Hi,
I am the frantic new mother of a baby argentine black and white tegu and I seem to have "lost"? my new baby within the first 20 minutes of receiving her..... I have decent amount of experience with a few different reptiles, but the closest thing to a tegu that I've cared for was a small Nile monitor for just a few months.
She is a hatchling, and is definitely a she. I unboxed her and placed her right in her enclosure, I closed the lid and watched her walk around for a few minutes before I turned around to place some green tree frogs in their enclosure, when I was done with that (around 10 minutes) I looked back to find the tegu but I could not see her anywhere. I though maybe she burrowed to hide but could see any lumps where she would be. I tried to just let it go and didn't want to stress my new baby, but after about 15 minutes I started panicking, so I dug around the enclosure gently to find her but still havent. I'm really scared because I gave an inch gap between the tank and the lid I built that she COULD fit through, but she would have had to jump quite high and aim herself perfectly to grip the edge to pull herself through. That plus the fact that the frog cage is on top of her cage so I never walked more than 3 feet away from the tegu cage the entire 15 minutes. Could she have escaped without me knowing?
My cage is an aquarium meaning 6 feet long, 2 feet wide. My substrate is a mix of a cypress mulch blend from home depot, and a peat Moss soil mixture, it is 14-16 inches deep, leaving 1 1/2 feet gap between the top of the substrate and that 1 inch gap.
WHAT SHOULD I DO!?
I am the frantic new mother of a baby argentine black and white tegu and I seem to have "lost"? my new baby within the first 20 minutes of receiving her..... I have decent amount of experience with a few different reptiles, but the closest thing to a tegu that I've cared for was a small Nile monitor for just a few months.
She is a hatchling, and is definitely a she. I unboxed her and placed her right in her enclosure, I closed the lid and watched her walk around for a few minutes before I turned around to place some green tree frogs in their enclosure, when I was done with that (around 10 minutes) I looked back to find the tegu but I could not see her anywhere. I though maybe she burrowed to hide but could see any lumps where she would be. I tried to just let it go and didn't want to stress my new baby, but after about 15 minutes I started panicking, so I dug around the enclosure gently to find her but still havent. I'm really scared because I gave an inch gap between the tank and the lid I built that she COULD fit through, but she would have had to jump quite high and aim herself perfectly to grip the edge to pull herself through. That plus the fact that the frog cage is on top of her cage so I never walked more than 3 feet away from the tegu cage the entire 15 minutes. Could she have escaped without me knowing?
My cage is an aquarium meaning 6 feet long, 2 feet wide. My substrate is a mix of a cypress mulch blend from home depot, and a peat Moss soil mixture, it is 14-16 inches deep, leaving 1 1/2 feet gap between the top of the substrate and that 1 inch gap.
WHAT SHOULD I DO!?
