Colombian Tegus: A Comprehensive Guide

[JtotheLord]

http://www.ehow.com/boards/columbian-goldblack-tegu-care-tupinambis-teguixin-627110/

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1) Feeding -

My tegu's (Donny) diet hasn't changed much with age, just quantity. He seems to prefer to feed little and often and will refuse meals that are too large. He's fed on a variety of pre-killed animals (baby quail, mice, rat pups/weaners, day-old chicks, hamsters). He also likes a bit of fruit every now and again, preferably mangos, strawberries and bananas. To keep him nice and active and give him an opportunity to hunt, I also feed adult locust and hide eggs and small pieces of lean beef steak around his vivarium as a treat.

With every meal (3-4 small meals a week) I supplement with Komodo's 'Calcium with vitamins for carnivores' or Nutrobal.


2) Housing -

As a juvenile, Donny was in a 4ft x2ft x 2ft exo terra viv. When he outgrew it I bought a similar viv and attached them to give him more floor space.

http://spark-img.ehowcdn.com/spark-post-image/ehowcdn~images01/spark/d9/9d/d99d2acc8e46ee4813ee4d7910328a54.jpeg

I keep him on a coarse orchid bark with moss and general forest debris (reptile safe) for him to dig around in. He also has a large cork bark hide, plenty of plants (to jump at at me from behind!) and a big heavy (un-tippable!) water bowl and feeding dish (he's a little 'enthusiastic' even with forceps...)

His day temps are around 80f at the back of the viv. I use an exo terra heat mat and infra red bulb for basking. I usually try to mist a couple of times daily, but at least several times a week.

Since he has a great deal of floor space in front of it, I leave the viv open a fair bit and he comes and goes as he pleases.


3) Taming Procedures -

I interact with my tegu, but very much on his terms. He lets me bath him and check his toes with few issues (maybe the odd accidental scratch) and if I'm lucky, I may get the privilege of him sitting on my lap and letting me stroke him. If I push my luck though, it's a hard smack with the tail as he scarpers!



4) Problems -

As a baby, he was a little snappy, but now even the threat of a bite is very rare. Generally, he'll get a little 'huffy' and dish out the odd tail slap, but generally with some perseverance, he calms down.

The main problem is his nails. It's a nightmare to keep him still to clip them, but a little while ago he seriously injured his foot when an unruly nail got caught in his runners and panic ensued. With cleaning and dressing, it's healing fine though with little lasting damage.


5) Success stories -

I find that Donny is very responsive to noise/voices. If my voice isn't calm and low, he becomes visibly panicked. He also comes towards me if
I call him, mostly because that's the same routine as feeding time I think!

He's also very fussy about his toilet habits. Recently, he's taken a dislike to pooing anywhere but in the bath. To be honest, it's a blessing- far easier to clean!



6) Anything else - anything you'd like the members of our forum to know about your colombian goes here.

I first got my Columbian when somebody got spooked when they found what they thought was a 'lovely tame Argentine' turned out to be 'an aggressive Columbian'. It just goes to show that time, patience and the individual temperament of an animal has considerably more impact than tegu species on behaviour.

A few pics of my spoiled boy

http://spark-img.ehowcdn.com/spark-post-image/ehowcdn~images01/spark/ab/5d/ab5d82394110b915c8a6916d37570b4c.jpg

http://spark-img.ehowcdn.com/spark-post-image/ehowcdn~images01/spark/b9/ac/b9accf50e83787b79a0a65d3b388a0f5.jpg

http://spark-img.ehowcdn.com/spark-post-image/ehowcdn~images01/spark/65/43/65434a2737dd60c4bb890ae49b91eebc.jpg

:heart:

 

[DavidRosi]

1) Feeding - As a juvenile, sub-adult and adult what do you feed your colombian? How often do you feed him? What type of supplements are supplied with the food you give your colombian?

Kara is 10 months old and her diet consists of ground turkey and also her "green mix" which is keil, spinach, turkey mince, a bit of carrot and vitamins... I also add cod liver oil as it aids shedding. She goes absolutely mad for her green mix.

2) Housing - what do you consider a good enclosure for your colombian? Do you have an aquarium? A cage? A temporary hide? A complete room? What are the dimensions of it? Humidity and temp levels? Basking temp? Night time temps? Does your colombian get to free-roam? What type of lamps and what wattage?

At the moment I have a 5' x 2' x 2' Vivarium. Basking spot is 105' and temps at 70-75' at night. Her viv layout is deep substrate at one end where the heat lamp is as well as her hide, and the cool end is home to a large water container that she likes to bathe in every few days. I have an automated misting system which keeps humidity at 60', but I increase it during shedding periods. The viv is at floor level and has a 'run' attached to it which comes out into the room, it allows her extra space to explore when I'm not with her.


3) Taming Procedures - do you interact with your colombian or does he/she just lounge around in his cage with little or no contact? Do you regularly handle your columbian? What techniques, if any, have you used to calm and tame your colombian?

When it comes to feeding time, she'll be waiting for me. I sit with her on the floor and she'll eat next to me.

I found the best thing was to spend a lot of time just being near her. I would put just my hand in her viv, let her lick me and get used to me, and to learn that my hand and my presence isn't a threat to her. She won't let me hold her yet as she is always on the move, but is slowly but steadily getting there. I also talk to her frequently so she learns the sound of my voice.


4) Problems - What types of problems, if any, have you encountered with your colombian? Does he bite? Hiss? Gape? Whip? Is he unruly? Unmanageable? Unwilling to trust you? Has he stopped eating? Does he eat too much? If your colombian has developed a sickness or come down with a bacteriological infection, how was he treated?

Kara has never bitten or tail whipped. She's been very good in that sense. There was an occasion where she ate some of her substrate and I was very worried... but later fecal investigation showed that she passed it, and have made changes to ensure that doesn't happen again.


5) Success stories - while they are the most commonly seen tegus, in shops and as pets, colombians often get a bad wrap for being the most aggressive, most difficult and most problematic of all tegus. Do you find this to be true or are they truly even worthy of this stigma? Have you tamed/trained your colombian? If so, what has he learned ie; is he potty trained? Will he come when calling his name?

All over Youtube, and the internet in general; Colombians get bad press. Based on mine though, this isn't deserved. When I first got her she was very skiddish, but now every day I see improvements in her behavior and she actually climbs on me by choice. As far as biting and tail whipping go... she's never done it, not once. If I wake her she occasionally hiss's or puffs up, but will stop as soon as she realizes it's me.

6) Anything else - anything you'd like the members of our forum to know about your colombian goes here.

Kara is a beautiful, beautiful tegu. She's clever, so... so clever. and if anyone can say they are unruly and aggressive, they should prove themselves wrong and own one; then they'd see the wonderful creature a Colombian tegu can be.

 

[TheTwiggsMGW]

Resurrection bump so I can hear more stories! These cutie patooties get such a bad rep but I know they're just misunderstood!

 

[DougK]

I've been meaning to post something like this since I joined here a while ago!


1) Feeding

When he was younger, he was really picky so it was a combination of eggs, various meat, and frozen mice, but I'd have to really coax him to eat, and usually had to dip things in egg yolks for him to care about them. Now he's not fussy at all, and I can just put a bowl of mice in his tank and he'll find and eat them right away. I can also sometimes just hold a mouse out to him in my hand and he'll just take it.

2) Housing

I've got a weird setup, added a photo below. In his original enclosure as a baby, he spent a huge amount of time in his big water dish, so I looked into whether it was safe for columbian tegus to have a partially aquatic enclosure. I found a few people advocating it so I set up my 75 gallon aquarium to have about six inches of water with a raised tile platform. He seems to split his time between burrowing in the bin of sphagnum, inside the plastic hide, sunning up top, and floating around underneath the platform. I made sure there's tons of things in the water for him to climb out or rest on.

I've got two fluorescent UV lights (a bar along the back and a compact one in a dome) and 150w incandescent on the sunning area (gets about 95-105ish F.). I've got a 100w ceramic heat emitter over the sphagnum, hooked up to a thermostat to make sure there's a spot that doesn't get TOO cold even at night in the winter. Then I've got a 75w incandescent on the cooler side just for light. Temperatures range from about 80 away from the lights to the 90-100 basking area.

The cannister filter keeps the water perfect -- he'll poop right in the water sometimes but the cannister is rated for a lot more water than is actually in there so it stays clean with very little maintenace. The one difficult thing is the sphagnum, which he kicks all over the place and clogs the intake if I don't keep an eye on it.

But this was all just originally a temporary thing because I had acquired a 75 gallon that someone was throwing out. I'll need to build something bigger within maybe a year or it'll start getting cramped for him.

3) Taming Procedures

When he was a baby, he was extremely skittish and bit me a few times, and it was nearly impossible to interact with him. I had to lock him and myself in the bathroom if I wanted to try to hold him without fearing he'd disappear into a crevasse, but even then his favorite thing was to climb up onto my head and try to leap onto nearby objects.

He's definitely mellowed out as he's gotten older (he's a little under two years old now I think?). Doesn't show any aggression and doesn't show any inclination to bite or even threaten to bite anymore, and though he's still got moments of spring loaded excitement, I'm able to open the tank and interact with him without him going crazy, and I can take him out and walk around with him on my shoulder or arm. He'll huff a bit if I'm interrupting him, but the most he'll do is squirm a bit.

I can't say any method helped tame him, because it's most likely just him getting older and feeling more secure. But I tried to usually interact with him for a bit just before I'd feed him, which may have helped him tolerate it in hopes of getting food. I also found that showing him an upraised palm in front of him would sometimes get him to just climb up onto my arm calmly, while any other orientation of my hand would make him start acting scared.

4) Problems

Used to bite and gape, but has completely stopped, and he's not even aggressive around food. The biggest problem I have is that he likes to make wild leaps occasionally, so I just have to be wary when holding him.

5) Success stories

While he's definitely skittish, he's not mean or aggressive or unruly like I've read. I don't think I even take him out of the tank as often as I probably should, but he still seems to be getting more and more tame as time goes on.

6) Anything else

Still don't know his actual gender! I'm suspecting female from the lack of pronounced jowels and the relatively small size for his age, though I keep calling him a 'he'. I've tried to examine his underbits for some of the supposed tell-tale scale arrangements or bumps but haven't been able to figure anything conclusive out.

 

[Michael Graham]

Looks healthy and very tame! I want to share my thoughts here as well but my goldens are still small so I'm allowing a little time first. I like your enclosure as well. I'm also building a bigger one so please share that when you finish.

 

[MorganM]

The basics:

1)Feeding - As a juvenile, sub-adult and adult what do you feed your colombian? How often do you feed him? What type of supplements are supplied with the food you give your colombian?
I have a sub-adult (2.5 yrs) female colombian tegu. She gets fed currently every day trying to get her weight back up, but typically every other day. Her diet is a variety of turkey meatballs with calcium powder, soft-boiled or raw eggs (washed raw, of course), or frozen pinkies (moving to large pinkies because she has a bigger appetite).



2) Housing - what do you consider a good enclosure for your colombian? Do you have an aquarium? A cage? A temporary hide? A complete room? What are the dimensions of it? Humidity and temp levels? Basking temp? Night time temps? Does your colombian get to free-roam? What type of lamps and what wattage?
Our current housing situation isn't ideal for a tegu, however she spends minimum time in the housing. She mostly just goes in there to sleep or heat soak. She is in a 36x18 reptile aquarium, however has free access to my apartment whenever I am home (including heat access). She is fairly lazy and doesn't move around too much anyways.


3)Taming Procedures - do you interact with your colombian or does he/she just lounge around in his cage with little or no contact? Do you regularly handle your columbian? What techniques, if any, have you used to calm and tame your colombian?
Since she was a baby, she has been handled regularly. When she was younger, she cared a little more, but now she seeks attention. She loves to be pet under the chin and around her auricles. She is held regularly while I'm walking around the apartment as well.



4) Problems - What types of problems, if any, have you encountered with your colombian? Does he bite? Hiss? Gape? Whip? Is he unruly? Unmanageable? Unwilling to trust you? Has he stopped eating? Does he eat too much? If your colombian has developed a sickness or come down with a bacteriological infection, how was he treated?
She has never bitten me, however she has bitten my brother but after fair warning and when she was in pain (recovering from severe nose rub). Occasionally, if her nose rub (still recovering) is irritating her, and I'm putting on the antibiotic, she will open her mouth, but never in an aggressive way. I've never had her be unmanageable in any way I would have thought about after reading online. She is actually really docile. Due to previous owner mistreatment, we are working on infection recovery from the nose rub, as well as some snout problems because all of the scales were gone. basically, she's been really responsive to bacitracin (neosporin), and regular soaks.



5) Success stories - while they are the most commonly seen tegus, in shops and as pets, colombians often get a bad wrap for being the most aggressive, most difficult and most problematic of all tegus. Do you find this to be true or are they truly even worthy of this stigma? Have you tamed/trained your colombian? If so, what has he learned ie; is he potty trained? Will he come when calling his name?
While I don't think she would ever actually come when I call her name, sometimes she does pretend she hears me and acknowledges my existence. I really think she is comparable to a cat. She is the most docile reptile I've ever owned. I've never had an issue with aggression, even towards complete strangers wanting to hold her or pet her. I am starting to work on potty training (I just hope it isn't too late), but it seems to be just identifying when she is going to need to use the restroom.

 

[nepoez]

I've had mine for only 2 months. So not too much to say but I'll share my setup.

Here's his setup. I have him in a pretty small cage. I don't have too much room but it's bio-active, sustains a 70-90% humidity. Basking temps are 110-135C, depending on which spots. Substrate is natural soil, sand, clay, moss. I ordered a grow light for hydroponics so I will be growing grass and stuff in there soon!