# New Gu!! Need some opinions



## lyndsey123 (Jul 26, 2010)

Hi guys! It's been a while since I posted, my lil gu from bobby that I got in April is doing fantastic! But I'm excited to report that I now own a 2nd tegu that I adopted from craigslist! However when I brought the little guy home I noticed that he/she seems to have mbd or is just having problems being mobile and is very lethargic... Im VERY worried about it's health at this point. The guy I received him from was a real sweetheart and really loved this Gu but when he moved his family took over the care of his reptiles and he hasn't seen this little guy in about a year. He said it's roughly 2 years old and he got it from Bert at Agama!  He also said he's been under a uv light but I think this little gu may have a calcium deficiency or some other illness. ALSO if you notice near the base of the tail there is a bump which I was puzzled by. I need some advice on how to perk this Gu up i've already set him/her under my uv light (powersun) and tomorrow I'm going to try maybe chicken necks or something supplemented with my repticalcium without d3 powder... My biggest fear is that whatever this is cannot be reversed and I promised the man I got it from that I would take excellent care of it and if it passed away in my possession I would feel so aweful! So if anyone could please list the signs of mbd and anything that I'm doing wrong that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance very much! I'll try to get a video of it tomorrow.


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2010)

Since you adopted the lil' guy from a questionable source (I'm not doubting that the man loved his tegu, I'm questioning the care he received from the family), the first thing that I would do is take him to my vet (hopefully you have one by now). Bring a nice ol' poo sample with you (vets just love poo *grin*), and just get him a thorough check-up. The vet should be able to rule out MBD or anything parasitic going on with him, and give you a good idea of what steps to take to get him back on the right track (hopefully). And as always, keep us posted!


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## txrepgirl (Jul 26, 2010)

Welcome back. Wow he looks very small for a 2 year old Tegu. Do you know if he hibernated ? If he has MBD I would take him to a vet. He might need to be put on liquid calcium that he can absorb better. Is he eating OK. If not you can try to get some carnivore diet from your vet ( link below ). It doesn't cost much and you need just a little bit of it at a time. The bump is hard to see in this picture. I also will post a link on MBD. Thank you for trying to post the video. I also would recommend to feed some frozen/thawed hole pray not just the chicken necks. 

Carnivore Diet : 

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.oxbowanimalhealth.com/resources/dyn/files/133793/_fn/Carnivore+Care+spec.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">https://www.oxbowanimalhealth.com/resou ... e+spec.pdf</a><!-- m --> 


MBD info :

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.anapsid.org/mbd.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.anapsid.org/mbd.html</a><!-- m -->


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## lyndsey123 (Aug 3, 2010)

Thanks VERY much for the fast responses, I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while I've been so incredibly busy. From what I know he hibernated one year only, and is eating just fine. I have been giving him beef liver dusted with calcium and cod liver oil, but I still have to set up a vet appointment. He seems to have a lot more energy now so hopefully he will be doing better soon.


I captured him on video today here it is...

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://s620.photobucket.com/albums/tt289/threadstosewyou/?action=view&current=HPIM4172.mp4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://s620.photobucket.com/albums/tt28 ... IM4172.mp4</a><!-- m -->


*note* tile is slippery, but doesn't his movement seem irregular? I also tried to zoom in on the "bump" near the very end of the video.


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## fireimp141 (Aug 5, 2010)

Yah his hips don't seem to work like they wanna. Sure does look like hes got some big ol feet too lol


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## TheTeguGurl (Aug 5, 2010)

ahh poor little guy... but im sure with tlc and some vet care he will do great...congts on ur gu


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## carcharios (Aug 6, 2010)

I'm sure some here are sick of me saying this but I guarantee you that IF your new Gu has MBD, you can reverse it with chicken necks in about 2 to 3 weeks time. Frieda, my adopted female was also lethargic, had slight twitching, dragged herself in a sliding motion rather than walking elevated like my male, Kimo. By the end of last summer, she could barely catch the mice I put in her cage - scratch that, she couldn't catch them. I had to stun them for her.

Earlier this summer, I started feeding her whole chicken necks and at first she was not excreting any of the bone. I just figured that she digested it all. However, about two to three weeks later, I started noticing a fine white powder stool being excreted. She had finally absorbed enough calcium phosphate that she was able to excrete the excess in her stool. Coincidentally, for the first time, I noticed that she was walking with her body and tail held off the ground. She has been doing so ever since - and now has more energy than Kimo does, which says a lot. 

I was very doubtful that MBD could be reversed. If you saw the way she acted, you'd have never thought it was possible for her to walk correctly again. And yet the chicken necks seemed to work like a miracle. Also, if possible get your tegu natural sunlight. I think this makes a difference as well.

If you can't get chicken necks at your local market, look for chicken backs. They're larger but can be cut up into smaller pieces. Worst case scenario, buy a whole chicken and cleaver it up in pieces small enough for your tegu to eat. A cornish hen might work too, as they're smaller and easier to work with. Regardless, whatever you do, make sure your tegu is getting real bone as well as natural sunlight if possible. We are constantly trying to supplement the food we give our tegus to contain the proper ratio of calcium to phosphate and yet if you just give them real bones you can avoid this problem altogether - and it's probably cheaper too. If you do this, I'm pretty sure you'll be amazed at the turn-around.


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## chelvis (Aug 6, 2010)

She looks alittle skinny to me. I don't mean like she hasn't been feed rescently but for a whiles she's not been given alot of food. Why i say this is look at the base of her tail, it should be alot more rounded and fuller. This kind of fat lose happens over time and it will take time to reverse. This could explain her small size for a two year old. 

As for her hips, if it is MBD its hard to tell to what extent without an x-ray. Good chance the owner had a good UV light but it was never changed by the family members so the UV wore off. Its odd those that the legs are moving fine and there is no twitching in the limbs, typically classice signd of MBD. Becuase u don't know the history of this gu and the hips are the problem i'd stay away from large prey iteams (ie rodents, chicken necks, whole fish) i know bones are a great sorce of calcium and all but if there is MBD and its in the hips and the tegu is weak from its ordeal there is a chance that she won't properly digest such a meal and impaction can happen (not fun). 

Best course of action is to take her to a herp vet and get an x-ray of her hips to see what is going on there. Keep giving her plenty of powdered calcium in the mean time and the bulb your using should help. Let us know what the vet says.


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## carcharios (Aug 8, 2010)

For what it's worth, Diego looked like your guy after 11 months of hibernation. Within two months of being outside in full sun and on the chicken neck diet, he's completely filled out and looks much healthier now. You wouldn't even know he was the same lizard as the one I saw last Spring.


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## Guest (Aug 9, 2010)

Every one knows about UVB, so I will go go into it. I will tell you a little about UVA. Lack of UVA can make animal lethargic. To put it simply UVA make you happy. If the bulbs were old then the UVB and the UVA spectrum may have been lost. Putting it under a newer light will help both of these problems. He also looks a little skinning in the tail. I would slightly increase its rodent intake as well.


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## chris allen (Aug 9, 2010)

carcharios said:


> I'm sure some here are sick of me saying this but I guarantee you that IF your new Gu has MBD, you can reverse it with chicken necks in about 2 to 3 weeks time. Frieda, my adopted female was also lethargic, had slight twitching, dragged herself in a sliding motion rather than walking elevated like my male, Kimo. By the end of last summer, she could barely catch the mice I put in her cage - scratch that, she couldn't catch them. I had to stun them for her.
> 
> Earlier this summer, I started feeding her whole chicken necks and at first she was not excreting any of the bone. I just figured that she digested it all. However, about two to three weeks later, I started noticing a fine white powder stool being excreted. She had finally absorbed enough calcium phosphate that she was able to excrete the excess in her stool. Coincidentally, for the first time, I noticed that she was walking with her body and tail held off the ground. She has been doing so ever since - and now has more energy than Kimo does, which says a lot.
> 
> ...



Yep, using rodents will have the same effect. I keep seeing uvb uvb uvb, but people really arent looking at diet. Im a promoter of uvb, but I have seen it first hand with my last blue that lighting had absolutely nothing to do with him....twitching and kind of lethargic...all after having switched to a ground turkey type diet. I switched back to rodents and within a short amount of time he was acting great again and behaving as he should. All that time he had a mvb on him....the lighting had nothing to do with it. 
I know rodent pro has a sale on chicks, at .12 a piece it might be worth it to buy a couple hundred of them, chop them up and feed them that way...cheaper than rodents of appropriate size and maybe chicken necks too?


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## slideaboot (Aug 9, 2010)

chris allen said:


> carcharios said:
> 
> 
> > I'm sure some here are sick of me saying this but I guarantee you that IF your new Gu has MBD, you can reverse it with chicken necks in about 2 to 3 weeks time. Frieda, my adopted female was also lethargic, had slight twitching, dragged herself in a sliding motion rather than walking elevated like my male, Kimo. By the end of last summer, she could barely catch the mice I put in her cage - scratch that, she couldn't catch them. I had to stun them for her.
> ...



How would you go about chopping up whole chicks? Into clean parts or just hacked up pieces?


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## carcharios (Aug 10, 2010)

If you can afford whole prey like mice or chicks, by all means go for it. But even at the discounted online prices, once you factor shipping costs, it still becomes expensive. I do feed my tegus live mice but only about twice a month. The reason I feed them chicken necks opposed to turkey balls (which I still sometimes use) or mice is due to the cost factor. Chicken necks are dirt cheap at my local supermarket and about the same size of a large mouse. They contain both flesh and lots of vertebrae bones as well so I know that the tegus are getting the proper ratio of calcium to phosphate - and they're not super fatty like some other foods we feed our tegus. 

A whole carton of chicken necks costs me about $1 - and one carton can feed my tegus easily for two weeks assuming I feed them every other day. So you can literally spend about 10 to 15 bucks for the ENTIRE summer in terms of feeding costs - and that's for 3 tegus mind you. My PETCO run for live mice alone costs me close to $20 for just 5 mice! So if you're looking to reverse MBD (and keep it away), save herds of money, and know you're giving your GU the proper ratio of calcium to phosphorus, the chicken neck route can't be beat in my opinion. In the wild they eat small birds, reptiles, mammals, etc. anyway - all of which contain bone. I see no reason why the chicken necks wouldn't be part of a natural diet.

As for the question about cutting them up, I do cut them in half for Diego because he's smaller than his two counterparts. But Frieda and Kimo swallow the necks whole - again, they're about the size of a large mouse. You can hack up the meat - usually, there are no sharp edges when I cleave them.

If you do get chicken backs or cornish hens, etc., I recommend buying a nice cleaver and then cutting up the chicken into smaller mouth-sized portions. Obviously, don't discard the bones!


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