crazy question...tegus and other animals

[Guest]

I think I know the answer but has anyone known of a tegu that has made"freinds with other animals? My pitt bulls seem to be getting along well with godzilla so far. I've seen cats and dogs and also cats and birds get along. So is it possible that if I got a rat that is too big for him to eat for a while, mabey as they grow up they would tolerate each other. I think this is probably a stupid question but I still don't know a lot about tegus so I figured I'd ask the experts.

 

[lazyjr52]

I'm no expert but recently I had my gu out and was feeding him a small rat. I also had out the rat that I was going to feed my boa with, which is a jumbo rat. My gu instead ran over to the bigger rat (which is way too big for him) and started biting it and shaking it trying to rip it apart. These were prekilled rats btw. Like I said I'm no expert but I would say no to being "friends" with rats anyway, I do not own any cat or dogs thou.

 

[Guest]

That's halarious. I definately figured that would be the case. As far as my dogs though, it seems to be going well. My younger pitt bonz loves little animals. A while back we had a baby red tail.boa that was eating pinkie rats. Anyway the one we got was too big for him so we decided to keep it. Bonz loved the little guy. She licked its butt to get it to go to the bathroom and everything. So anyways she's really good with other smaller animals. Godzilla doesn't seem to mind her to much either. He crawls over her and smells her a lot. Its funny though bonz doesn't know what to think of his tounge. She jumps back when he goes to lick her face like its gonna hurt or something. My other pitt is old as dirt and she just ignores him. She's smelled him a few times but that it.

 

[chelvis]

there is another tread that people have answered to on this topic and they're experiances run from, ya their friends like my dog and gu, everytime my gu escapes i can find him sleeping in my old dogs bed and the dog is curled up with him. Now i do let the gu and the dog free roam when im home but the seem to more or less ingnore each other now, until bed time i think my gu just likes the body heat and my dog doesnt really mind the gu just chilling.

Then there is the case of the dog tearing the gu apart or there is times where the gu shreds the other animal. You just never know.

 

[laurarfl]

I would imagine the smell of a rat would trigger a feeding response, especially if you feed rats to a tegu.

 

[tora]

Yeah I agree with Laura. You can't kill instincts completely, especially in a not very domestic critter (and we all know that they wouldn't feel guilty for killing something).

I know my ferret was the sweetest thing on earth.. till she saw a rodent. I had a guinea pig for a while and she wanted to tear it apart. Now this ferret was so awesome, that even if you bugged her till she did her war dance and stuck your finger in her mouth she'd just flail about more. lol.

I've also known dogs that try and break through windows to tear apart a cat, and the food chain goes on.

It really depends on the animal, and how much control you have over it. Dogs and tegus I can see tolerating each other because the dog is obedient/etc and the tegu simply can't even fathom eating the dog.

As for the whole 'growing up together' deal, only reason that fuzzy animals can do it is because cats and dogs are about as domestic as they get, and they're used to living with and tolerating other things, and the smaller critters just can't pick on the bigger ones. I know my ferret picked on my cats more than the other way around, lol.