Always feeding dead prey

[Progrmor]

Lots of people are saying that you should only feed dead prey as they tend to learn not to be aggresive by doing that. But.. Since Im going to feed my little one crickets and roaches in the beginning, should I kill them aswell? Or are insects an exception? I understand that feeding a dead mice or similar is better, but bugs aswell?

/Thanks!

 

[Matthew Krzemienski]

Mine wouldn't eat any dead insects in the beginning. I started with a diet of mainly crickets (the tegus choice, not mine) and gradually converted them over to raw whole-animal ground meats. I did this by coating the crickets in the ground meat at first. The tegu would eat the cricket and get some meat in the process. After a few weeks, they would take meat without having to put it on a cricket.

 

[SnakeCharmr728]

The feeding prey dead is because its safer for the animal, I have seen many tegus come in with bite marks and even one with half a tongue because the mice/rats fight back. This is more the reasoning why, than the feeding live vs aggression. I have not found that to be true.

Bugs go ahead and feed live and remember to supplement and gutload them too. Young tegus eat a lot of bugs but be sure to still offer a wide variety of other food choices at the same time.