Diet frustration

[jmiles50]

ALL Asami wants to eat are quail and weaned mice :!: Is this ok :?:

 

[jmiles50]

I need advise, can someone pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease help!?!?!

 

[DaveDragon]

You should mix in a little more variety, maybe some raw ground turkey and tilapia. Some cooked or raw egg once a week too. I've heard some people mix the egg in with the food. Sneak in some chopped up fruit (strawberries, blueberries). They're carnivores for the first year but it can't hurt to mix it up a little.

 

[AB^]

Most tegus love crayfish too. Mine always get very excited about them.

 

[VARNYARD]

You can also try some beef liver, chicken gizzards or chicken livers.

 

[jacobsracing]

do you feed the crayfish live to the tegu? How big is too big? How many do you feed em? Any pics/video? That would be something to see.

 

[MMRR - jif]

I occasionally purchase crayfish from the pet store for my Dumerils monitor and get a few extra for the other monitors and the tegus. The crayfish are usually under 3 inches long and the lizards have no trouble catching them and eating them. Once one of the crayfish did grab a sav by the lip with one of it's claws and hung on for quite a while. It was pretty humorous watching the Sav trying to figure out what was going on.

 

[mr.tegu]

i always feed my monitors and tegus pre-killed food items. i have noticed a differance in calmness with reptiles that do not need to kill to eat, also less chance of reptile injuries,like mmrr had mentioned in his reply about his savanah being biten, bite wounds can be bad and get infected. my tegs diet consists of raw ground turkey, boiled eggs, mice, fish, ham, chicken and certain kinds of table scraps.

 

[AlpineStar]

ive been curious, my b&w eats nothing but crix and pinks/fuzzies and wants nothing to do with anything else i mean anything it is crazy. and i have tried skipping a few feedings and mixing he still just turns his head in disgust.

 

[jor71]

How about putting a mouse and some other food together in a baggie for a while. I would think the scent of the mouse would get on the other food and he/she would eat it all.

You are going to need to experiment for awhile.

 

[AlpineStar]

tried it. he is just super picky. i have to get another calcium powder because if the powder i have even touches his food he wolnt touch it. its retarded feeding this lil guy

 

[ashesc212]

Lucky is really picky too and will only eat one type of food at a time. If he's on crickets one week, he won't eat anything else no matter how hard I try to get him to, for example.

 

[AlpineStar]

lol, there like lil kids if they dont get what they want then its not happening and mine gets a temper i swear. so i give in a give him what he wants. super healthy or not

 

[DaveDragon]

Lucky is really picky too and will only eat one type of food at a time. If he's on crickets one week, he won't eat anything else no matter how hard I try to get him to, for example.

Maybe he's needs some competition!! Our little Blue's steal the turkey from each others mouths instead of getting it from the pile.

 

[ColdThirst]

With mine I just bought everthing at the store one day and made a buffet. She got around and sampled/ate everything she liked. It turns out she likes mangos, papayas, loves bananas, mice, boiled eggs, not ground turkey, hamburger meat sometimes etc. So just throw some stuff out there and you may be surprised, I was for sure.

Just experiment and try to think outside the box. Also mine will only eat one thing at a time too, it's kindof funny, if theres several things on a plate it eats every bit of one thing, then eats every bit of the other, never a mix, kinda funny.

 

[laurarfl]

I would definitely try to mix up the food for the health of the tegu. Eating too many insects and pinkies will lead to a calcium imbalance (I know you said you were trying to supplement). I have an 11yo beardie that is so senile he has to eat by hand and won't eat any greens now, and nothing can be powdered except live crickets.

I am one who feeds fruit to my tegus, and just keep offering whatever is on hand. I also feed table scraps if they are decent. Last night we made kabobs with sirloin and cut back the gristly parts. Well...today the tegus get the raw leftovers along with some squash. Mine will eat ground turkey, raw chicken, raw fish, chicken parts, but not ground beef or beef liver. They also like cut grapes, cherries, blueberries, peaches (I buy them canned in juice out of season), melon, etc.

 

[jmiles50]

Everyone keep's saying "you need to feed more variety", but what if your tegu refuses everything except for a few items. Seems like Asami wil ONLY eat a little ground turkey, and weaned mice. Seems like I've tried everything :hifit

 

[Tux]

keep offering the different items until she takes some of em?

 

[laurarfl]

Mix the items together so the ground turkey smell is on the other food. I didn't read backwards, but are temps warm enough?

 

[jmiles50]

Ok, I'll just keep it up. Thanks for the advise everyone