Anyone have suggestions on what to do with the male?

I want to feed them a strict diet of just meats, eggs, veggies and fish but right now dog food is what I have so that is what they eat, they really like it they smell it about 5 mins after i put it in and come out to eat.


----------



## themedic (Apr 12, 2010)

So the male keeps lunging at me I just want to grab him and hold him but when I get close he lunges at me, i personally thing its halarious but if he continues to be like this I am thinking of just selling him, the female is great and lets me pick her up all the time. what to do.....


----------



## themedic (Apr 25, 2010)

so my male wont let me get near he he still runs i am guessing he will chill out with time, im thinking maybe because they are housed outside they can smell like dogs/cats and they think i am going to eat them or something, the female is a doll i can pick her up anytime she doesnt even arch her back or anything, the male if i move my hands he just runs, i first wanted to sell him and just keep one but i dont want her to be alone.

hopefully in a couple of months he will chill out, i havent been able to grab him in about 45 days because he just runs away and they said if you chase a tegu around it just stresses him out. so ill just leave him alone does anyone have any simlar stories? should i still attempt to pick him up or just leave him alone untill he chills out?


----------



## TEGU_JAKE (Apr 25, 2010)

i would wear a shirt for a day then throw it in the cage for a week or so then try to get him so he smellsd your scent. ive done this in the past and it worked great


----------



## themedic (Apr 30, 2010)

Couple pics of the GU's growth.


----------



## themedic (Apr 30, 2010)

eye ballin the camera


----------



## themedic (Apr 30, 2010)

and another


----------



## fireimp141 (Apr 30, 2010)

Looks like they are finally starting to warm up to yah.


----------



## lazyjr52 (Apr 30, 2010)

They look great. And it looks like their coming around nicely.


----------



## themedic (Apr 30, 2010)

yes they eat like champs, eat anything i throw in their food dish. the male still freaks out when he sees my hands, the female is a doll.

they are truley smart reptiles, when they see the purple food dish i feed them coming in they immedietly get curious and approach me in a "hey give me that food" so to confuse them I am going to use different food bowls every 4-6 weeks. 

also I take the food dish out after they are done eating so they dont get protective over there food dish, they eat twice a day once at 11, and agian at 1. by 4-5 they are asleep.

they are obviously outside right now in a pretty decent size cage I think they are happy for the most part, have a weekly misting to keep the humidity up, and i handle the female atleast an hour at time when I pick her up and she gives me no problems whats so ever.

hopefully in a couple of months they will get bigger, and I am hoping they dont hibernate this year but if they do, i guess thats part of a tegus life!


----------



## lazyjr52 (Apr 30, 2010)

Sounds like a great plan to me. Keep us posted as they grow.


----------



## themedic (May 9, 2010)

my tegu jill, playin counter strike on the computer lol


----------



## themedic (May 24, 2010)

so every month I feed them something different

first couple of weeks i fed them alot of canned dog food/eggs/chicken.

last month I fed them alot of small mice, dog food/eggs.

this month they are eating, tuna/egg and crushed up dry dog food.

they love the little peices of dog food on the top of the wet tuna, there food is always fresh i never let it sit there and get old, when they are done eating I take out there bowl and wash it for later use.

They eat twice a day once in the morning at 7, once around 3.

oh all there food is supplemented with d3, twice a week.

change water every day and misted once a week, i noticed the cypress mulch stays pretty moist underneath the first 1/2 inch of cover.

I would say they are growing pretty nicely.

Enjoy!

PS - For all you people having issues with cage aggression, a way around that is just to feed them when they are asleep.


----------



## themedic (May 26, 2010)

Ok so I havent picked up my male tegu in a while, wanted him to get used to my presence before I pushed myself onto him.

Today he lunged out of his cage to go for some food that I was feeding him, nothing out of the norm for him as he is very aggressive feeder but I dont mind I like his attitude he demands respect.

Anyway, he jumped out of his cage and landed on the floor, I was like "Holy crap, now I have to pick him up" so I put his food on the floor let him eat so he wasnt all hungry when I would pick him up, he ate then I very gently picked him up.

All I can say is OMG, he is so big now, I havent picked him up for atleast 60 days and today was the first time I touched him, he didnt even budge when I picked him up, didnt try to squiggle away or anything I was very suprised he was so calm.

needless to say I am very happy that my tegus are growing fast, healthy and are good spirited reptiles, i really lucked out thanks BOBBY!!!


----------



## themedic (Jun 1, 2010)

so i made a bench that connects to the front of their cage when the door is open, so that they can get used to coming to the food rather then the food coming to them, plus it will get them both aquainted with not being cage aggressive anymore since now they will now they only eat outside the cage when they see the bench being set up, ill get pics asap.


----------



## themedic (Jun 1, 2010)

Just a couple of pics to show growth of the tegus enjoying there food in the sun.


----------



## themedic (Jun 1, 2010)

More.


----------



## mastroj (Jun 2, 2010)

Thats a great idea with the bench. I hope it helps solve the problem with cage aggresion. I am most liekly taking my tegu home this weekend, I have handled him a few times already and he is pretty good. He does a few warning whips when I try to take him out, but he is improving everytime I see him. HE is only like 8 inches so far, if that, so he couldnt do much damage. Once he is out he will pretty much fall asleep in my hands. After reading through your post I am definitely going to feed him in a seperate tank. 

Thanks for being so detailed with your tegu journey thus far.

MAstroj


----------



## themedic (Jun 2, 2010)

no problem, anything i can do to help just ask.

the bench has helped tremendously, they come out sit in the sun and grub out, i pet them when they eat and after and when they are ready to go back to there home they just turn around and head in.

if your tegu is a pain to pick up, use the bench method, he will come out to eat, stand there while he eats and watch him, he will get aquainted with seeing your stance, and within a few weeks he will understand you arent there to steal his food or to eat him either.

before you know it he will let you pick him up no problem, ive been working with my male tegu and now he is really awsome, doesnt even puff up when I go to get him.

very pleased with training, the trick is to NOT GIVE UP!!

BEST OF LUCK!!


----------



## carcharios (Jun 4, 2010)

Awesome idea. That is going to have to be my next project! Thanks for giving me the link.


----------



## themedic (Jun 10, 2010)

so the bench idea is working fantastic.

they come out to eat then walk back into their cage when the foods all done.

they are eating twice a day, once in the morning then once before lights out.

they are growing tremendously, there tail bases are very fat and they are very healthy looking.

I read that as long as you can see the line on there back where their spinal cord is they are in good health and are not "obese" luckily i can see the line on both of them.

I was just wondering the common length and weight of a 1 year old tegu is, mine are currently around 25-30 inches long, about 6-7 months old, I have not weighed them yet I wanted to wait till 12 month mark to weigh them, then weigh them every 3 months after that.

Thanks!


----------



## tora (Jun 10, 2010)

They're looking good. 
I saw you mentioned d3, you're using calcium more than that too, right?


----------



## themedic (Jun 11, 2010)

woops i ment calcium, its that repti zoo med calcium supplement, i give em a dose or two every week they eat it up!

thanks for the compliment.

maybe in 3 years they will breed for me.


----------



## tora (Jun 11, 2010)

I'm thinking that since they aren't getting lots of whole food items this month they need more cal, since they aren't getting any from eating bones. You should have some powder with and w/o d3, since they needs lots of cal but you can OD them on d3. They should prob get the powder with d3 every 2-3 days or so, and cal powder every non whole food item feeding (turkey, tuna, etc.) day.


----------



## Herplings (Jun 11, 2010)

Nice set up and growth.

Looking good.


----------



## themedic (Jun 13, 2010)

Good info tora, and thanks for the compliment herplings.

I'm tryin to keep em fed, suckers love to eat.

They also love interaction.

definetly one of the best reptiles ive owned besides my pythons and ive owned alot of different species.

I am actually going to build a 2nd part to add on to their enclosure thats going to connect to there exsisting platform in an L shape.

The main theme is going to be tropical with a big pond, UV lighting, some flourescents and live plants to keep humidity up, also its going to have plexi glass instead of black mesh like I do on the main display, the reason i decided to do this is because they are going to be big here soon and I want them to have adequate space, when they want to move to a more tropical area they can take a dip in the pond, when they wanna bask they can come to the desert themed side.

Dimensions are going to be atleast 6ft long, 3ft wide, 2ft tall to add on to their exsisting 5x3x3 giving them a total of 81 sq ft and a total of 33 sq ft of floor space between the two.

I'll be sure to take lots of pics of my build and final set up!

Thanks!


----------



## themedic (Jul 6, 2010)

Well my tegus are getting huge to say the least, they eat so much.

never had reptiles or any animals ive ever had that grow the way these tegus do.


----------



## themedic (Jul 8, 2010)

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g23UchIH-wc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g23UchIH-wc</a><!-- m -->

watch in 720p HD, let it load 1st.

enjoy.


----------



## lazyjr52 (Jul 8, 2010)

themedic said:


> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g23UchIH-wc
> 
> watch in 720p HD, let it load 1st.
> 
> enjoy.




Nice vid. I like your cage setup. And beautiful tegus as well.


----------



## themedic (Jul 8, 2010)

Thanks for the kind words, yes they are my lil monsters.


----------

