HELP! LOST TEGU!

[parapara]

Hi,

My Tegu squeezed out from under my fence about 5 days ago, and since then, I've tried everything I can think of. We've papered the neighborhood with fliers, put out havahart traps, torn up some pretty intense foliage and had not one, but 2 tracking dogs come out here to try and search him out.

There's a stretch of woodland out behind my house that's about 50 deep and a mile or so long, but it gets deeper as you get to the corner. We think we have an idea where he got in there from the tracking dog, but we can't possibly find him in all of the brush (there's just way too much ground to cover and the brush is so thick that it's impossible to see the ground pretty much anywhere in there).

We're terrified for the little guy. There are ground hogs and foxes and racoons out there and, even if he survives all that, I don't think he's got much chance against a Virginia winter.

Does anyone have any advice for luring him out? Will familiar noises work? We've never seen him really eat anything but dead mice and chicken, but if there's something universally loved by Tegus (every turtle I ever met, for example, could kill a strawberry), particularly something with a smell that travels, I'm open to that too.

Any ideas for luring him out would be helpful. We love the little guy and he's all alone out there.

 

[parapara]

You guys must be good luck. 5 days gone and he just reappears in the neighborhood after I post here.

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

This could have gone wrong in so many ways but good to hear you got him back. Fix what ever area he got out and check for others. Now that he knows he can get out that way he'll continue to go to it and try.

 

[Roadkill]

You should do a lot more than just "fix whatever area". With all the issues of escaped and released pets, a back yard in general is no way to let your tegu get some sun. Either you need to make a suitable cage outdoors, or you need to sit with your tegu the whole time, anything else is irresponsible.

 

[Josh]

Make sure you have your tegu on lockdown now. Sunlight is great for him but getting lost isn't. I'm so glad this story had a happy ending. And I hope TeguTalk was the good luck you needed.
Let this be a lesson to everyone, don't leave your herps outside unattended and expect them to stay put! Make sure your animals are safely locked down!

 

[herpgirl2510]

I bring my guy outside in my yard it is fenced in but I would never trust him without a harness and leash and I am always within two feet of him.

 

[laurarfl]

Wow, you are very fortunate to have him back. Definitely take the advice on keeping him more secure!

 

[parapara]

It seems that the majority of posters here have misunderstood. To clarify, he was not left unattended, I was out there with him the whole time, but he squeezed under the door and made it into the woods (literally a few feet from the backyard) before I could get him back. OBVIOUSLY he will not be allowed outside again without a leash, LOL.

 

[laurarfl]

The whole situation just wasn't stated in the first post is all. Again, glad you got him back and it didn't end badly. What a surprise that must have been!

 

[parapara]

The situation was stated in the first post. My tegu got out through the fence.

I shouldn't need a detailed to-scale diagram of my back yard and my positioning to keep people from making the assumption that I'm just flinging my pets off into the woods. It seems like almost every time I see someone asking for help on this forum all they get is judgement. For those who can't tell the difference

This is helpful advice: "That must have been terrible. If you're going to keep your Tegu outside, here's the design I used for my enclosure. There's no way XXX is ever getting out of there."

This is judgement: "With all the issues of escaped and released pets, a back yard in general is no way to let your tegu get some sun. Either you need to make a suitable cage outdoors, or you need to sit with your tegu the whole time, anything else is irresponsible."

And it's this attitude that kept me from asking for advice 5 days ago, when he first disappeared, which is a shame because for all I know there's someone here who could have helped me. The fact that I even came here at all is a testament to how desperate I was to get him back. God forbid someone makes a mistake.

What happened to me was terrible. I know I am responsible for what happened. I am eternally grateful it turned out the way it did. I've spent most of the last week imagining all of the terrible things that could have happened. I know how lucky I am.

But for Christ's sake, I didn't come here to get into a p*ssing contest about who takes better care of their Tegu.

 

[laurarfl]

Yes, asking for help can be a problem here sometimes. I will agree with you on that one.

I'm going to use your same format to explain what we saw in your post. If it angers you, I'm sorry, but I'm using your same method of communication.

This is clear explanation of the original situation: "I was out there with him the whole time, but he squeezed under the door and made it into the woods (literally a few feet from the backyard) before I could get him back. OBVIOUSLY he will not be allowed outside again without a leash, LOL."

This is not: "My Tegu squeezed out from under my fence about 5 days ago..."

In the original post, readers had no idea if he was housed outside in a permanent enclosure, left outside for the day in a insecure basking enclosure, left out for an hour alone basking, or was sitting at your feet and just ran. So give us a bit of leeway for having to guess what happened.

 

[parapara]

If I was asking for advice about how to keep my Tegu from getting out again, then I would agree with you that I hadn't included all of the pertinent information. Since I was asking for advice to lure him out, whether he's housed outdoors or whether I was with him were entirely irrelevant to the question I had asked. Even that he got out through the fence was irrelevant. The question was "how do I lure my tegu out of the woods?"

If readers need clarification, they should ask for it rather than jumping to conclusions. No worries, I'm not angry, and I am not looking for an argument, I just really want to emphasize the point that this forum could be such a great resource for tegu keepers, yet is too often hampered by those who are quick to pass judgement and who seem to have superiority complexes. Remember, everyone was a beginner once.