Hibernation and size confusion...

[Butterflieslies]

"If a baby tegu misses the first year of hibernation, they can reach three feet in one year. If the baby hibernates he will be the same size at the time he hibernated. Babies that hibernate will reach about half as much or less in size as those that do not hibernate." Taken from Varnyards' care sheet.

The part when it says "babies will only reach half as much or less in size..." That doesn't mean that they will never get as big as those who don't hibernate, just that it will take longer right?

Plus my baby tegu is staying down a lot but he's still small so I guess he knows that he has to hibernate... When I do catch him out every once and a while I do notice him twitching. I have a UV on him. Does it just mean he doesn't like me?

 

[VARNYARD]

Tegus can reach four feet in one year if they do not hibernate, I need to fix that info. As was the case with Jasper, he was 4ft at one year old.

It does take them longer to reach adult size if they hibernate, but this does not mean a yearling that does not hibernate is a full grown mature adult.

As for twitching, it is caused by two things, improper UV or over heating. If your temps are good, then your bulb is not giving off enough UV. This is most often the case with bulbs that are old, cheap bulbs, bulbs that are too far from the animal, or bulbs that give off very little UV.

Tegus need higher UV as babies, 7.5 or a 10.0, the 2's and 5's are not worth a dime IMO.

 

[Butterflieslies]

The temperature under the basking light is 94 degrees right now and on the other end it is 83 degrees. The UV I have in right now is a 10.0 that I just bought. So I am not sure what to do.

The twitching is really just in his back legs and not very noticeable. More like a twitching of his toes than his legs actually. And it seems almost always accompanied with him breathing really hard which is why I thought he didn't like me.

Also I've been trying to put my hand in the tank alot to see if he'll come over to check me out. Today when I did that I didn't put my hand on the ground like I normally do because I got distracted by his toes twitching so my hand was just dangling against the glass right up at the top of his cage. For a minute he did absolutely nothing. Then he turned around and I thought he was just going to go hide but instead he made a full circle and launched himself into the air right at my hand. I was so shocked that I admit I freaked a bit. I was not expecting anything like that. I pulled my and out to inspect it, expecting to see a bite. But there was nothing there. Not even a little scratch. The only thing was that where he had made contact was wet, like he had licked me...

I have no idea what to make of this situation...

What do you guys think?

 

[VARNYARD]

Do you have any heat on the cool side? It might be getting too warm without a way to escape the heat. Tegus do not need any heat on the cool side of the enclosure. Also how much supplement are you feeding? and do they contain D3?

A overdose of D3 can cause the same symptoms as the lack of D3. If you have proper UV and feeding rodents at least once a week you do not need to use supplements.

If this is not the case, then I would exchange that bulb.


Also, what type of UV bulb are you using?

 

[Butterflieslies]

I am using the 10.0 Repti Glo by Exo Terra. I have no heat on the tank besides the basking light which is a 75 watt.

I was using a supplement that I think does have D3 in it. I think it's called Repti-Cal. What should I be using instead?

I haven't fed him any rodents yet. He barely goes after superworms. He bites into them and tries to chew them but ends up deciding to go after something smaller and less crunchy like crickets.

Any ideas about the lunging thing he did?

 

[Butterflieslies]

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[DaveDragon]

How far away from the UVB light is he?? Florescent bulbs are only good up to about 12". Build a basking platform so he can get 8"-10" away from the UVB.

How old is the bulb? Florescent UVB bulbs are only good for 6-8 months.

 

[leoares27]

he may have lunged at your hand thinking it was a mouse...(dangling fingers look like food, especially if they smelled like anything good) mine jumps to try to get out of his enclosure and i always make sure i wash my hands REALLY good before i stick my hand in his house!
good luck

 

[Butterflieslies]

I am pretty certain I didn't smell like food. It was first thing when I woke up because I saw he was basking on top of my T-shirt he has in his cage. I hadn't fed anyone yet.

The tank I have him in currently is like 36Lx12Wx12H so I am pretty sure he's close enough to the UV. The UV though is on the right side of the cage by his water and he doesn't spend that much time over there. Should I move it to where the basking light is too? What calcium powder do you use, because I double checked and the powder I use is Rep-Cal and it does contain D3.

 

[Butterflieslies]

Update!

Today was the first day I used a feed box I put some superworms in a wormdish and put that in the feed box. I know I am not supposed to do this but I dug him out from under my T-shirt because I knew he hadn't eaten. I wanted to make sure he did because he's really skinny. So I took him out and he put up no fuss what-so-ever and allowed me to put him in the feed box. He wasn't sure what to do at first but then he noticed the moving worms. He went over to try some, he's never had superworms before. I think he was a bit overwhelmed by their size and the fact that they were fighting back. In the end he only decided to eat three big superworms, which due to his size probably made him very full. After removing the extra worms I put my hand in the box, flat, palm up. He came around and sniffed and then continued to try and find a way to get out of the feed box. I scooped him up after a little while, he didn't seem to mind, and just held him. I let him explore one had and then when he decided he wanted to expand his horizons I let him crawl onto my other hand. I only had one incident with the whole deal. As I was trying to put his back he made a jump for it and landed in my laundry. He didn't go anywhere though, maybe he recognized the scent since he has one of my T shirts. I just picked him up and put him back. He scampered off to hide back under my T-shirt.

During all observation of him today I witnessed absolutely no twitching. Not quite sure why.

 

[Butterflieslies]

Link to TK's first feed box meal!

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[Butterflieslies]

I didn't see him today... so I wasn't able to feed him today. Will he be alright if I feed him tomorrow?