# biting



## justinfin7 (Mar 16, 2011)

I'v tried alot of things different but my tegu always comes for my hand when he sees it in its cage.Hes not very aggressive. When feeding i always take him out and put him on the floor around where his food is. I'v been feeding him pinkys, roaches, crickets, and ground turkey. And I always wash my hands after handling food. Any help or advise you guys could give me to keep from gettin bitten would be great . thanks


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## Toby_H (Mar 16, 2011)

What size enclosure and how old/large is your Tegu?


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## justinfin7 (Mar 23, 2011)

bouta year. and a meter long and foot wide. he is a foot long with tail


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## chelvis (Mar 23, 2011)

His reaction could be due to the small cage size. bumping up the cage size to almost double the cage size could help a bit. In a small cage a larger animal can easily feel trapped and become defensive. Also if this is an aquarium the opening being at the top could be a problem as well. Having a hand come down from the top of the cage is very similar to that of a preditor like a bird. 

If you can have the tegu out and free roaming and pick it up with no problem than i would say your problem is the cage size. Now if the tegu is still aggressive and bity out of the cage it might be time to re-work your trust building. Start by leaving an artical of clothing that smells like you in the cage. Remember to let your tegu come to you, i use to sit in a empty bath tub with my tegu crawling over me, once he learned i wasn't going ot hurt him he was fine with my picking him up. 

One last thing are you sure you got an arg black and white and not a columbian. Just asking becuase of the size, although if the tegu hibernated that would explain that.


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## Orion (Mar 23, 2011)

justinfin7 said:


> I'v tried alot of things different but my tegu always comes for my hand when he sees it in its cage.Hes not very aggressive. When feeding i always take him out and put him on the floor around where his food is. I'v been feeding him pinkys, roaches, crickets, and ground turkey. And I always wash my hands after handling food. Any help or advise you guys could give me to keep from gettin bitten would be great . thanks



I have a smaller issue with one of my female B&Ws. I got her when she was almost 30 inches. Any time I would rake the mulch with my fingers she would go after them. I have her in a 6x2x4 front opening cage. I attribute her behavior to the fact that the previous owner always fed her live mice. She was used to chasing them down and dispatching them. Even today she runs after the food plate with the mice and agressivly KILLS! the fully dead thawed mice. Yours may be getting the same way from the roaches and crickets. Try cutting back on moving things or things that give chase.


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## Draco D Tegu (Mar 23, 2011)

How did you get yours to switch from live to FT mice? My girl was fed live and I have a big problem with that for many reasons.


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## chelvis (Mar 23, 2011)

Switching from live to FT is not hard with tegus. Simply skip one feeding in older animals and present the FT mouse in the same way you would say ground turkey. So if you use a bowl feed the mouse in a bowl, if you feed in a bin present the mouse in the feeding bin. Most tegus will accept FT mice really quickly, they are not like snakes in they like to see their food move. I know one of my roomies tried to fed Bosco a mouse once (he has never had live food other than bugs when he was a little guy) and he didn't do much to it, flicked his tounge and the mouse took off. He just stayed put. Now if he sees his bowl its a whole other story, he rushes the glass and can't wait till i put it down for him.


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## Rhetoric (Mar 23, 2011)

Not sure if this would help but it could be worth a shot (I've suggested it on other posts after someone suggested it to me). You can poke a hole or two in the mouse (the head works best if you can) and get some of the juices out, the scent should attract the tegu.


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## Toby_H (Mar 24, 2011)

rhetoricx said:


> Not sure if this would help but it could be worth a shot (I've suggested it on other posts after someone suggested it to me). You can poke a hole or two in the mouse (the head works best if you can) and get some of the juices out, the scent should attract the tegu.



ewwwwwwwwwwwwww

The idea is called "braining". I do it for my Ball Pythons when they are hesitent to eat. I use the back of a spoon and press on the mouse/rats head just enough to crack the skull. 

If you do it 'right' you can crack the skull enough to allow the scent of brain juice out without actually letting brain juice out.


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## slideaboot (Mar 24, 2011)

Toby_H said:


> rhetoricx said:
> 
> 
> > Not sure if this would help but it could be worth a shot (I've suggested it on other posts after someone suggested it to me). You can poke a hole or two in the mouse (the head works best if you can) and get some of the juices out, the scent should attract the tegu.
> ...




Ah! The good ol' meticulous art of precision skull crushing...

It works, though!


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## Rhetoric (Mar 24, 2011)

Toby_H said:


> The idea is called "braining".
> 
> If you do it 'right' you can crack the skull enough to allow the scent of brain juice out without actually letting brain juice out.



Ewww I didn't know it had a proper term... Sooo gross but it works like a charm! I didn't think to just crack the skull, I only had to do it a couple of times when I first got my tegu. Now that I think of it, it might have been you that suggested it.


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## thomasjg23 (Mar 24, 2011)

I want a like feature for the mention of precision skull cracking.


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## Rhetoric (Mar 24, 2011)

thomasjg23 said:


> I want a like feature for the mention of precision skull cracking.



Sometimes I think a like feature would be great for some comments... Maybe I've been spending too much time on facebook:angel:


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## justinfin7 (Mar 26, 2011)

I'm positive he is a Argentine, he just got out of hibernation. I think the cage is part of the problem and in the next week will be working on making him a bigger one. I don't know why i hadn't thought of it before but now that i have I do think feeding him live pinkys is the biggest problem. He does eat a lot of them (sometimes 3 or 4 a week). I will definitely take him off the live food. Any suggestions to introducing him to his food without him associating it with me? And for the times that he does bite how should i handle it at that time to keep him from thinking he can do it agian?

Thank's you guys for all your help.


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## Bubblz Calhoun (Mar 26, 2011)

_Your Gu is young, he just got out of hibernation and you have been feeding it live foods for quite some time. How much time did you have to work with him before he went in to hibernation? Especially inside the enclosure since it seems to be fine outside of it. You may have to take a step back, wear some gloves to work with him and get him use to you being in his territory and not feeling threatened. 

For the food issues what ever you use to feed him in,.. keep it the same. If you use a bowl, plate bin or what ever. Eventually they do start to recognize them and will associate that with their food. As they get older you can hand feed them or what ever and it will not matter. Because they have learned that your hands are not food. But for now,.. no hand feeding, if you want to dangle anything in front of them, use tongs or something.

When he bites,.. try tapping him on the nose but don't stop what you're doing. If you stop then you're teaching him that biting will get you to leave him alone. I look at it as,.. if he bit another tegu what do you think would happen? It would either tail whip him and or bite him back before running away,.. if it ran away at all.

Each one is different so you have to find and try different things to see what works for you and yours._


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