# How much do they eat?



## Alexandra (Aug 19, 2014)

I have read as adults, tegus can be fed ground meat as a meat staple. How much food will they eat at each feeding? Like if I bought 5 pounds of ground meat how much would that last?


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## JDRexotics (Aug 19, 2014)

All depends on your Tegu. I had a 9 month old male that ate almost double of that of my 2 year old female. Some tegus are big eaters and some aren't. You just gotta figure out your Tegu and what he/she prefers.


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## Josh (Aug 19, 2014)

Depends on the age and the tegu. 5 pounds would probably last you quite a while unless you've got a HUGE tegu.
Also, you would want to mix a bunch of other stuff in with that ground meat. It's tough to identify staples for tegus when you really should be feeding as much variety as possible.


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## Logan (Aug 20, 2014)

my tegu eats A LOT, but they are all diffrent


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## Rebecca Stout (Aug 21, 2014)

Mine eats every other day at 15 months old. But she either eats a grown mouse, or a mixed meat staple. Mixed meats may include some or all of the following: ground turkey, whole pieces of chicken breast, fish (tilapia, smelt, or salmon ... shes not crazy about any fish though), hard boiled eggs and shell, chicken gizzards, chicken livers, chicken hearts... and of course lots of plain calcium powder added. For right now, she eats just over half a baseball size of the mixed meat. But yeah, they are all diff. Just offer a good dish of it, and let them eat as much as they want. After a few days or weeks, you'll see the pattern of what amount they want. Then you'll know how much servings should be and then calculate costs.

I like having them eat a mixed meat concoction at least 1x a week, because in my opinion, too much of any one thing is never a good idea. So nothing but whole mice, or whole mice and say chicks .. can't be truly complete if you ask me. Certainly the mixed meats is incomplete ... but it has advantages. 1) adds lots of variety, 2)a soft alternative they already like if they have digestive/prolapse issues 3) l its easy to hide medicine and supplements into, or anything they need and are refusing and 4) most importantly ... things "happen" in the food industry and in this world. Stores go out of business, nation wide recalls of killed prey happen, and a whole list of other crazy things are possible ... and this way your monster is not imprinted on only taking in a diet of just whole prey and will accept something else in a pinch. I'm new. So I will be making lots of mistakes. People may disagree with me about this food issue. Must more experienced people swear by a whole food diet. I'm here to say its not as "perfect" as they say unless the practice includes a wide wide array of many foods. I'm here to say as a very experience exotics owner, that some species of animals imprint so much on a certain food ... they will literally starve themselves if they have no access to it. So having a little alternative practiced so they will accept it is always wise.


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## JDRexotics (Aug 31, 2014)

Mine at a little over 2 years old, eats a ball of turkey diet with added vitamins, fruits, egg and veggies once a week. I don't over feed her but I feel comfortable feeding once a week because I know that when she does eat, its full of nutrition so I am more on the quality over quantity diet and schedule. But every other day at 15 months is expected they are just great when they are young they will eat a ton every day for you ahaha sounds like you got a happy Tegu!


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## Rebecca Stout (Sep 1, 2014)

I'm kinda confused at the frequency they are to eat. Not the size or what. I see here people seem to be in agreement with what to feed, and even possibly the size. But like I said, how often do they eat? I've heard everything from every day (even with adults ... though I can't imagine mine ever wanting to eat every single day) to what is listed above. I have no idea what to do. Mine is being so so picky. I'm so tired of throwing out good food. It makes me cringe. Bye bye money is all I keep thinking. When she has weeks where she only chooses to eat 2-3 times a SMALL meal I get really concerned. 

Anyway, I can tell you that when I made my mixed meats mash, I bought 2lbs ground turkey, a small tub or two of mixed innards (chicken hearts, liver, gizzards), three boneless breasts to cut up into tiny pieces, 4 or so hard boiled eggs ... then added tons of calcium. I separate the mix into servings in baggies. Put those baggies into a gallon baggie and stick in the freezer. I think I get like almost 2 1 gallon bags filled with servings out of that. Hard to remember. And when I feed her every other day (in the past), it lasted months. It really did. Cause you have to remember that at least one day (if you dont mix fruits in your meats), shes gonna be eating a plate of things like fish and fruits (scraps really). So in other words she was seeing 3 or 4 servings a week when she was 12 months old. Its like a few dollars for the innards. Hardly nothing for the eggs. then its however much your bag of chicken and turkey cost pretty much. Not very expensive considering how many weeks that gets you. You'll need less if you ever give whole prey on top of that. I wish I could give you a price tag on all of those meats and sizes, but I cant.


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