Blue Tegu Research

[DaveDragon]

I'm trying to compile any and all information I can find on Blue Tegu's.

Feel free to add your own experiences.

I think alot of the info out there is related to them being imported from Columbia and assumed to be a version of the Columbian Tegu. This is obviously incorrect because the scalation virtually matches the Arg B&W.

I've heard from a reliable source (trying to confirm from a few other sources) that all of the Blue Tegu's in existence are related to the 6 Blue Tegus that were imported 6 to 7 years ago and bought by Ron St. Pierre. He has selectively bred them, but it is inevitable that a certain amount of inbreeding has occurred due to the limited gene pool. This has been said to have resulted in some birth defects and vision problems. Unfortunately the limited gene pool makes it very difficult to breed for desirable characteristics, like disposition.

Ron St. Pierre has told me they breed in the early summer, not the spring like reds and Arg. B&W. That would explain why the only Blue's available this year were advertised last month. I've heard they are hard to breed. That would explain why I've only seen 2 places offering them for sale, presuming they all came from the same clutch.

Please add your own knowledge (please confirm with a reputable breeder, not restate a care sheet from "ReptiDrone" or other "hear and repeat" web sites) and personal experiences.

List: their sex, where you got them, when they were hatched, what you fed them as babies, foods they eat as adults, food they won't eat, hibernation (yes/no/partial??), behavior, disposition, length, weight, color (pictures?), etc (add your own categories).

The more reliable information we can share, the more we will all understand about them.

 

[DaveDragon]

This was posted by chelvis at theTegu.com.

I'll have to find the link but there was a discusion on how its thought Blue tegu's are actully from Brazil and where smuggled into columbia and then shipped to the US, becuase Brazil has strict exporting laws. This is backed by the fact that a french photographer has taken pictures of wild blue tegus in Brazil

here are two post that i found

http://thetegu.com/postlite3082-blue.html

http://thetegu.com/postt2029.html

the first one is very compelling. Also there is a post where a few months back a person on kingsnake had a 52" male blue for sale i no longer have the pitures the guy sent me as my hard drive crashed but there is a memeber who bought a trio with a huge male that is 48" and the pictures are still active today and his looks BIG!!

As for my blues stats his still growing right now but he is white not blue, very friendly more like a dog then a cat he likes people. He just had his first birthday and is almost 40" long and is 5lbs.

 

[DaveDragon]

Inbreeding

Varnyard's info on Blue inbreeding. All keepers of Blues HAVE to know this.

http://tegutalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25

 

[Der-Boa-Lieber]

I do not know much about the Blues although i have a baby albino Blue. I asked Ron St. Pierre if they hibernated and he said no. He also says they are strictly carniverous....thats about all i know.

 

[RedheadMommie]

Well, I guess I am going to have to add to this one...

I have to warn you guys, my blue tegu is free roam most all of the time. That is probably very different from many of you. Because he does not get what many people see as "proper" UV, he gets a good vitamin supplement. I made a post in another topic about albino blues, and I believe now that the UV thing goes for all blues. In my experience, when I give my blue the option of UV with heat or just heat, he always goes for just heat. The only exception for this is that when I put him outside, he enjoys indirect sunlight. It seems to me that bright light always bothers his eyes. I do not know if this is an effect of long time inbreeding, but I imagine that it is.

I did not have my blue as a baby, I aquired him when he was seven months old. He still gets the same food now as he did then, just in larger quantities...whole prey items, cooked chicken and turkey, ground raw turkey, eggs by the dozen, end even some fruits when he feel like eat them. Generally those fruits are grapes blueberries, strawberries and raspberries, and strangley enough, he prefers them put in a blender and made as a smoothie, and then put in a bowl. He is a very spoiled creature, and even enjoys "treats". His treats generally consist of stuff he steals from me, like sour cream and onion dip and mashed potatoes and gravy.

I have no idea what he weighs, I never weighed him because he is my pet. I know that he is not underweight nor overweight, and that is fine by me. He gets a yearly exam at the vet just like all my other animals. I know that he is now at right around 40 inches, give or take.

My Baraka gets along wonderfully with my children, dogs, cats, and even does not attempt to eat my pet guinea pigs or rats. He sleeps in my bed with me, under my body pillow. He follows me to bed from whereveer he is and climbs in all by himself. He also likes to cuddle up to my kids when they are in my bed at nap time. The only person he has a problem with is my husband i.e., the rival for his affections. He never tries to hurt him or anything, he just postures to him whenever I am around, as it to show he is the alpha male.

When he does have to go in an enclosure because company is over or something like that, he generally just goes in my reptile room where he has his own area, though he can go wherever in it he chooses. He has a boamaster, but he doesn't seem to like it all that much.

Does he hibernate? no, not really...he does sleep sometimes for like 3 days at a time, but that's about it..

As for his color..with every shed he gets more baby blue, especially around his face. The problem with pictures is that the flash washes out the subtleties of his color.

Ok, I think I have rambled enough for know...ask if there is anything else you want to know..

--Beth

 

[DaveDragon]

Go Mommie!!!

How old is he now?

How long have you had him?

Where does he "go to the bathroom"??

I am so envious!! We let our adult Tegu's wander around but keep an eye on them. We have a small dog and 3 cats. We don't want one of them to turn up missing! Or do we?? The dog wines and barks too much and the cats puke all over the place.

We let our adults wander outside also but keep a REAL close eye on them. There is an unusually amount of large bird calls when they're out!! :shock:

Our new male Blue has a very blue face. I need to take some good pictures, if I could get him to stay still.

 

[RedheadMommie]

Right now, he is 17 months old, and I will have him for a year come Christmas time. He is paper trained for the most part, but generally I can get him to poop for me in the bathroom. He loves bathtime so he just climbs in the tub, and I run water for him. Then when his soak is done, I place his food in the tub, he eats and he poops. I keep a paper in my bedroom and he gets out of bed and generally poops on it. Lately he's been very good about doing it in the tub, so that makes cleanup really easy.

My dogs don't bother with him at all, accept on rare occasion when they are wound up. He just gives them a tail snap and puts them in there place and that's that. Before we had our himalayan cat shaved into a lion cut, Baraka would actually curl up with him by burying himself in his fur. They are still buddies, curlying up on the bed on occasion, but I think Baraka is mad that he doesn't have all that nice fur.

As for pics, Baraka always makes a face at you like you are disturbing him to get a pic, because he would just rather be cuddled up to you and go to sleep. He also loves to crawl across the computer when you are typing and just lay there and stare at you like "hey, pay attention to me now woman!!!".

Yeah...he's a little screwy like that..

--Beth

 

[Repton]

Great information guys.

 

[DaveDragon]

As for pics, Baraka always makes a face at you like you are disturbing him to get a pic, because he would just rather be cuddled up to you and go to sleep.

You gotta get some pics of him!!

 

[DaremoAlpha]

Not much to add but both my blues which are 3 years old male and female have started to crash hard as in the male has not moved out of his hide for almost a week already and the female is dropping 3-4 days at a time so every time I see her awake I offer her a snak to make sure she is comfortable is she is going to do the long nap.

Since they are the only 2 known blues in Canada still I have no real proof of any bloodlines and I know I am risking a lot but I do intend on seeing if they will breed in the spring.

When I got these 2 they were already adults who have have virtually no human interaction other than feeding times so it is a long hard go to get them to understand I am not out to hurt them.
They both are practically wild animals and if I can get one to just get close enough to flick me a couple times I want to jump up and do victory dances.

Sometimes I break all the rules and offer to hand feed the female, holding the back half the rat and letting her take the head just in an attempt to show her I am not there to steal her stuff either.

I DO NOT recommend that anybody be as foolish as I am in doing this because simply you can and will get bitten. I wear my scars proudly from my beasts and the only one that ever gets blamed for my bleeding on the rugs is me( thank god for oxy clean and a steam cleaner hahaha wife never sees anything but clean rugs )

 

[VARNYARD]

guys, I have also found pictures of them taken is central Argentina, this would make the range much larger. I will try to hunt it down again when I find some time.

 

[chelvis]

They've been seen in Arg. That would explain alot, varnyard if you can find those that would be a major bonus!!

So far I've had my male blue from a hatchling. His 40" right now and is roughly 4-5lbs, when I take him to work with me on short days my co-workers like to guess his wieght and wieght him for me. His more white then blue but is getting a orange coloring round his belly, it doesn't show up to well in pics unfortuntly.

Personality wise, he is a major lap lizard. If his not hungery or doesn't have to go to the bathroom he is quit content just sleeping in my lap, or in the pounch hand warmer thing on my hoody. Dogs don't phase him as long as his not on his harness and leash. He does not like cats however, which only happen once and i wasn't too happy with my friends for that one :? . People wise he's ok with other people as long as i get him out of his cage.

Diet wise, He won't eat rats! No joke i can give him a large mouse i mean like a retired breeder size jumbo mouce and the next week give him a small rat (same size!!!) and he won't eat it. He loves his supperworms, earthworms, hornworms, silkworms, ground turkey, fish, crawfish, grasshoppers, circkets (mainly for entertainment), wax worms, butterworms, quail eggs, chicks, strawberries, blueberries, grapes (peeled), mashed apples (no apple sauce too much mixed in with that. He goes through this list about once a month, i like to variery it up as much as possible. He also has taken tegu bites and canned tegu food but perfers the fresh foods alot more.

I've also notice that he perfers not to have too much UV lighting. Recently my mega ray broke and right now i'm using a flood light for heat. His been out alot more. I'm thinking maybe once this new ligth burns out i might switch to somthing different. He loved the megaray however when he was younger.

Growth, i've notice that there aren't too many who had blues as hatchlings so i'm just gonna add this in. I got Bosco at about a month and half old. He was 8" long. Hatched in Augest he ate almost just crickets untill January then he started to make ground turkey and worms. By January he was 11" then the growth happen. He averaged about 1" a week. By March he was 24" and was taking pinikies to small fuzzies and eating a few fruits mized with turkey. He tamed down around febuary when he was about 20" too the point i could put a harness on him and take him outside.

I haven't seen him hibernate yet, but we'll see. I doubt it.

As for intelligance, his a tegu what do u expect. He found out how to undo the side latches on his cage the first week he was in it. Luckly he was bigger so he was easy to find. He also knows that when you bang his dish against the side of the cage its food time. Also if his hungery he'll sit next to his bowl or if his unpatient then he starts knocking it against the side of the cage.

Well thats about all i can add right now.

 

[DaveDragon]

I've also notice that he perfers not to have too much UV lighting. Recently my mega ray broke and right now i'm using a flood light for heat. His been out alot more. I'm thinking maybe once this new ligth burns out i might switch to somthing different. He loved the megaray however when he was younger.

Great info!! Especially about the UVB. That makes sense. If he only needs so much UVB he'll naturally move away from it. If that's his only source of heat his only option is to burrow where the substrate is warm.

We use 48" ReptiSun 10's with 75W or 90W (Red tegu) halogen floods for heat. Halogen floods put out much more heat than incandescents.

 

[chelvis]

I've tried just leaving my room lights on and leaving the cermatic heater on durning the day and i find him happily basking under it. The next day i'll switch on the megaray and his back to burrowing... its not a temp thing tho becuase the heater is actully warmer then then megaray.