# Tegu slithering/undulating tail?



## M4A2E4 (May 5, 2011)

Hello all! 
My pet Varnyard tegu named "Taco" came out of his first hibernation about 2 months ago, and he's in the middle of a spectacular growth spurt. He's currently housed in a 40 gallon breeder, but doesn't like to stay in his cage for very long. Whenever I come home from school he starts jumping at his screen top and scratches at it to get my attention. I've been letting him out to free-roam around my room (he's not big enough for me to be comfortable roaming around my apartment or outside yet). This has been all well and good, until he decided to take a big dump on my bedsheets....
Anyway, I learned my lesson after that and now I only let him around my room after he goes potty in his feeding/bath bin.

Lately I've set up a system where I build a small "bridge" between my bed and his cage, so when roaming around my room he can return to his cage to bask at any time he wants to. He usually does this after about an hour of sleeping under my messy sheets or in my pillow case. On top of the bridge today was a plastic bag of "snake mulch" (I was planning on getting a rubber boa, hasn't happened yet). He sat up on top of it, and then started undulating/slithering his tail over the plastic for some reason. I have no idea why he was doing it. Of course, he stopped as soon as I pulled the camera out, and then proceeded to walk back into his cage and onto his basking spot. 

I read somewhere on this site that this is a sign of aggression. This seems kind of strange to me, since Taco couldn't possibly be less aggressive. When I first got him last year he did get a bit of "morning grouchiness", but he seems to have grown out of that. He's completely unafraid of me when he's out of his cage (gets a little nervous around other people though). He only gets out of his cage by crawling onto my hand so I can lift him out: he does so by his own free will and I never really force him to do anything, unless it's late at night, he's sleeping in my pillowcase and I need to go to sleep too. It's been about 3 weeks since that last happened.

Have your Tegus ever done this? 

Some pics










Actually, I have one more question. That brown color on his back; do you think that's going to become white or black when he matures?

p.s. I don't actually know Taco's gender.

Thanks for your help!


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## james.w (May 5, 2011)

I don't know anything about what you need help with, but I would recommend getting a bigger enclosure for him soon. How long is he from snout to tail tip?


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## Rhetoric (May 5, 2011)

Does he kind of lift his tail and drag his butt? Is that what you mean? If so I've seen one of my tegus do that every now and then after a bm, I thought it was kind of a wiping thing... No worms or anything here, hes been checked!


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## M4A2E4 (May 5, 2011)

james.w said:


> I don't know anything about what you need help with, but I would recommend getting a bigger enclosure for him soon. How long is he from snout to tail tip?



The cage is 3ft by 18 inches. He's slightly longer than the width of the cage, so I'd say he's about 20 inches long from snout to tail tip. My semester finals end next week and I will be returning home then. Once that happens I plan on building him a larger cage... or two larger cages. One for home and one for college. He won't be staying in his current cage for much longer 


rhetoricx said:


> Does he kind of lift his tail and drag his butt? Is that what you mean? If so I've seen one of my tegus do that every now and then after a bm, I thought it was kind of a wiping thing... No worms or anything here, hes been checked!



Not like that. He was sitting directly on top of the plastic bag, his body was pressed down on it as if he were basking, and he was slithering his tail (which was also pressed down on the bag).


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## TheTeguGurl (May 5, 2011)

From my experience when my Tegus do this with there tail it is a sign there telling you to leave them alone it is a aggressive sign warning you to leave them alone. I wont worry to much about that, what I would worry about is getting a bigger enclosure for your Tegu ASAP.


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## reptastic (May 5, 2011)

Only time i ever seen tegus "slither" their tails was as a warning not to come near them, as far as the color he is a black nose so chances are it will only get darker as he ages, i say he looks male


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## Rhetoric (May 5, 2011)

Ohhh I've seen a different tegu do that, I had posted a video of it a few weeks ago because I thought it was so weird. I took the video down but it was rattling its tail and then would slither/wag it kind of like a snake, other members said it was more defensive but that it could be semi-aggressive. As sarefina said its more of a "leave me alone" behavior.
My tegu had only done it when I was moving some stuff around near its burrow (while it was in it). I left him alone but he was fine when he came out of his burrow, I think it was more of a startle in my case..
What size enclosures are you planning to build?


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## M4A2E4 (May 5, 2011)

Thanks for the help everyone! It seems kind of odd to me that his behavior would be a warning signal, I wasn't close to him when he started doing it, and when I approached him with the camera he stopped. First time for everything though I suppose.

I'm going to aim for a minimum of 6x3 for both cages, I hope to aim higher but there's a possibility I'll fall short too. The one I keep at home will probably be larger since it will be slightly more permanent. Once I graduate and get a place of my own I may very well ditch both and build a 5x10 or something similar. It's all mostly going to depend on the dimensions of the rooms I can keep them in.

...for that matter, I may only build him a hid box and a basking spot while at home, and make my entire room his "cage" once he gets really big.


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## herpgirl2510 (May 5, 2011)

I have no idea what that would be. If your whole room was his enclosure you would not be able to provide enough humidity or deep enough substrate. Pretty easy to build an enclosure out of wood and seal it out of drylock took me a day to build it.


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