Hibernation, or just angry tegu?

[tresh]

Our baby tegu is from the 2011 Varnyard stock. She's been a wonderful lizard up til recently. I know that tegus are supposed to go into hibernation. We've been leaving her alone more, we made her bedding deeper, given her the opportunity to do what she wants. She showed signs for awhile of wanting to hibernate, she only came out once every few days for about 2 weeks, but now she has gone into this new phase for the last few weeks, where she comes out about once a day.

We haven't turned off the light, because with it being so cold here, we don't want to accidentally hurt her.

What we've got happening is this: a very angry aggressive tegu coming out of her burrow about once a day, drinking large amounts of water, eating what amounts to probably half her body weight (4 fuzzies, and usually a whole bunch of grasshoppers/crickets). She's being handled, but she's extremely angry when being handled, tail-whipping, snapping, trying to bite clothing and skin. She's gotten my finger once, my husband's fingers twice. Basically, she went from being this docile lizard that loved to curl up with us, to being this wild-child that only comes out about once a day, with a huge huge appetite.

Part of our problem is that she's coming out extremely hungry. We started putting a dish of crickets or mealworms in her cage with her, because she tends to get up in the middle of the night, and she wreaks havoc on her cage if she doesn't have something to eat. We feed her her fuzzies by holding her and feeding her with tongs. So do I need to be putting her in a smaller cage/enclosure to feed her? It started out when she was small, she had issues finding the food, so we used the tongs, but now that she's bigger, maybe her aggression is because of the food?

What we don't understand is why she's so hungry. Should we be feeding her more? She's not even 5 months yet, but she actually seems to eat several fuzzies a day along with crickets, mealworms, and grasshoppers. We buy the canned grasshoppers, and she can actually eat an entire can of them in one meal! She can eat two cooked eggs in one sitting. We vary her diet.

We want to be able to do what needs to be done for her, but we don't know enough about lizard care to know what to do. Should we start turning off her light?

Info about her cage:
40 gallon Zilla breeder tank
ForestFloor Mulch bedding
Conditions in the middle of the cage:
Temp: 75
Humidity: 55-60 (turned the humidifier up a notch, we know this should be higher)

She's got a large burrow underneath the heat rock (no, she doesn't sleep on the rock, she sleeps under it, we can just see the end of her tail).

But like I said...we're not sure what we should be doing. We've always left the light on, but with being first time reptile owners...we're trying to do what care sheets tell us.

 

[naturboy87]

ok well i have rased 3 tegus and em raseing 1 now at the moment . 2 of them have ben rescues my current boy and girl . i have seen a high of agreshion frum my juviniles durring the teen stage go figur . so i alwase have became alfa over my agresive gus . like during handling is he or she has as aditude i will not let them back down untill he has calmed down and understands that ther not going to win this seems to be the testing stage he or she will try their hardest to scare and intimidate you . seeing how much thay can get away with . for the biteing i like a wood pencil put in the mouth side wase like a bridle until he she has no desire to have their mouth open at all i do this and my gu"s do not bite at all after a week of two of this traning . and for most part my yung tegus dont hibernat much rather eat like crazy like u have sed and grow like crazy .

 

[james.w]

What is her total length? I would not recommend to force handle her. Feed her as much as she will eat, and just spend time in and around the enclosure showing you are not a threat. Move substrate around, spot clean, change the water, even just sit with you hand/arm in the enclosure for 10-15 minutes.

When you say "heat rock", are you using one of the rocks that you plug in? Those are extremely dangerous and can burn your tegu. What are your basking temps and what are you using for UVB?

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

How big is she and how often do you feed her? If she's eating 4 fuzzies (I take it those are mice) with extras and finishing all of it,.. then she's not getting enough food. She should be on hoppers, weaned mice or rat fuzzies. You can look at her abdomen before and after she eats to help determine in the future how much food to prepare.

When they're full their stomach is plump and the skin is tight as they digest their food and after they poop a fold of skin starts to develop. How much of a fold will give you an idea of how much they'll be able to eat in one setting. Small fold; if I offer anything at all it's something light and easy or quick to digest like a little meat mix with fruit, or insects something like that. Prominent fold; That stands out more or there may even be two then I offer appropriate sized whole prey with something extra on the side,.. sometimes.

Right now Korben is a 9mth old Colombian and he's at 2 small rat pups once a week or every other, with a mix in between. He'll come out to eat about every 3 or 4 days for now. Natsuki 4yr old (B&W) takes 1 med/large rat twice a month with meat mixes and other whole prey in between. Right now he's eating once a week so they're decent sized meals when he does eat.

To give you an idea, this was Natsukis meal on the 14th of this month, Korben had rat pups. 2chicks, 1 weaned rat that one of my snakes didn't take and blueberry turkey. He left a little turkey but that's fine,.. Korben ate it a few days later.

Leave the lights on until you're sure she's actually hibernating. I don't know if you use a timer or not but the only thing I would change for now is how long the lights are on. Right now mine are set at 8hrs on and 16 off which changes with the seasons. They're both usually gone by 4 o'clock when they come out so I might cut the day time hours back a little more next month.

 

[tresh]

This is the most recent picture I have of her, from two weeks ago. This was right before she shed. She's been doing major sheds every couple of weeks.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/tresh/319695_2542551853460_1543627865_4581596_1701927616_n.jpg

So, we might not be feeding her enough? Alright, we'll move up to feeding her larger mice. She's been having no issues eating the fuzzies and passing stool, so we can try that.

The lighting we use is the exo-terra solar glow 125 w bulb.

The rock is a plug in one, yes. it is small, and she doesn't sleep on it, she prefers to sleep under it. I don't think she ever actually lays out on it at all. Most of the time, she's burrowed underneath it.

She hasn't come out to eat yet today, but when she does, I'll get some good pictures of her to show how she looks and how her enclosure looks.

 

[james.w]

With a 125W and a heat rock it is probably too hot in there. She looks like she is way to big for a 40 breeder. Being in too small of a cage can cause aggression.

 

[tresh]

We've been looking for a larger cage. We're not wanting to put her back in a glass cage like what we have now, we're trying to find an enclosurd and both myself and my husband lack the skill to build one. So we're trying to find something close to a 75 or 100 gallon to keep her in until we find someone who either has a reptile enclosure they are selling, or can make one for us.

We figured that the 40 gallon was getting too small for her, and we have had her out on a leash and letting her explore, but lately she's just been so cranky/fussy, she won't even let us try to put the leash on her to let her wander around.

 

[james.w]

Where are you from?

 

[tresh]

Currently we're in Norfolk, VA. We're military, so we only recently got stationed here.

 

[james.w]

I ask because you may be able to find someone on here that could help you build one that is close to you.

 

[tresh]

She came out a few moments ago, so I took some pictures while my husband was feeding her. And no, her water is not actually green. >.< She made a mess in it at some point today, so this was before we pulled it out to scrub it down.

~~~~~

And these are all really good pictures of her being held by my husband as we're feeding her:

 

[TeguBuzz]

Are you only feeding rodents? Get some ground turkey and other meats in there. Rodents aren't the greatest staple. Word of advice: take the heat rock out, if your gu likes it so much, cut the cord off and leave the rock in the enclosure, the slightest burn can cause problems. Just some simple advice, either take it or leave it. On a side note, that's a good looking gu.

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

At that size she should have been off of fuzzies a long time ago. She may be able to take rat pups or small mice, something with more bone structure which she needs.

 

[tresh]

oh gosh, we feed her plenty of other things. She won't tolerate fruit or veggies yet, but we mostly live on turkey ourselves, so I've gotten into the habit of chopping off a chunk before we cook or season it, powdering it with the vitamins that Bob suggested when we got her. She gets a lot of mealworms, crickets, grasshoppers, and a dried insect mix. We're not quite ready to go for the raising of live food for her, like crickets, but we definitely give her variety. She loves the grasshoppers. most of what we get her is in the can. She seems to love anything "juicy" for lack of a better word.

We actually found a pet store recently, Animal Jungle, in Virginia Beach (on a side note, that place is so worth visiting. they have a nile monitor that's nearly 100 pounds, and damn was it the biggest lizard we had ever seen!), had everything we could have wanted, and at a really good price. We finally got a freezer just for her food, so we have plenty of fuzzies. Now that I know she needs them though, we'll step up to feeding her larger stuff. I guess we just didn't want her to choke or get sick from eating too large things.

I'm glad to know that she looks healthy to you folks. We're trying our best with her, and it's a learning process for us, definitely.

---

Oh, and I'm not ignoring you about the heat rock. When we get her new enclosure, and have it set up, the rock won't be in there. We're going to get it set up a bit better so she can get closer to the heatsource, and thus won't need the rock. Once we get her new enclosure, her entire setup will change. She liked sitting on the limb in there when she was little, but she hasn't touched it in months, so that's going out. We're thinking about getting a slate setup, where she can hide under, and climb up if she wants. She still seems to love climbing for some reason, lol.

 

[TeguBuzz]

Well I guess it was all a misinterpretation of the text . I hope it all works as planned in the end.