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Another UK Member

solid

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Messages
10
Hi there,

Just checking in to say Hi - been lurking around for info for a while but finally have my Tegu now so will have loads of questions relating specifically to her going forward I guess.

I'm from Bournemouth on the south coast of England and mostly keep snakes - I own and breed rare locality boas, mostly Central American dwarves such as Nicaraguan, Panamanians and Island localities such as Pearl Islands etc.

This is my first Tegu and as with all my snakes I went for a rarer one and got a Blue female. I know you guy's have loads of Blue's over there but they are still very hard to get hold of in the UK - mine was exported from Brazil to Germany and then driven through the EU to me!!!!!!!

In terms of monitors/large lizards I have only ever had a Bosc before so am looking forward to my experiance with the (from what I am told) more intelligent Tegu. My Bosc passed away a few months ago at the age of 15 so hopefully this girl will give my family as much pleasure as he did.

I'll see you around the forum.

Cheers.
 

james.w

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4,337
Welcome. Any pics of your Bosc? You don't see many that live to see 15 years.
 

Strange_Evil

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896
Welcome,always glad to see new members! Blues are a bit hard to come by out here too. A 15yr old bosc? Now that is really something else, i would love to see some pics, she must of had a happy life to have lived so long compared to the average span on bosc monitors.
 

Kebechet

New Member
Messages
240
You got your blue tegu from Brazil?! That's incredible! I highly suggest breeding them in the future to other blues, as the gene pool (at least here in the states) is extremely limited due to import bans.
 

solid

New Member
Messages
10
james.w said:
Welcome. Any pics of your Bosc? You don't see many that live to see 15 years.

I've just looked on Photobucket and there aren't any uploaded so will get some on there as soon as I can - most of the pics of him are non digital because of his age - didn't take too many in his later years as he was extremely lazy and slow - he didn't really do a lot except sit looking at everything going by. There are some though so I will hook them out.

Strange_Evil said:
Welcome,always glad to see new members! Blues are a bit hard to come by out here too. A 15yr old bosc? Now that is really something else, i would love to see some pics, she must of had a happy life to have lived so long compared to the average span on bosc monitors.

As above, will get some pics up. I didn't really think about it to be honest - obviously over the years I've made a few friends in the hobby who also have Bosc's and there are some old one's about. I thought the avarage age in captivity was around 10-12 years so didn't really see it as anything special.


Kebechet said:
You got your blue tegu from Brazil?! That's incredible! I highly suggest breeding them in the future to other blues, as the gene pool (at least here in the states) is extremely limited due to import bans.

Yeah, that's exactly what I intend to do if possible - I've heard that they are quite hard to breed though, not sure if that's true or not??
 

boyd1955

New Member
Messages
43
WOW ... I didn't know we had any blues in Britain ... Love to see some pix of these two ... And watch their progress on here ... I'm in London and have a black and white
 

SmitJester

New Member
Messages
34
24a518e9.jpg


Meet Jester :) he is having a hard time at the moment though, he's got 3 pins in his leg due it breaking :( But he is recovering well, first pin comes out on Thursday :) and he shall soon have a new home :) 10ft x 5ft x 5 ft :)
 

james.w

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Captive lifespan of a Bosc is 10-15+ years. Problem is rarely do they make it that long due to improper husbandry.
 

solid

New Member
Messages
10
SmitJester said:
I have a blue male I believe and I'm I'm the UK! Im thinking an arrangement could e made over mating on this ;)

When the time comes, if I haven't managed to get hold of a male then definitely.

boyd1955 said:
WOW ... I didn't know we had any blues in Britain ... Love to see some pix of these two ... And watch their progress on here ... I'm in London and have a black and white

I will get some pics up ASAP, only had her a few days so giving her a while to settle in without bothering her - only go near her for water changes and feedng.

SmitJester said:
24a518e9.jpg


Meet Jester :) he is having a hard time at the moment though, he's got 3 pins in his leg due it breaking :( But he is recovering well, first pin comes out on Thursday :) and he shall soon have a new home :) 10ft x 5ft x 5 ft :)

Wow, he's a beauty, sorry to hear about his leg - what happened?

james.w said:
Captive lifespan of a Bosc is 10-15+ years. Problem is rarely do they make it that long due to improper husbandry.

Ah good, so he wasn't some sort of record holder - just well looked after, I can deal with that!!! Cheers for the info.
 

james.w

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Solid, would you mind sharing how you cared for your Bosc? Enclosure size, substrate type and depth, diet, temps and humidity? There is a lot of bad info out there and I would like to hear from someone who has kept one alive for 15 years. Thanks.
 

solid

New Member
Messages
10
james.w said:
Solid, would you mind sharing how you cared for your Bosc? Enclosure size, substrate type and depth, diet, temps and humidity? There is a lot of bad info out there and I would like to hear from someone who has kept one alive for 15 years. Thanks.

Yeah, no worries.

In terms of enclosure size he started off in a 3ft x 2ft x 2ft as a juvi and then went to a 6ft x 3ft x 2ft -I did at one point build him an 8ft x 4ft x 3ft but he never used the space so I ended up putting him back in the 6ft one. It did have a shelf that was 3ft long and 1ft wide with a walkway up to it to give him more floor space but he rarely used it - spent more time under it!! He had a cat litter bowl for water which allowed him to soak but not too much - at first he had a fairly deep water box but used to spend all his time in it as he felt secure I guess - I changed it for the cat litter tray and he started to use it every now and then to help him shed etc - I then made sure he had a bath once every week or two controlled by me so I knew how much time he spent in it.

The viv had a 18inch plinth on it which allowed me to use fairly deep substrate. When he was younger I used paper towels and blank newspaper to avoid him eating the substrate but once he was a decent size I used a mixture of play sand and eco earth - didn't really have a measured mix, just mixed it until it felt like he could dig a tunnel and it would hold out without falling in on him. This was around 18 inches deep - when he got bigger he would pile the substrate into the corner under the shelf and kind of block himself in under it so I didn't upgrade him to deeper substrate. He was a very keen feeder so never stayed in there for long anyway - the most ever was a few days at a time and he never hibernated at all.

Temps wise his ambient in the enclosure was around the low to mid 80's - 80 in the cooler end rsing to 84/85 in the centre most of the time then rising to the hotspot under his heat lamp which was around 115-130 (directly under the lamp) depending on how close he was to the centre of the source - at night I let the temps drop by about 10 degrees. Humidity was kept up by spraying if required or by a second water bowl closer to his heat lamp which evaporated - generally I guess it was around 50-60%. If he was buried, in hiding or in his water bowl then I didn't worry about keeping the humidity up as it wouldn't have made a difference - I just waited until he re-appeared. As far as I'm aware it's the dry season in the Savannah that they bury themsleves in the wild and resurface again when the humidity returns.

Also, whether he needed it or not his viv had a 10-12% UVB tube - he always seemed a bit more active after being outside in the summer so I guessed it couldn't do any harm - I guess it's a whole other debate as to if he needed it or not as I know a lot of care sheets say they don't need it.

Diet wise he never had any rubbish - I never ever fed him any human food (leftovers etc) or canned dog or Bosc food etc. He loved his mealworms so pretty much always had a bowl of them available in his enclosure - he then was fed rodents (loved both mice and rats) as his staple with the odd bag of adult winged locust to chase and keep active. He also every so often had cockroaches and a seafood mix that contained whole shelled cockles, muscles, shrimp, prawn and these little crayfish type creatues - it wasn't mashed up it was just a bag of these things whole. He seemd to love it, especially the cockles and muscles!!!! I did read that in the wild they eat a fair amount of shellfish and crab etc but also that it can cause Thiamin Deficiency Sydrome if they eat too much - hence it was a treat and alway shelled.

Apart from that he was just given loads of attention and always let out of his enclosure at least a few times a week to wander around and get some excercise. In his later years he didn't always fancy it as he got quite lazy - although he didn't get over weight as it seemed to correspond to his eating slowing down as well and then in his last few months he lost a fair amount of weight due to almost stopping eating.

OK, that's all the obvious stuff but if you have any more questions then feel free to ask!!!

Cheers.
 

james.w

Active Member
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5 Year Member
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4,337
Thanks alot for the info. Do you mind if I post this other places as a "care sheet" of sorts.
 

AB's

New Member
Messages
21
Welcome, I'm also from the UK and got my first Tegu after keeping numerous snakes. I had a right result as my black an white is actually a blue!!!
 

solid

New Member
Messages
10
AB's said:
Welcome, I'm also from the UK and got my first Tegu after keeping numerous snakes. I had a right result as my black an white is actually a blue!!!

Wow, now that's a great result. My girl has been left to settle for a week now so I am going to start trying to interact/bond with her - can't wait!!!!!
 

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