Buying f/t food for the first few months for a baby B&W

[Corey8621]

First and foremost, thank all of you for the information you have provided for me indirectly! I have been a member for a while, but have just a few unanswered questions about bringing a tegu into my life. I was wondering, from all of you seasoned veterans, what size/amount of f/t rodents you feed a baby tegu for the first 6 or more months of their lives. I would like to know, for ordering purposes, before I decide that I am fully prepared for the new arrival. I don't want to find out that I have more pinkies than required, when a hopper would be a more substantial meal. I know every tegu grows at different rates, based on husbandry. I do not plan to burmate, which greatly effects growth rate. I was also wondering if there is a greater benefit to feeding 'hairless' rodents, opposed to 'furry'' due to digestion issues with fur.

In short, I would like to be able to fill the shipping box with the most amount of meals, from baby to juvenile.

Thank you all for your time and expertise!

Corey

 

[laurarfl]

That's a tough one. The problem is that pinkies come in bags of 50 or 100 so you're stuck with a ton of them. See if you can get large pinkies or peach fuzzy pinkies. That's probably 50 and covers 1.5-2 months, given that you'll feed other food items and maybe 2 at a time when it gets bigger. Then I'd move to a bag of hoppers, then adult mice, buying a quantity of 50 each time. Hairless is probably better if it is available. When you are feeding 2 adult mice a time, you can move up to small rats. I don't feed larger than small rats. I don't want my tegus to get overweight and I also feed them plant matter and other food items along with rodents.

Anyway, that's my idea...just some rambling thoughts.

 

[Tyler137]

Also just letting you know you can really choose if you hibernate your tegu or not. If they are trying to hibernate and you keep them up by bothering them that isn't good for the tegu and they probably won't like you very much.

 

[Corey8621]

I apologize. I meant to be more specific, when asking 'how much of a given size' a tegu will eat. I was more or less wanting to know a rough estimate. Laura R, thank you, you answered my question just as I hoped it would be! I will, also, be feeding an abundance of select fruits and vegetables, to balance out a nutritious diet.

Tyler137,
I guess my 'stage fright' got the best of me, with this being my first post. I meant to say that I am not planning on changing temperatures/light-schedules in order to coax the future tegu into burmation. If it plans on going into burmation by itself, then I would be more than happy to leave it be, until it returns to 'normal' eating/sleeping schedule.

Thank you both for your responses! I couldn't be any happier, knowing that I have a place to rely on for educated answers to my questions. Next time I will convey my exact thoughts/questions more accurately.

Thank you all for your time and expertise!

Corey

 

[laurarfl]

Welcome to the forum. I hope we can continue to help you in the future.

 

[Chris & Stitches]

I believe that animals only Brumate or hibernate if the weather makes them feel like doing so.does anyone have an explanation why a tegu that does not Brumate grows slower?it would be taking in food and growing the entire time it would otherwise be dormant, slowly shrinking.i don’t see why a tegu would be different than other animals that decide to hibernate or not