Hello from KC

[aron77]

I don't have a tegu but I have thinking really seriously about getting one. My blue tongue skink died and I was thinking about getting another one when I ran across a vid of an argentine tegu and I have been obsessing every since. I have had reptiles off and on my whole I life so I understand lighting etc... I am not a big fan of fighting with humidity, and I think that hurt my blue tongue, but I would likely spend the money for a fogging/misting system to lower my maintenance.

Overall these guys don't seem like a great deal of care and what I really like is that once I spend the money up front to get the enclosure set up I can spend more time with this guy than I did my blue tongue because I can let it roam without the fear of getting lost, though I do have two dogs so it would be a progression. For my blue tongue I used to make all kind of mush with meat, eggs and vegies along with some fruit and that is what I would expect to feed this guy along with maybe some frozen rodents.

Anyway I think I have good idea of what the care looks like for these guys but feel free to weigh in.

 

[Zyn]

I’d say tegus are a huge leap in responsibility and care. I’ve noticed a lot of blue tongues doing well in large closed bins much like you see with ball pythons as they don’t need UVB. They spend most of their time hidden from sight just like ball pythons in the wild. It’s also easier to control the heat and humidity. What was the cause of him dying. Figuring these things out are important. Skinks are a pretty tough Lizard. Also the cost of keeping a tegu is much higher than a blue tongue.

 

[Walter1]

Tegus are expensive all the way around- initial cost of tegu, enclosure, and food. That's a good thing for the lizard as it minimizes the likelihood of becoming a cheap throwaway pet. I can keep four because they sleep for 4-5 months and really only eat for about 6 months.

 

[aron77]

I’d say tegus are a huge leap in responsibility and care. I’ve noticed a lot of blue tongues doing well in large closed bins much like you see with ball pythons as they don’t need UVB. They spend most of their time hidden from sight just like ball pythons in the wild. It’s also easier to control the heat and humidity. What was the cause of him dying. Figuring these things out are important. Skinks are a pretty tough Lizard. Also the cost of keeping a tegu is much higher than a blue tongue.

I was fighting some crust on his mouth for a while which I believe was due to inconsistent humidity. I thought I had it beat and then he appeared to go into brumation on his own but obviously not. He was supposed to be a CBB northing that didn't require humidity but the pet store was deplorable despite their reputation in this area, he was also infested with mites when I got him and I was able to treat that by putting him on quarantine and soaking him a lot while using minimal chemicals. I could be wrong as I was addressing the humidity, I just struggled to get it up in the 80s, but I had a good hot spot and still provided uvb even though it is not supposed to be required for them. My biggest failing was trying to handle it myself instead of taking him to the vet. Anyways I have had reptiles on and off through my whole life and other than being a dumb kid killing a Cuban anole because I had no idea about lighting etc... I have never had one die young on me. As a kid I was able to tame down a tokay gecko and I was pretty proud of that since it was so mean when I got it.

Anyways that is why I am not just running out and getting a tegu. I have the 90 gal tank that I could house a young one in but my plans for the enclosure are going to take me a little bit and probably be expensive. I am planning to spend the money on a misting system so I don't have the same issue with humidity, though I think part of the humidity problem was the large screen top. I am worried about the up front cost of getting a tegu because I plan on putting the money into it up front so I don't have issues later but I do ok so I am not concerned with on going costs.

 

[onnie0047]

Personally I dont find the cost of keeping Tegus all that much...I have 3, two yearlings and one 2 year old-ish. The older one is eating medium rats now, the second one is eating mice and the third one is extremely picky and nibbles on insects and chicken parts. Buying bulbs and paying the electric company for them seems to be my biggest cost, as I raise rats and dubias for all my lizards to keep food costs down. I do give them a variety of Fruit and fish but often they seem not to be interested in them even when I dont feed them for 3 days, they will generally snub their noises in the air at anything else but mice, rats and chicken. I actually find my Bearded Dragons need more attention and are more time consuming then the Tegus, they are so much more demanding on having a varied diet then does the Tegus. In a few months, I do plan on replacing the small enclosure and building a 8X4X4 for them with 2 levels since I will be housing more than 1 in the enclosure. That I suspect is a $200-$300 Venture, but a lots of my lights will just transfer over to the new enclosure. I have a humidifier I bought off line to keep the humidity up, works great, except now I got a new cost of buying distilled water! Throw another 5 on the pile!