I rescued a tegu...

[Trede]

A friend told me about a tegu that needed adoption. Previous owner had little information. I was told she is a female black and white tegu, approximately 3 years old. I'm building an enclosure, but in the mean time she has a 5x5.5 closet all to herself. Not defensive or acting threatened, but I'm just letting her bask and have some space for now. She was last fed about 3 days ago, so I left a hard boiled egg and a small amount of turkey mixed with liver and giblets in a small bowl next to her water. Looks like she has some stuck shed on her tail; possibly a couple layers near the end. Every few minutes, the tongue starts going and she explores a little bit, repositions under the heat. Any advice on how long to let her be, whether she is Argentine or Columbian, etc is welcome. Pictures attached

. She's laying on one of my shirts.

What kind of tegu do you have? Unknown
How old is your tegu?
Unknown, estimate given was 3yrs
How large is your tegu?
I'd estimate around 3.5'
What is the sex of your tegu?
Female?
How long have you had your tegu?
Just rescued today
Does your tegu brumate or hibernate?
Unknown
What size enclosure do you have?
Was too small; now 5'x5.5'
What kind of substrate is used?
EcoEarth
What kind of UVB do you use (brand and coil vs bulb vs tube)?
Powersun. Previous is unknown
What is the wattage of your bulb?
100w
How old is your bulb?
New
How far away is the UVB?
About 14"
Do you use a separate bulb for heat? What is the wattage?
CHE, 100w
What are the temps (basking and cool side)? Cool is 78ish. Basking 98ish
What do you use to measure the temps?
IR temp probe thing
What is your humidity? What do you use to measure it?
60ish. Digital Hygrometer
What do you feed your tegu?
Turkey and eggs and mice were her entire diet I was told...
How often do you feed and what time do you feed (morning, afternoon, night)?
Was told about twice a week
Do you use vitamin or calcium supplements? What brand(s)? How many days a week do you use each of them?
Unknown, assuming none
Does your tegu have regular BM's?
Unknown
Have you gotten a vet check and fecal done?
Scheduled
Does your tegu share and enclosure with another tegu?
Nope

 

[N8bub]

She's very dark, very pretty, and very argentine. 2 loreal scales between the nostril and eye is the best way to tell for sure and that's what I see. Give her a day or so to settle and see if she wants out . Did the previous owner handle her much? Anyway congratulations on your new friend!

 

[Trede]

Previous owner didn't handle her a whole lot. She had a basking/heat light, but no UVB. All meat diet. She's a complete sweetheart, though. Support her front and back legs, and she doesn't even squirm while being held. She decided to explore a bit, drank quite a bit of water, and decided to BM (smaller than I expected for a reptile of her size...), so she got a bath which she tolerated with no complaints. I just checked on her again and she's burrowed in to a couple of old sweatshirts I put in the corner of her area. She opened her eyes for about 5 seconds then just went back to sleep...didn't even flinch when I removed some of the old skin from her tail that was finally starting to loosen, so I'll probably repeat the tub soaks daily for at least a couple of days. Even when she wasn't napping, she didn't show a lot of signs of being stressed...spent most of her day alternating between actively looking around her new area and flopping under the UVB. One question that did come up...is it normal for tegus to..."chuff"? It was definitely not a hiss, sounded like a cross between a sneeze a cough and a sigh. No discharge...she just did it a couple of times while she was exploring.

 

[Rebecca Stout]

The chuff is a sort of "leave me alone" thing. It can mean irritation/anger, or a warning of sorts, or possibly stress. BUT, they also chuff for very benign reasons. Mine will do it once in a while if I want to take her out of her blankee or something. In time you'll be able to tell if yours is like mine that occasional chuffs just because (its like a wave of the hand to someone like they are saying "Mrrr. I don't feel like being petted or picked up right now", or because they are indeed irritated.

 

[sage]

I don't know if you were looking for info like this but you could probably put the light closer than 14 inches, the uvb isn't very strong at that distance and the basking spot could go up a little

 

[Trede]

Thanks for the insights! She explored a lot more yesterday, roaming around my bedroom and through the kitchen with her tongue going like mad. She even wandered directly over to me a few times. Still hasn't eaten anything, but I'm not too worried about it. She has what looks to be an appropriate amount of "tail chub." If she hasn't eaten by the time I take her to the vet on Thursday, I'm sure he'll have some suggestions.

 

[Josh]

Kudos on adopting! She looks great!!

 

[Trede]

Just an update, I took Talia (I named her too, by the way ) to the vet for a checkup. Clean bill of health except for the stuck shed bits. When I asked the vet, he said it's not terribly uncommon for them to just decide to go semi-dormant. Since her daily routine involves basking for about an hour, maybe peeing every other day, then sleeping for 23 hours, he said if she hasn't eaten anything by the beginning of January, I should see what I can do to stimulate her appetite. Other than that, every few days if I "catch" her awake, I've been taking her to the tub which she usually sits in for about 10-20 minutes before getting antsy.

I was mildly surprised how well she did at the vet. I'm pretty sure every person who was there, working or bringing pets, took at least one picture of her. Most of them pet her. If anything, she just seemed curious. Even when the vet turned her over briefly to check her belly, she didn't thrash around a lot or make angry noises...just wiggled uncomfortably. I'm just hoping when she decides to be more active, she continues to be that even tempered.

 

[Rebecca Stout]

This is great. I especially loved hearing about the vet visit

 

[Jacobhreptiles]

I honestly think that it looks like a male. Just such a big head on it. Just saying but beautiful lizard

 

[SamBobCat]

I honestly think that it looks like a male. Just such a big head on it. Just saying but beautiful lizard

I second this. Amazing looking tegu though. Loving the black body and head. Congrats and lucky you for rescuing one that's already so tame!!

 

[Trede]

I second this. Amazing looking tegu though. Loving the black body and head. Congrats and lucky you for rescuing one that's already so tame!!

I'm hoping she's not just so laid back because she's sleeping 22+ hours a day...

She finally ate yesterday...too bad it was exactly one hard boiled egg. No further interest in food. She did quite a bit of exploring though...

Fun fact: an adult tegu is capable of being as fast as a housecat...at least for a short distance. My cat was curious and sniffed the tegu, which earned him a tongueslap to the face. This time, instead of running, he just looked at the tegu and meowed. Really loud. Three times (My cat has never been the brightest of creatures...). On the third meow, the tegu raised up off the floor and chased the cat to the end of the hallway. I wish I had been able to video tape it.
Funniest. Thing. EVER.

 

[Rebecca Stout]

These things never happen when you have a camera!

 

[Trede]

Well, today the ground turkey/gizzards/liver mixture finally looked tempting, apparently. The bowl that the previous owner gave me for feeding proved to be...less than ideal. I ended up helping out by spoon feeding a tegu. Zero aggression, very gently took the food and ate. I would guess the amount at around double the aforementioned egg. Progress is progress!