# Has anyone ever trained their tegu to "come"



## nicks75 (Mar 11, 2010)

I currently have a juvi arg b/w tegu, he/she is about 12-14 inches long, I used to have one that I raised from a hatchling that grew into a monster size, unfortunately I had to give him away at the time for no longer being able to take care of him properly due to a breakup from my ex. One of the things beyond his size that used to freak people out was that I was able to make him come to me any time I wanted without using food as a bait, after using the same training technique with my new juvi after only 2 week he/she does the same thing. I'm just curious if anyone else has been able to teach their tegu to come?


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## kaa (Mar 11, 2010)

I tap on the floor, and mine come running, but they think I am food, I'm still working on the food aggression. I hope to be able to get mine to come when called. That is very cool that yours does already.


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## nicks75 (Mar 11, 2010)

That's actually how I start out with it, I would tap right before showing food, right now my juvi only comes when I tap but as you said its only from expecting to see food, my last time I did it I held out my hand to show that It was not food and he just flicked his tongue, I just got him to respond to it a few days ago. 
My large adult I used to have would respond to his name and come but that was after months of doing the tapping while at the same time giving the verbal command, he learned to recognize the verbal command with the tapping and the tapping no longer need to be done. I expect it will take just as long to teach my little one the same but I'm surprised that in just 2 weeks he is responding to the tapping. 
I never got any kind of food aggression from my adult in the past doing it, maybe because I would randomly do it at times without offering food. I would try doing the same thing, maybe that would subside some of the aggression in yours. Just tonight I did it to my juvi and he ran up to me and I help out my hand for him to see there was no food and he just kept flicking his tongue, I waited a few minutes before offering food, so maybe waiting a few minutes could get them to subside also.


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## pottymouth (Mar 12, 2010)

mine chases hands in her cage but she loves her roaches which look like fingers apparently haha.
lol 

oh and she doesn't respond much yet but were gettin there shes fiesty! :butt


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## nicks75 (Mar 12, 2010)

Here's a vid I made today, he's a little feisty from being heated up from basking. Just a side note  if anyone wants to critique the set up, I'm going shopping this weekend for more suitable equipment for having him roaming freely, namely the hiding box and a power sun basking light. I do have uvb in his enclosure though  Enjoy the vid. 


View My Video


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## floomazoom (Mar 30, 2010)

theres a guy on youtube (or at least used to be) he kept his outside in a huge caged fence area and his came when he called her name as well as pooped on command! no joke!!!!


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