# My New Tegu



## TeguZen (Jul 2, 2016)

just got home with him/her, the pet store said he ate 13 crickets today
i had some rocks, and a manzanita limb, so put those in his loft


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## TeguZen (Jul 2, 2016)

40g tank, has the dual lamp at the top, UVB/Heat, the heat lamp alone doesnt seem to be cutting it, the bottom of tank is still only about 80 degrees after 4 or 5 hours being on, the lamp is ZooMed 100w, UVB is ZooMed 10.0
does the heat lamp need to be on 24/7, I plan on running the UVB on 4, off 4, on 4, off for the night, repeat, i will als open the curtains of the window he is in front of so he will get some natural light during the day on occasion.
Oh, I grabbed about 40 medium dubai roaches for a bit, ordering some crickets, but for the next few days his meals will be roaches, i didnt want to buy cages/pens for multiple feeders at the moment, so just have a cage for roaches. also, dont really have a feeding place yet that crickets wont just jump out of.


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## dpjm (Jul 3, 2016)

He's going to want somewhere to hide in there, especially because he's both new to the enclosure and a hatchling. I can't see the whole enclosure, but if it's just those rocks and a log, he's going to feel very exposed and stress will set in.

You will need a stronger heat lamp or multiple ones to get 110F (or whatever your aim is). What are you currently using?

Whether the heat lamp needs to stay on depends on a couple things. If it is a clear lamp (not colored light), then no it can't, it needs to be dark at night. If it is a red colored heat lamp, then it could stay on if it needs to. Red is considered dark for lizards, so you can use red lights at night without them really noticing the light (apparently). The temperature in the enclosure needs to drop substantially at night, down to 72 F or so. If the temperature in the room he is in drops much below that, I would consider a nighttime heat source, either a red lamp, or better yet, a ceramic heat emitter, but a weak one just to get it to that point of 72 F. They do not need to bask or anything at night, though.

Why are you running the UV lamp in that cycle? Go 12 on 12 off and make sure that at least some area of the enclosure gets no exposure to UV when the lamp is on.

Don't expect him to love dubia roaches right away. If he has been eating crickets up to this point, a sudden switch to dubias may be difficult. Like I said before, the dubias don't show a lot of movement as crickets do. The movements are part of the attraction, let's the lizard know that this is a food item and not some rock. He should eat them eventually, but make sure to have some crickets on hand as well. He may not eat for a few days to a week anyway as he gets used to his new home.


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## TeguZen (Jul 3, 2016)

heres the house, its a 'bearded dragon kit' closest thing that had most what I need. thats the kids t-shirt in the middle, found him under that this morning.
sounds like i need another lamp, the home is still only at about 80. i'll go to pet smart today i guess and get another 100w lamp, plus, i just ordered a ceramic from amazon, i'll let the ceramic be the 70 degree or so maintainer, and turn the other on during the day, do you suggest 12/on/off for the higher temperature too, or should i just get 2 ceramic and keep an end at high heat all the time. i was figuring around 100 degrees, i need more humidity too its at about 40, i dont want to put mulch in just yet, until after hes trained a bit, dont want to have to dig him out of anywhere. but i''ll have to find something for that humidity for now for sure


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## TeguZen (Jul 3, 2016)

oh, the pet store ordered on Wednesday, and got him on friday i guess, and did not feed him until saturday, i have no idea what a breeder would have fed him, i'm going to not feed today (sunday), and feed him Monday, giving him a bit of time to setlle, i'll go grab a dozen crickets though since they are closed tomorrow, i guess i will use a cardboard box to feed him in for now, i also only have a single feeder container for now, so thats why i chose the roaches.


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## Walter1 (Jul 3, 2016)

TeguZen said:


> oh, the pet store ordered on Wednesday, and got him on friday i guess, and did not feed him until saturday, i have no idea what a breeder would have fed him, i'm going to not feed today (sunday), and feed him Monday, giving him a bit of time to setlle, i'll go grab a dozen crickets though since they are closed tomorrow, i guess i will use a cardboard box to feed him in for now, i also only have a single feeder container for now, so thats why i chose the roaches.


The enclosure seems too small already.


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## TeguZen (Jul 3, 2016)

from all i read, 40g was good for hatchling, and thats pretty much the largest available for purchase at most places around here. I'll probably help my son build something.
kinda weird, looking at some setups, it seems the 100w ZooMed should be getting it to 100 degrees at that distance


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## TeguZen (Jul 3, 2016)

any thoughts on getting some humidity in there, i had a halogen work light that i put next to his house, now its 100 degrees or more in some areas, but it sure killed humidity, i'll have to spray it down to get some of it back, but at that temp it will dry up quite quick again i'm sure. how the heck do you keep heat AND high humidity?


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## CaliKid (Jul 3, 2016)

TeguZen said:


> any thoughts on getting some humidity in there, i had a halogen work light that i put next to his house, now its 100 degrees or more in some areas, but it sure killed humidity, i'll have to spray it down to get some of it back, but at that temp it will dry up quite quick again i'm sure. how the heck do you keep heat AND high humidity?


You're going to have to get mulch. I use cypress mulch and it holds humidity very well. I usually spray it in the morning and at night and that keeps the humidity in the 60's and 70's. Without mulch to hold the water im not sure how you can keep your humidity levels good.


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## TeguZen (Jul 3, 2016)

we had a tree cut down at work a while back, they the base they shredded into a big pile of chunks, will that stuff be good? i dont know what kind of tree, petsmart had coconut
edit: decided against the shredded tree from work, could introduce bacteria we dont want
went to home depot and got a 125w red heat lamp and a 250 regular heat lamp, replaced the 100watt in the lamp, seems to be doing ok for now, took him out and put him in the box to eat, he at 8 of the roaches, wow, and actually went for a 9th, caught it, it go lose and he apparently didnt want it bad enough to catch it again, it didnt run off anywhere was right there under him. i left him a bit to see if he'd go after it but no, just wasnt interested no more, i guess he was full. but certainly had no hesitation on eating the roaches for sure.
at home depot, they had some red mulch, along with other colors, i could not find actual ingredients to see if it had cedar or not, so didnt get it, it was all moist, would probably do really good for moisture, just wasnt sure of ingredients, is anyone familiar with the home depot 'red mulch', there was also brown and black of the same packaging.


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## dpjm (Jul 3, 2016)

Keeping high heat and humidity is a major challenge. As temp goes up, relative humidity, by definition, goes down. To have both usually requires reducing ventilation by covering up the screen lid with either a plastic garbage bag or, better yet, a wet towel. You can usually cover around 2/3 of the top without much problems. You will still have to mist, just not as often.

That's good that he is eating already, and is ok with dubias.

I would be suspicious that red mulch has cedar, which is reddish, or at least some type of coloring additive that is not desirable. Probably ditto for the black. I don't use mulch at this point and I live in Canada so I'm not much help on where to get good mulch. But I will say that it is desirable to have, both for humidity and because the tegu will like to bury himself in it and it is a good thing to let him.

You will be replacing that enclosure pretty quickly, these guys grow really fast.

You asked about temperature gradients as well. 
Daytime: 
Keep a warm side that includes a very warm basking zone. The basking zone should be at least 110 F and should be larger than the size of the animal, so he can warm up his entire body uniformly without having to reposition himself under the light over and over. For you, I would put the basking area on one of the far sides, for larger enclosures you have more flexibility. So at one far end is the hottest the enclosure gets, around 110 F or so. The other end of the enclosure is the cool end, which should be around 72 F or so. Generally no lighting is required here unless your house is cold. The rest of the enclosure is somewhere in between, say 80-90 F. You might have another heat light to accomplish this warm zone, which is somewhere near the middle of the enclosure, but in a smaller enclosure you might not need it. Usually your UV zone is overlapping into the basking area and neighboring warmer area. Run this setup for 12 hours, some might say 13.
Nighttime:
You don't really need much gradient at night. Definitely no basking zone. I would do a small gradient, maybe 68 F on the cool side to 72 F on the warm side.

Something to think about when looking at different heat lamps. Consider the shape of the face. A flat face (halogens mostly) will concentrate most of the heat forward without much spread. These are great for basking lights because they create the highest temperatures. A rounded face (mercury vapor, non-halogen flood lights) will spread the heat out into a wider area, with less heat concentrated in the middle. Good for midrange temperatures in a large area. A typical old-style incandescent bulb is very round and projects heat all around it, so for the wattage, these will produce the least downward heat. I am guessing your 100 W Zoo Med is one of those, which is probably why it is not performing as well as you think it should.


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## TeguZen (Jul 3, 2016)

I got a 125 white heat lamp from Home Depot, I put that in and removed the work light, that light is keeping it about 90, I'll change it to the 250 red heat lamp I got and see where that takes it tomorrow, the 100 watt was barely keeping the bask zone above room temp (which is probably about 65 or so)


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## Say Car Ramrod (Jul 3, 2016)

You could use peat moss. It's cheap and comes in massive bags so it'll last awhile. I mix mine with coconut fiber and my tegu absolutely loves it. He has burrows all over the place.


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## Walter1 (Jul 3, 2016)

Say Car Ramrod said:


> You could use peat moss. It's cheap and comes in massive bags so it'll last awhile. I mix mine with coconut fiber and my tegu absolutely loves it. He has burrows all over the place.


A good mix.


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## TeguZen (Jul 4, 2016)

Well, today he only ate 4 or 5 dubias, they were all bigger ones though, mostly thumb size, 1/2" I suppose


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## TeguZen (Jul 4, 2016)

So, since he is 'hiding' in the shirt at night, and that area is around 70deg, is there any reason to leave the heat lamp on overnight, since the terrarium stays at close to 70deg without it, it seems that is just maintaining a 99deg spot for no reason, seems a waste of energy, should I just make sure things don't drop below 70 anywhere? 
Oh, each morning so far he is staying 'hidden' until around noon, coming out only because I messed with his hide
I'm thinking having the heat lamp on from like noon to 8pm, unless I find him changing his habits 

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## dpjm (Jul 5, 2016)

He doesn't need a 99 F spot at night, the whole terrarium should be in the low 70s.


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## TeguZen (Jul 5, 2016)

Oh, ok, good


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## TeguZen (Jul 6, 2016)

yesterday was 5 dubias, hes kinda crazy, he grabbed at #6, and it got loose, he grabbed at another one for #6, it got loose, he lost interest in even trying for anything else after that. I guess he's thinking "I aint that hungry to chase after you"
he seems to have a hard time with the bigger ones, basically they dont fit into his mouth enough unless he picks them up just right in order to 'fold' them.


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## TeguZen (Jul 7, 2016)

today, i notice hes shedding, at the neck and legs
the other day I added a ceramic heater, and with that on, it gets over 100, but he seems to gravitate to the 90 degree areas for the most part

Name is Yoshi by the way


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## TeguZen (Jul 9, 2016)

This morning he decided he wanted a taste of my finger, tongue a few times then tried to bite, wrong angle, turned his head and tried again, I moved, put my hand in front of him again he tried again actually caught a bit, no skin broke or nothing just a slight pinch. Not sure if that means he is hungry or not, been feeding once a day, trying to do so at around same time each day
Been doing 6 dubias pretty much, then I think just doesn't think number 7 is worth the effort
Think i should offer him another meal each day


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## Walter1 (Jul 9, 2016)

TeguZen said:


> This morning he decided he wanted a taste of my finger, tongue a few times then tried to bite, wrong angle, turned his head and tried again, I moved, put my hand in front of him again he tried again actually caught a bit, no skin broke or nothing just a slight pinch. Not sure if that means he is hungry or not, been feeding once a day, trying to do so at around same time each day
> Been doing 6 dubias pretty much, then I think just doesn't think number 7 is worth the effort
> Think i should offer him another meal each day
> 
> ...


wouldn't hurt to.


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## dpjm (Jul 9, 2016)

When they are very young they may eat multiple times in a day.


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## TeguZen (Jul 9, 2016)

Can't believe he is eating 6 dubias a day now, and they ain't tiny ones, they are thumbnail size at least 


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## Walter1 (Jul 9, 2016)

Feed at will. They should grow now.


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