Debating about a Tegu

[kymbadina]

Hey everyone! I just found this site while searching for care on Tegu's. I love the beasties! I love how big they get and I think they are gorgeous!
I'd like to get one later in the future, right now I am just absorbing as much information as I can. I'm new to this reptile world and just got my first baby Blue Tongue Skink over christmas. I work in a petsmart, I know that doesnt make me a genius and I know a lot of emplyees who make things up. I'm not one of them. If I dont know an answer to a question I'll tell you so, but then I'd look it up in a book to find it. So I do know a little bit about the more common reptiles. I really like these guys though. I'm on the fence between the argentinian and the columbian..I like the scale idea of the columbian, but I think the argentinian is my favorite because of the ease of taming and size..and the fact that they like to be around people.
I don't plan on feeding it live or dead animal at all..I just couldnt do it. I love rats and mice too much. My Blue Tongue Skink gets all kinds of other meats like eggs, canned cat food(because based on his needs, high protien low fat and low ash, cat food has those ratios much better than dog) he also gets cooked chicken, I'm going to start him on turkey and hamburger. He is quite spoiled.
And he gets lots of fruits and veggies, so, if there is a species that can have those..that would be best. I'm open to any personal favorites and stories.

 

[shiftylarry]

Well, hamburger meat is not the best thing to feed. Neither is cat food. You need to feed whole prey items with organs, bones, fur etc. That's a much more complete diet than just meat alone. If you want a big lizard, they're are plenty of vegetarian lizards that you could get that don't require feeding any meat. Some things that come to mind are Egyptian Uromastyx and Cuban Rock Iguana.

 

[kymbadina]

I havn't tried hamburger yet so I'll just scratch that off the list. as for animals with organs and all that..no thanks. Chomper doesnt chase things anyway, they just sit there grow unless I hand feed him and I dont want to get him used to that(I like my fingers) I've seen the egyptian uros, not my kind of lizard. I'll check out the rock iguana though.