# Tegu only eats crickets



## nepoez (Feb 21, 2013)

Hi All,

My tegu(no name yet, just got his 2 days ago) loves crickets and it seems like he could go on all day eating crickets. However I tried to feed him super worms and he treats them like they are junk, no interest at all. So I had no choice but to get him crickets and he went after them like crazy...

Any ideas?

Thanks!
And I'll be posting some pics soon! Right now he freezes everytime he sees me so I have to watch him really sneakily or use my CCTV setup to watch him haha... Tips on this would be appreciated too.. He's so scared of me.


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## Raicardoso (Feb 21, 2013)

nepoez said:


> Hi All,
> 
> My tegu(no name yet, just got his 2 days ago) loves crickets and it seems like he could go on all day eating crickets. However I tried to feed him super worms and he treats them like they are junk, no interest at all. So I had no choice but to get him crickets and he went after them like crazy...
> 
> ...


 
It's expected for him to freeze everytime he sees you since you've only had him for that long  I usually give my reptiles 2 weeks until i start trying to tame/handle. I'll handle if needed for cage maintenance but that's the amount of time i give any new reptile i get . I've also NEVER had ANY luck with any of my reptiles liking worms. It's a shame cause i would rather feed worms than crickets . Try giving him the turkey that tegu's go crazy for! Or some eggs.


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## bfb345 (Feb 21, 2013)

Try blaptica dubia roaches my tegu loves them


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## laurarfl (Feb 22, 2013)

I'm not a big fan of supers because of the chitinous exoskeleton. Crickets are fine. Make sure they are gutloaded with a good calcium source (dark greens are awesome, fish food) and heavily coated with calcium. You can try all sorts of foods, but anything without bones must be supplemented with calcium.


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## batmanvtx (Feb 22, 2013)

My Tegu would eat Crickets only too until I gave him some turkey with bones and organs ground in it. Now he wont eat anything else. He gets awful messy at time though. He likes to grab it and fling it everywhere. Such fun to watch though.


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## nepoez (Feb 22, 2013)

I ordered some dubia roaches to breed. Hope he will eat them!


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## BatGirl1 (Feb 22, 2013)

I like how they mow the meat then wipe their face on the dish or the wall of the feed tub. Mmmm so cute 

Sent from my ZTE-Z990G using Tapatalk 2


( mow pronounced like 'ouch ' without the 'ch ', by the way...haha) 

Sent from my ZTE-Z990G using Tapatalk 2


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## Zaknaril (Mar 18, 2013)

I noticed my Tegu does this too, its like she's a cricket addict, and ignores ground turkey so I ordered some with bone/organ/meat in it. Really didn't seem to go after the roaches either..


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## AAgerm (Mar 18, 2013)

my tegu was the same way when i just got him, i wanted to get him a mixed diet so i tried worms, he didnt like them at first so i crushed all the worms up slightly enough to where the worms arent that deformed, and then i put 2 crushed ones on his nose and took em off after about 30 seconds, after that he just went straight after them from that moment on


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## KritterKeeper (Mar 18, 2013)

Maybe you could skip a feeding and let them get alittle bit hungry and then try feeding the ground meat..? My guy ate bugs at first until my hare-today order came and he loved the ground meats from the start. Still eats crickets on occasion but would rather have meat.


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## Dubya (Mar 18, 2013)

BatGirl1 said:


> I like how they mow the meat then wipe their face on the dish or the wall of the feed tub. Mmmm so cute
> 
> Sent from my ZTE-Z990G using Tapatalk 2
> 
> ...




When Gwangi eats the secret diet, when he shakes it, he will find every molecule that got scattered and after he finishes the bowl, he will eat the scattered molecules and quarks.


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## xxmonitorlizardxx (Mar 18, 2013)

laurarfl said:


> I'm not a big fan of supers because of the chitinous exoskeleton.


If they eat snails in the wild, it should not be a problem.


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## Zaknaril (Mar 20, 2013)

Soryn Got her Hare-Today.com Order today! She loves the Turkey/bone/organ mix and smeared the Pheasant around a bit before she ate it. If the Dubia's don't work you should check out the Ground Turkey!


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## Alxsparks (Mar 20, 2013)

If he's ravenous for anything after 2 days, I wouldn't be too worried. My tegu has been on a ground meat diet since I got him, but for the first few weeks he lacked that legendary tegu hunger and we could hardly get him to eat at all (or he ate so little during the day we couldn't tell whether he'd eaten or not). Now he's eating about a quarter cup of ground chicken/bones/organs a day at 9 months and growing.

We also hardly ever saw our tegu for the first few months (just a glimpse when we walked in the room before he ran for his hide), and now he doesn't have a problem curling up under a blanket with us on the couch to steal some body heat. It just takes time and handling.


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