Hello everyone, I'm Joe, and my Tegu's name is Moscato, it's great that a resourceful forum is available to help new tegu owners such as me. Nice to be a part of this community and I look forward to talking tegu with you all.
I was recently donated a Colombian tegu from craigslist because of it's "temperament."
Upon arriving at the location, my first observation was that the tegus enclosure was 10gallons with inadequate lighting, substrate, etc.. The age of the tegu at this point was roughly 3-4months. It's been in my care now for a bit over 2 months now, and I hope to provide the best possible care by actively reading these forums for ideas and tips to make sure Moscato is happy. I notice him out and about for 3-4 hours per day, but usually, he remains burrowed. I read that this species tends to remain underground or hidden under debris in the wild during most of the day. About twice per week, I've been giving him a soak in slightly warm water for about 15-20minutes. He or She tends to love trying to "tail whip" me and I usually wear gloves during the transfer process to soak Moscato. After the soak his temperament is generally very relaxed and handleable, I've been feeding Moscato a variety of different item's he loves dubias, chicken liver, scrambled and soft boiled eggs, lean ground beef, I continue trying to feed him new food items to see what he prefers and never disturb him during his feeding time. It surprised me how intelligent these lizards are. Most of my captive husbandry experience has been with snakes and having this tegu has provided me with a different perspective concerning there needs and personality. It seems that taming this species tends to be a challenge, I hope that years or months from now Moscato will grow into being more relaxed and sociable.
I was recently donated a Colombian tegu from craigslist because of it's "temperament."
Upon arriving at the location, my first observation was that the tegus enclosure was 10gallons with inadequate lighting, substrate, etc.. The age of the tegu at this point was roughly 3-4months. It's been in my care now for a bit over 2 months now, and I hope to provide the best possible care by actively reading these forums for ideas and tips to make sure Moscato is happy. I notice him out and about for 3-4 hours per day, but usually, he remains burrowed. I read that this species tends to remain underground or hidden under debris in the wild during most of the day. About twice per week, I've been giving him a soak in slightly warm water for about 15-20minutes. He or She tends to love trying to "tail whip" me and I usually wear gloves during the transfer process to soak Moscato. After the soak his temperament is generally very relaxed and handleable, I've been feeding Moscato a variety of different item's he loves dubias, chicken liver, scrambled and soft boiled eggs, lean ground beef, I continue trying to feed him new food items to see what he prefers and never disturb him during his feeding time. It surprised me how intelligent these lizards are. Most of my captive husbandry experience has been with snakes and having this tegu has provided me with a different perspective concerning there needs and personality. It seems that taming this species tends to be a challenge, I hope that years or months from now Moscato will grow into being more relaxed and sociable.
