Help is my tegu ok!

[Silver]

Hello, I hate to Introduce myself like this but my red tag does not seem to be doing too well. He is over 1 year old and normally is fine. He has been this way for less than a hour.

 

[Silver]

What kind of tegu do you have? A red tegu
How old is your tegu? Over a year
How large is your tegu? 14 in, 350 g
What is the sex of your tegu? Male?
How long have you had your tegu? 1 year
Does your tegu brumate or hibernate? Yes in the winter he will sleep a lot more and eat less
What size enclosure do you have? A 20 gallon long, he is getting upgraded to a 4x2x2 soon
What kind of substrate is used? Coco chips
What kind of UVB do you use (brand and coil vs bulb vs tube)? I used a coil for a while than switch to a t5 repti sun tube
What is the wattage of your bulb? He has one 100 watt ceramic and one 50 watt daytime
How old is your bulb? The uvb is 5 months, the ceramic is 1 year and the daytime is 4 months
How far away is the UVB? 12 inches
Do you use a separate bulb for heat? What is the wattage?
What are the temps (basking and cool side)? Basking spot is 103 and cool is 73
What do you use to measure the temps? A normal heat and humidity gage and a temp gun
What is your humidity? What do you use to measure it? 50 I use a standard humidity gage
What do you feed your tegu? Meal worms, Salmon, ground beef, carrots, grapes
How often do you feed and what time do you feed (morning, afternoon, night)? I feed in the afternoon every other day.
Do you use vitamin or calcium supplements? What brand(s)? How many days a week do you use each of them? Yes I use Calcium powder ones a week and a multivitamin twice a month
Does your tegu have regular BM's? Yes
Have you gotten a vet check and fecal done? No
Does your tegu share and enclosure with another tegu? No

 

[Silver]

Update, I did a suger bath and he is doing a lot better, the prolapse has almost reinserted now.

 

[Silver]

 

[Silver]

He has now made a full recovery and is doing great!

 

[LizardStudent]

Glad to hear your tegu is doing better

Side note, are you sure he is over a year old? 14 inches is very small, my 5 month old is almost double that size. If he is over a year, his basking temp should probably be increased to at least 115. I would also recommend that you dust with calcium every meal that is not whole prey or that does not have a significant source of calcium already

 

[Mutablekitty]

Glad to hear your tegu is doing better

Side note, are you sure he is over a year old? 14 inches is very small, my 5 month old is almost double that size. If he is over a year, his basking temp should probably be increased to at least 115. I would also recommend that you dust with calcium every meal that is not whole prey or that does not have a significant source of calcium already

Size doesn't always equate to age. Some tegus grow slower than others while some grow faster.

 

[LizardStudent]

Size doesn't always equate to age. Some tegus grow slower than others while some grow faster.

I understand that they all grow at different rates, just like people, but 14 inches for a tegu over a year is still unusually small which is why I was asking. At that point I would think it was maybe less about his overall growth rate and maybe suspect that he is a runt or something like that

 

[Silver]

Glad to hear your tegu is doing better

Side note, are you sure he is over a year old? 14 inches is very small, my 5 month old is almost double that size. If he is over a year, his basking temp should probably be increased to at least 115. I would also recommend that you dust with calcium every meal that is not whole prey or that does not have a significant source of calcium already

I know he is very small, I think it is because when I first got him, he would not eat for a few months, to the point of me having to force feed him. Thank you for the tips, I will increase the temp and give him calcium with every meal. I hope the new long awaited cage will help too.

 

[Lady2Lucky]

You may also want to increase your humidity. We had ours at 50 for a few months and he wasn't eating well. Then upped to 70 average and he ate like it was going out of style. Good luck.

 

[Mich lady]

Omg my heart broke seeing that prolapse. So glad he is better. I have a 2 plus year old black and white. He is almost 4 feet. He and my Savannah monitor like to hang out together.

 

[Silver]

Omg my heart broke seeing that prolapse. So glad he is better. I have a 2 plus year old black and white. He is almost 4 feet. He and my Savannah monitor like to hang out together.

Awww your tegu is beautiful! When Charlie had the prolapse my heart sunk. I thought he was going to die that night. I had dealt with prolapses before with a rescue bearded dragon but this was way worse. I hope one day Charlie will get 4 feet! Although I don't have high hopes as he is over a year already.

 

[Mich lady]

Awww your tegu is beautiful! When Charlie had the prolapse my heart sunk. I thought he was going to die that night. I had dealt with prolapses before with a rescue bearded dragon but this was way worse. I hope one day Charlie will get 4 feet! Although I don't have high hopes as he is over a year already.

I got roman as a juvenile. He grew real fast!

 

[Debita]

Have you had him for over a year or close? You did good to get him into the bath right away. Also - if it happens again, you can clean off the debris, and gently work the tissue back in. It's not good if the tissue dries out, because for 1 - it's harder for them to retract, and 2 - it damages the tissue. Lizards are not hard to work with in my opinion. In fact they start to trust you when they need help.

The reason I ask about how long you've had him is that even though reds are smaller than B/W's, he's still pretty small. So we don't want to think he's a runt or small too quickly. If he is over a year - he may be a she. Again, jowls for reds are smaller than B/W's, but not that much!!

 

[Silver]

Have you had him for over a year or close? You did good to get him into the bath right away. Also - if it happens again, you can clean off the debris, and gently work the tissue back in. It's not good if the tissue dries out, because for 1 - it's harder for them to retract, and 2 - it damages the tissue. Lizards are not hard to work with in my opinion. In fact they start to trust you when they need help.

The reason I ask about how long you've had him is that even though reds are smaller than B/W's, he's still pretty small. So we don't want to think he's a runt or small too quickly. If he is over a year - he may be a she. Again, jowls for reds are smaller than B/W's, but not that much!!

Ok, will do if it happens again. How do I check if Charlie is a he or a she?

 

[LizardStudent]

Ok, will do if it happens again. How do I check if Charlie is a he or a she?

This is an image that I find helpful, although others could probably link videos or give some firsthand tips on sexing

 

[Debita]

Since Charlie is over a year - and shows no signs of jowls....I think our sweet Charlie is a girl!! That's a good image that lizardstudent sent, but the obvious characteristic is that she has no jowls as of yet. If @AlphaAlpha is around, maybe he'll catch this thread and chime in. He has had his Alpha for awhile, and can give bett info on reds.

 

[Zyn]

Size doesn't always equate to age. Some tegus grow slower than others while some grow faster.

Still she looks small for a 1 year old. Is she getting whole prey? Fish, beef liver, ?