AnimalNerd
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Hi tegu talk. I'm the primary caregiver and (hopefully) will be fully adopting a blue tegu who is almost 2 years old after the recent passing of his owner. His owner and I concluded that our boy is going through 'guberty' not long ago and in his absence the behavior escalated with me. Hes actually pretty good cage side. He only has lunged at my fingers a few times when I move my hand too fast or its too close to his mouth. It's the couch where he seems to go wild. He crawls up onto me and starts pawing/sniffing at my thighs or torso with his tongue going crazy before lazily deciding he wants to glomp down. He will lunge after my naked arms or hands if they are in his line of sight and will start biting pillows and blankets too. I either handle/block his bites with leather gloves until he calms down/ or put him in 'time out' in his enclosure until he calms down. I've noticed he will bite down on my old shirts or socks, chuff and wriggle his jowls, and wriggle his whole body on the offending garment. Some research indicates this might actually be mounting/mating behavior. His enclosure is about 8x4 feet, bioreactive soil for substrate, humidity is about 75-80%, basking spot is 105, and ambient cage temp 80-90 degrees. His usual diet is reptilinks which I switch up with salmon, ground turkey, beef, chicken, and occasionally dubia roaches as a treat/enrichment. This week I've noticed his poops are very small,round, and hard looking and he seems to be straining to make them. He may be constipated so I'm wondering if that could be making him extra tempermental. So to more experienced owners; does this sound like guberty/hormonal behavior, exploratory biting, health related acting out, or a little bit of everything?