Hello all

[Lauren+1*Esme*]

Hi.

Just thought I'd introduce myself. I'm Lauren and I live in Hull, UK.

After wanting to own a tegu for many years the time finally came and I have had my blue tegu girlie for a couple of months now. She is two years old and named Esme.

We've just started seeing more and more of her and she's gradually upping her appetite (favourites being turkey mince, chicken hearts, kiwi, grapes and omnigold) after spending most hours burried down in her burrow. She would surface in the morning but disappear again by noon/1pm. I wasn't 100% sure if this was just her settling in period or she was in a semi brumating state as her previous owner had said her food intake had slowed etc. I have been told however that blues don't brumate or at least not fully?

She likes head rubs in her viv and will come out for a wander (with much encouragement!) for a short time but I'm still taking it slow. Ive also had her in the bath to help work off some stuck shed toes which she was very tolerable to to my surprise.

The only behaviour I've observed that may be a potential display of her not being happy is a slow tail wagging that she'll occasionally do... I've assumed this is a warning sign that she wants to be left alone and have always backed off at this point. If anyone can shed some light on this I'd be grateful.

I look forward to reading everyone's posts and experiences with life owning a tegu!

 

[Lauren+1*Esme*]

Attached picture of aforementioned tegu ☺

 

[RomanPort]

She looks beautiful. I'm really jealous.

I don't know what the slow tail wagging means. Fast tail wagging probably means that she feels threatened, but I'm unsure about slow tail wagging. I did some searching on the site, and I've seen that other people seem to agree that slow wagging doesn't mean that they're threatened. Take that with a grain of salt though. https://tegutalk.com/threads/tail-wagging.3778/#post-43858

 

[Walter1]

Welcome. Beautiful tegu. Slow tail wag could mean metabolic bone deficiency.

 

[RomanPort]

I was considering that too. Have you taken them to an exotics vet yet?

 

[Lauren+1*Esme*]

She's been checked over by our exotic vet and no concerns were raised regarding mbd. We also had a stool sample sent off for parasites which came back all clear so I'd believe she is of good health.

The reason I thought it was perhaps a behavioural trait is the previous owners did describe her as nervous outside her enclosure. They'd also sent a video of her out for a wander of which I observed her 'freeze' and do this slow tail wag/wave when she noticed someone walk past the doorway (foot traffic).

The other couple times I've observed this display was once when we first got her my partner reached in the enclosure to pet her and again when she's been out her enclosure, paused, done the tail wag then continued her business.

I guess this might answer my own question given the instances she's shown this behaviour to potentially be when she's been startled and or nervous but I suppose I was just wondering if pushed she's likely to proceed to show any signs of aggression at all.

Thanks all

 

[RomanPort]

Alrighty, looks like I was wrong. I'm really sorry about that.

 

[AlphaAlpha]

Hello to a fellow brit ..... I'm not far from you at Wakefield and have a Colombian tegu at about 2 years old.... I'm also not sure about the tail wagging but have seen mine kinda wiggle his back end when brewing up for a big poo.
But if yours has a good bill of health id say there's nothing to worry about.

 

[Walter1]

A relief.