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First Time Teju Companion

Jackie & Hellboy

Active Member
Messages
128
I posted that early on accident so this will be part 2 to that message.

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/natural-vivaria-plant-forum/97041-media-bio-active-substrates.html

That link is better for the soil topic.

Back to the food, mice, roaches, grasshoppers, and try to find a place that sales frozen quail and chickens those are really good for him! :) rodentpro.com is where I order them, I just don't know if they ship to anywhere outside the U.S. but you can check. I order enough for like 6 to 7 months or longer, shipping costs are the same regardless of if the box is full or mostly empty so order as much as your freezer will stock without ordering over the 1 box limit (unless you want to).

Yeah there are sports rivalries here as well, I can understand that it helps both clubs make more money and it can add an extra level of excitement and higher emotions to the games, but I don't let my emotions get the better of me for American football European football or any sport I enjoy watching. Now that doesn't mean I'm not a bit sad when my team loses and I do analyse the mistakes but I try to be realistic in my expectations.

I am not familiar with how to PM on here, I'm not the best when it comes to technology. If you send me one I may be able to figure it out
 

Alliocha

Member
Messages
66
Location
Germany
I just wanted to send you a pm. Didn't work. It had too much characters :D
I don't have any problems writing here, but you can write me the answer in a mail if you like cause I kinda asked private stuff. My mail is [email protected]-due.de

And heres my message ;) :

I think this is the way you can send private messages. I am not good at technique either, but I thought it'll be better if you are at favebook where I would ask you for your real name there. And your real real name of course :D My name is like you read, but the easier one is "Josh" which is my nickname.

I already ordered some pine bark which is all that I can get here in Germany it seems. But this should do it fine as well along with some sand right? Dude I have to say I am pretty impressed about your knowledge for the Tegus. Did you read it up, got it through experience or just got those informations from others? I definitly want and need to learn all about it.

For the food I can get everything at the shop around my corner. I get all types of mice, insects and small chickens there. Just for the quails I need to check another place.
So, you mean, after he ate mice its no problem to give him fruit the other day if he wants it? No problems with digestion?

I realised his enclosure is only able to carry ground substrate for a hight a bit more than 20 cm. Do you think this will be a future problem? The size of his enclosure is 2,45 m x 1,00 m x 1,00 m..

Yeah, sport is filled with emotions. But one thing which is very important and people use to forget is that it is culture and culture means diversity. So this is not a smart thing when people get into serious hate on each other just because they like different teams. It's almost like rascism you know.. People make difference just because they are different in some way, eventhough we're all the same. Just stupid.

You told you are having two Tegus right? 1.1 or 0.2? How old are they and what is your enclosure and everything like?
 

Jackie & Hellboy

Active Member
Messages
128
I'm sorry to say pine bark is bad for most reptiles skin so it won't work, buying dirt is not necessary just go and dig some from outside :) it's better because it has good bugs and good bacteria in it for eating the tegu poop an it's free of charge ;). I hope you can get your money back for the pine bark it just is toxic to their skin. Is there a reason why a 1 meter tall cage can't hold more than 20 cm of soil? You'll want to get at least .5 meter of soil to dig in. And it's ok to not have much climbing space they don't mind. The extra soil helps humidity stay in the lower soil so if there isn't enough soil it all gets too dry, the top several centimeters will get dry naturally but the bottom will stay moist which is what you will want. Make sure there is much more outside soil and only maybe 2 buckets of sand, the sand is only to help water drain throughout the soil. Mix it all together well.

I don't have Facebook but will send you an email soon. My name is Ryan almost like Rein the big river in Germany.

You can feed fruit and insects the same day also fruit and mice same day is all fine for digestion.

I learned all of my stuff from forums and everyone else's experiences and anything that I learn from monitor lizard keepers, they have made some very good steps in keeping large lizards like tegu's and monitors, people still unfortunately keep some of their tegu's like snakes, low basking temps and dry bedding that isn't deep enough so I just try to spread this knowledge to help other keepers have success where I have seen others succeed and I have seen the results myself :)
 

Jackie & Hellboy

Active Member
Messages
128
I also agree with the sports and racism. We should treat each other with respect, have fun when your team wins, and don't panic or be upset when your team comes up short. It will be a great day when Schalke fans and Dortmund fans can enjoy
 

Jackie & Hellboy

Active Member
Messages
128
I pressed post on accident again,

Fans should be able to have a beer with fans of other teams and not get mad that their team loses or not be mean to the losing teams fans when your team wins.
 

Alliocha

Member
Messages
66
Location
Germany
I just wrote them and hope they didn't ship the bark yet. I didn't know that I could youse soil from the outside. Isn't it that he can get parasites from there?

Ok, I think I almost did a mistake, but luckily I have you and a very good book to read. His former owner had very few groundsubstrate inside which was wrong I realised from the very beginning. I think Travis' enclosure is very good with its size. The only problem is that I can't fill the whole cage with 0.5 m substrate cause the door and the ventilating plates start at 20 cm. Do you think its a good alternative to put a shelf in one corner which I am going to fill with half a meter of substrate and for the rest of his enclosure to fill as high as it gets to avoid trickling through the ventilating plates and when I am going to open the enclosure?

Right now he is sleeping and chilling since 15 hours or something. But I guess this is just the acclimatisation process. I will just go and my some cod liver now which I am going to inject into a mice. This is a good thing eh?

Yeah, good having met you Ryan! :)

Cool you agree with what I think about racism and ****! People here in Germany should be very sensitive about that thinking about history. But they are not. Too many are not. Right now we're having some bad times were people go on the streets "demonstrating" against foreigners. I hate this. We're all foreigners. But thats another topic :D
 

Alliocha

Member
Messages
66
Location
Germany
Ah yeah I forgot one thing.. I also couldn't fill the whole enclosure with half a meter of substarte cause then Travis would be to close to his heating spots. I bought a Powersun lamp which provides UVA, UVB and the heat he needs. I also have a solar raptor and a neon tube. Just to mention this as well.
Oh and yes: How do you keep the required humidity in? I mean how you put it in and how often do you do it? I also thought of buying a rainfall simulator..
 

Jackie & Hellboy

Active Member
Messages
128
As long as the correct bugs are in the soil parasites shouldn't be a problem especially if his basking temps are high enough.

I do agree with the racism in sports. We have too many things that are the same about us to worry about what is different about us.

The shelf with extra dirt will work for a dig spot.

I just use a watering can for adding humidity if it has gotten low I'll add a picture to show you.

upload_2015-1-31_9-6-43.jpeg
 

Alliocha

Member
Messages
66
Location
Germany
Hm, I'd really like to give him such good soil, but I am not sure whether I can give it to him from our grounds in Germany. They arr different than yours in America I guess. I was looking for whether to buy such soil somewhere, but even the hardware shop didn't have it.. So right now there still is only sand inside. Any alternatives to soil from the outside?
Thanks for the pic! :D

Yeah, I just think we're all the same. Good and bad people averywhere. In Schalke and BVB, as well as on the rest of the planet :p
 

Jackie & Hellboy

Active Member
Messages
128
Can you post a picture of your soil from out there? There shouldn't be an issue with it but try to get a pic of it on here and I'll see if it is ok, you really need to find some soon it's important for tegu's. Are there any nearby Forrest that you can dig dirt from? That kind of dirt is best. You can put it through a screen to get rocks or any big hard pieces of anything you don't want in there and so it is a nice dirt only, then mix a little sand in. Try to find a way to give him a spot with .5 meter of dirt on the side of his cage that isn't under his light. If you start a burrow for him he will use it and it will be best for his skin.
 

Alliocha

Member
Messages
66
Location
Germany
The problem right now with the soil here is that its frozen since we have minus degrees outside :-/
I will still go out and dind a way to send you a picture of soil I can find at a nearby forest. I just hope that it really is the right thing and that there are no other things (bad things) inside compared to your common soil..

Btw. when I am putting a shelf inside, do you think there is any danger that he might get stuck his tail or something there? The problem is that there will be a gap between the shelf and the wall cause I have a not linear back wall inside. I could use the silicon I used to seal the enclosure of course, but this would mean that he would nee to stay out again for a day which will be stressing and bad cause he is starting to feel well and already looking for contact to me.

I will send you a mail now, hope it will not arrive in your spam ;)
 

Jackie & Hellboy

Active Member
Messages
128
You can use the silicon for the shelf for any gaps.

If you need to wait for the ground to thaw that is ok. How long do you think it will be before the ground there thaws? There won't be any bad stuff in the soil to hurt Travis as long as his basking is hot enough.
 

Alliocha

Member
Messages
66
Location
Germany
The temperature at his hotspot is around 104 °F and at his cool side it is 77 ° F. What do you think abou this degrees? The ground here can thaw every moment. We are having big Weather changes every few days..
 

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