# fleas ughhhh



## booyea797 (Aug 21, 2011)

So my mom found fleas on my cat yesterday and saw her the day b4 that on top of my gu cage not sure if they got into his cage we bomb the house today and I brought him and his tank outside ok the screen poarch but should I clean his cage just is case and hes also stress being outside today hes only a baby from this years extreme hes been hiding all day is he gunna b ok and should I clean his cage really good


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## Strange_Evil (Aug 21, 2011)

Not sure about the fleas, but did you bring him outside in a glass tank? was he sat in the sun?


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## Bubblz Calhoun (Aug 21, 2011)

_You should be fine, fleas prefer warm blooded animals. With reptiles we mainly have to worry about mites and ticks._


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## booyea797 (Aug 21, 2011)

No I had to put him in the garage becasue we have the cat and dogs in the screen porch with us and cat never leaves him alone


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## jtpowers (Aug 21, 2011)

Before I respond, I want to clarify that my understanding is your cage was not inside during the "bombing", so a substrate change to avoid toxins shouldn't be necessary.

Further, most foggers and some fumigators use one of the various pyrethrins, which have high organophosphate toxicity when wet, significantly reducing when dry unless actually ingested (cats are particularly sensitive to pyrethrins, and as a double whammy, lick their fur and further expose themselves.) You might want to consider Advantage for your cat (not the cheap OTC's that have the same packaging look and are just concentrated pyrethrin or permethrin). Bottom line, though, as long as all the fogged areas are dry, I wouldn't be too concerned about toxicity when your tegu sits on the couch later, for example.

On to your other concern...worried about the fleas impacting your tegu? Don't be. Fleas are largely species specific, though they will feed opportunistically on similar vertebrates (cat fleas, dog fleas, squirrel fleas, etc.) and the ones on your cats will preferentially feed on mammals. 

IF you notice fleas on or near your tegu's enclosure, it isn't because they're going after your tegu. They're attracted to light. In fact, there are flea traps that exploit that fact.

Good luck, and good job removing him and his enclosure from the house during the treatment!


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## booyea797 (Aug 21, 2011)

sweet deal thanks everyone but im just worried hes outside and I go to check on him hes all scared hes never like that he always happy to c me when i go into his cage its just wired he loves coming out to hang and hes just a a little one


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## jtpowers (Aug 21, 2011)

When do you plan on bringing him back inside? I misunderstood and thought you already had, sorry.



booyea797 said:


> sweet deal thanks everyone but im just worried hes outside and I go to check on him hes all scared hes never like that he always happy to c me when i go into his cage its just wired he loves coming out to hang and hes just a a little one


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## booyea797 (Aug 21, 2011)

Im cleaning my room right now and make sure all that stuff is out im bringing him back in soon and make him a feast of a fuzzie eggs and r strawberries ok??


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## jtpowers (Aug 21, 2011)

Strawberries are great! (Moderation, of course, as with most things). Being a little guy, he may not be quite so keen on the fruits yet, but some certainly are!



booyea797 said:


> Im cleaning my room right now and make sure all that stuff is out im bringing him back in soon and make him a feast of a fuzzie eggs and r strawberries ok??


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## booyea797 (Aug 21, 2011)

He loved kiwi the one day I gave it to him but he still seems stress and doesn't want me to take him out is it ok I just feed him in his cage for the day usually hes in the bin and can I mix like a fuzzier fruit all on the same plate maybe ill give him some ground turkey for the night and good suggestions with food I don't like the mix I have now just crickets the ground turkey beef mix ground turkey and fuzzies what's a good worm I was going to get him horn worms whats ur favorite meal to give


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## jtpowers (Aug 21, 2011)

Given that he has already experienced his share of stress today, my opinion is to get him back to his "normal" area and feed in the cage for tonight. Certainly won't hurt; as you may have noticed from recent posts some folks feed in the enclosure regularly, some from time to time, some rarely if ever, and all ways can achieve success. My experience with reptiles in general and my tegu in particular is that they look forward to feeding time in a separate bin or bathtub as the "ordinary" thing, and the cage opening doesn't put them on the ready for grabbing whatever comes in, and they seem more relaxed and conditioned to calm interaction as a result. But you aren't trying to address food or cage aggression problems, you're just trying to let him settle down and settle back in, and he's a little guy without a lot of reserves built up at this point.

Lastly, it's not so much what my or anyone else's favorite foods are to feed, it's what his are to eat. Choose a few good staple foods...dusted crickets, ground turkey with calcium powder, chicken livers, stuff like that. Whole prey items appropriate for his size are good, but I prefer not to feed live vertebrate prey like rodents and would go with frozen/thawed. Then some "side dishes" of a few favorite fruits or veggies, and a few treat type foods to be given only occasionally. There's a good list on this forum you should be able to search. I don't use mealworms, earthworms, or any other worms as part of my staple diets simply because most of my lizards won't touch them...but you should definitely offer them, as in general the more variety the better.

Since he's still little, keep things diced to bite size, particularly anything tough like fruit skins. Let us know how he's doing!





booyea797 said:


> He loved kiwi the one day I gave it to him but he still seems stress and doesn't want me to take him out is it ok I just feed him in his cage for the day usually hes in the bin and can I mix like a fuzzier fruit all on the same plate maybe ill give him some ground turkey for the night and good suggestions with food I don't like the mix I have now just crickets the ground turkey beef mix ground turkey and fuzzies what's a good worm I was going to get him horn worms whats ur favorite meal to give


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## booyea797 (Aug 21, 2011)

He ate a bit but I did not feed him yesterday becasue the day before he ate a fuzzie he only ate a couple bites make like 5 little pieces of tapila so hopes hes ok he slowly got to his old self and came to my arm and chilled out me for a bit thanks for all ur help


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