aza
New Member
- Messages
- 5
- Location
- Gulf Coast, USA
I don't have a tegu yet but I'm very interested in getting one (I'm thinking Argentine B&W), so I'm doing my research and making plans for how to take care of it. I'd love input on my info and ideas, and feel free to correct anything that may be misinformed or potentially harmful. 
Let's start with my plans for providing food so far:
I still have lots more I'm looking for advice from more experienced keepers on, but this is a lot on its own so I'll start here and post more in this thread later. And if you see anything that seems incorrect or potentially harmful, feel free to point it out, please and thank you!
Let's start with my plans for providing food so far:
- Vertebrate (some of these are meant as backups to each other, in case I can't get ahold of a particular item)
- Reptilinks (basically whole prey ground up and sold in sausage form)
- hare-today.com sells ground whole prey meats, and whole prey mice, rats, chicks, fish, and rabbits. (10lb order minimum, shipping costs ~$30. May require a separate freezer for pet food due to high quantity orders.)
- Canned Starkist Alaskan Pink Salmon - Reduced Sodium variety (basically "fish puree" including the bones and fins. Packed in BPA-free cans, and the only ingredients listed are salmon and salt.)
- Nature's Variety Instinct Limited Ingredient canned dog food - turkey, chicken, or rabbit varieties
- Wild Calling 96% Rabbit canned dog food
- Quail eggs (there's a local farm where I can buy 100 unfertilized Coturnix eggs for $25. not sure how long they keep, though.)
- Invertebrate
- Repashy Grub Pie
- Repashy Bluey Buffet
- Other Repashy and Pangea products
- Mazuri Insectivore Diet, softened with water?
- Live Dubia roaches, butterworms, and Black soldier fly larvae
- Live snails (they breed quite fast and I'm part of some keeper groups online so I can get live babies fairly often, or potentially start a feeder colony of my own.)
- Live earthworms (I saw on one of the food lists that red wrigglers aren't safe for some reason? Is there a species that would be safe?)
- Supplements (not all of these will be given on a regular basis)
- Beef liver & Cod liver oil (lots of vitamins, cod liver oil helps to process the beef liver. not to be given frequently due to high risk of overdose on vit. D.)
- Rep-Cal Herptivite
- Powdered calcium without D3 (UVB will be provided. I read that the overdose of dietary vitamin D can make them sick)
- Liquid calcium (for emergencies)
- Repta Boost
- Hill's Science Diet Restorative a/d canned dog food (for emergencies)
- Oxbow Carnivore Care (for emergencies)
- Oxbow Herbivore Care (for emergencies)
- Electrolyte powder (they make it for reptiles if you know where to look. For emergencies)
- Canned pumpkin puree (only organic, no-sugar-added varieties. Works as a laxative.)
- Plant life
- Seasonal community share boxes from local farms (you pay a fee or help on the farm and they give you a big box of assorted fruits and veggies. whatever the lizard won't eat would be used by the humans.)
- Other goodies from my local produce market
- I can buy large quantities of seasonal fruits and veggies, and make home-canned purees etc so the lizard can enjoy them all year
- Home-grown stuff like tomatoes, Bell peppers, etc
- I've saved several different charts of foods they can eat (including the lists from here!) for when I'm shopping for the lizard. Maybe 2-3 different fruits, 2-3 different veggies per meal, and rotate through the list changing one or two at a time?
- Some places say not to feed tegus lettuce at all. I know iceberg and such is basically just water and therefore nearly useless in their diet, but what about dark leafy greens? Kale, Romaine, turnip greens, collard greens, beet greens etc?
- Proportions
- I read the ratio for Adults is something like: 30-66% plants (mostly fruit), 15-40% invertebrates, 20-28% vertebrates
- babies will eat little to no plant life and mostly invertebrate protein, while adults will eat more plants and vertebrates.
- What I can't find reliable information on, is meal-to-meal proportions--
- How much do they eat per meal? Adult vs. baby? I know it can vary obviously, I'm just looking for a rough idea of what to expect, so I can figure out how to budget the ongoing cost of the food.
- How do you proportion things to give them the appropriate nutritional ratios? How sensitive to error are they?
I still have lots more I'm looking for advice from more experienced keepers on, but this is a lot on its own so I'll start here and post more in this thread later. And if you see anything that seems incorrect or potentially harmful, feel free to point it out, please and thank you!