I figured out why my new male tegu hasn't been eating or at least eating in front of me. The guy who gave him to me only fed him rodents and I only feed chicken gizzards/ground turkey and all that. And since I have had him I've never seen him eat in front of me so i would leave food out next to his hide and then it would be gone the next day so i figured it was his but I wasn't positive, Today though just because i was curious i got a small mouse at the pet store and first fed my other tegu then i held the mouse in front of his hide and he shot right out and grabbed it and ate it. So now I know he eats but only mice which I don't want, How can I get him to switch over to meats?
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Figured out why my tegu hasn't been eating
- Thread starter Venom6547
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dont feed him til he eats other food, trust me he'll give in
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when i first got bauldor he only ate mice too. eventually he game in though.
Dana C
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My girl Eva is just the opposite, she won't touch mice and she is too small for rats. Reptastic is correct. When your Tegu gets hungry enough, He will eat a turkey, liver, gizzard and what ever mix you put in front of him. Stop humoring him is what I would do. He will get testy about it but he won't die if he misses a meal or two.
Well it wasn't a meal or two lol it was more like 4 or 5 days so i just wanted to see if it was because he was stubborn or stress from my other tegu and I'm glad it was just him being picky since I was thinking about rehoming him if it was because of stress. Thank you for the replies
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[size=small]Are all of your tegus housed together?
If not and the food you left in there is gone the next day and not buried under the substrate, he's eating it. As long as they're healthy with enough fat reserves they can go months with out eating, eventually he'll give in.
If he has been fed mice and nothing else his whole life then that's pretty much all he knows. So he still needs to learn what else is good to eat and also to be more opportunistic like they're suppose to be.
Besides not feeding him for a while you can try cutting the mice up and mixing it with different meats, fruits or what ever. You can also try offering fewer mice than he's use to eating with new food and rubbing a mouse on other food but that doesn't always work. [/size]
If not and the food you left in there is gone the next day and not buried under the substrate, he's eating it. As long as they're healthy with enough fat reserves they can go months with out eating, eventually he'll give in.
If he has been fed mice and nothing else his whole life then that's pretty much all he knows. So he still needs to learn what else is good to eat and also to be more opportunistic like they're suppose to be.
Besides not feeding him for a while you can try cutting the mice up and mixing it with different meats, fruits or what ever. You can also try offering fewer mice than he's use to eating with new food and rubbing a mouse on other food but that doesn't always work. [/size]
