Im so glad my tegu has low food cost.

[Neeko]

Turkey at costco is cheap, the fish oil stuff last a while. Cage from CL and lamps from Lowes. Online for bulbs. Compared to other pets ive had over the years. It pretty low cost. When im building my own enclosure ive seen 8x4x3-4 enclosure blue prints for 150 and under. Anyone else thanksful to have such an awesome pet for a pretty low cost of up keep with some do-it-yourself projects on the side.

 

[james.w]

Wait until it is 3-4' and is eating 5-6 rats at a time. It gets expensive if you do it right.

 

[chelvis]

I have to admit compared to some of the pets i have had tegus are fairly easy cost wise. He eats alot of the same i do. Groung turkey = taco night for me, talapia ant bad grilled, chicken breat stuffed a broiled, and fruit smoothies yum yum. All the raw ingridants make for some good eats on both tegu and human ends. I do give mice and what not but thats still not too bad now that his 4 yrs old.

 

[Rhetoric]

I too eat a lot of the same foods as the tegus. It helps if you stock up when meats are on sale. I'm always checking to see which stores have the best deals on meats.

 

[turtlepunk]

cool how much is the turkey at costco? I STILL have to get a membership card.

 

[herpgirl2510]

I was am going to a mostly whole prey diet so it is going to be pretty expensive for my two guys.

 

[carcharios]

Our local GIANT supermarket in Lusby, MD carries chicken neck packages that run about a dollar for an entire carton - each carton has about 15 to 20 necks. One chicken neck is about the size of a large mouse and my tegus can take down a whole neck at a time, bones and all.

I've reversed two severe cases of MBD now using this food and what I've noticed is that when they're initially suffering from it, they absorb the calcium from the bones and you won't see it in their stool, but as they begin to recuperate, you begin to see more and more calcium phosphate dust in their stool. Notice I said "dust"? They literally digest the bone and release a powdery output which has the consistency of chalk.

My newest tegu, "No-name", which I got in late May, early June came to me in very bad form. His lower jaw was rubbery and had a brown crust on it. His head was misshapen and his body growth had beed stunted. He could barely walk and was shoveling his legs along his sides to get around. I can't believe the turn-around that I've seen after about 1.5 months of being outdoors and eating the necks.

I know many of you supplement turkey meat with vitamin / mineral supplements but it's so much easier just giving them chicken necks (or backs) and in the wild, this would be more similar to the food they consume anyway. Why worry about getting the calcium to phosphate ratios correct when you can just give them real bone to digest which has already been formulated by mother nature? And for any of you out there who are worried about your tegu not being able to digest the bone, trust me, I've fed all three of my tegus chicken necks now for over three years and I've NEVER seen a solid bone emerge in their stool - just powder.

 

[rrcoolj]

^In the wild tegus probably eat much more food items that fill every nutritional "niche". I didn't know MBD was reversible. I always thought once they had it there was not turning back. Do you mean they were able to live a normal life or they recovered to looking normal? And I thought MBD was cause by lack of UVB not lack of calcium. I doubt I could find chicken necks in my area anyway but it sounds like a good idea.


Tegus are not easy to feed amount wise but I agree that because they can eat so many different things it makes them easy to find and supply food for them.

 

[chelvis]

MBD is caused by a lack of avalible calcium. This can be becuase there is no D3 in the system from no UV. UVB is needed to hit special cells in the skin to prodice D3, humans are the same way. The D3 then helps absorb the Ca into the system and help with making sure its deposited to bones and nerves (well that was really simply put but you get the idea). Two things typically happen with MBD Ca is in a hard to digest form, such as some powders and supplements (new ones are getting better) and UVB is not avalible in the amount needed to produce D3. If both things are correct a mild case of MBD can be treated and sometimes reversed. Mild being, slight bowing of long bones, slight amoung of shaking. Server cases such as bowing of the back or twisting of the long bone can not be fixed with UVB and Ca alone, most of the time surgery to repair the bones or splits are needed. Think of MBD similar to Rickets in humans. The reason why chicken necks work so well is the Ca in them are easy to absorb, its bone somthing tegus have evloved to diguest. Mice also have bone for Ca but mose cases of MBD are seen in growing animals that can not take a mouse or rat where the size of the prey animals has mature bone.


Sorry for all that. Just figured that could help with some food choices. I'm actully going to town today to do a tegu and myself food run. There is a fronzen Dog/cat food that is just groun organ meat, meat and bone that my tegu loves... rabbit is his favorite so low in fat. Warning on the chicken necks, just like with mice you have to watch how much is fed as they are higher in fat than what is in the wild. Obesity seems to be a trend in older tegus.

 

[carcharios]

The chicken necks I feed them are actually pretty low in fat compared to the other meats. In fact, I would say that the necks consist of about 50% bone and 50% meat and the meat is very lean with little fat striations visible. Again, if you're worried about the bones not being digested, don't be. They come out the other end as a very fine powder - and if you don't see any powder in their stool, it probably means that they were deficient.

My two tegus who were MBD reversed exhibited slight twitching, they were shuffling along on the ground rather than walking with their bodies held high off the ground, their eye lids drooped, shortened body, and one's head was deformed and his bottom jaw was covered with yellowish scabs. Within about 4 or 5 weeks, I'd have to say that all of the symptoms went away - don't forget that they also live outdoors where they get natural sunlight.

I agree that full blown MBD is probably irreversible but both of my tegus were pretty bad and both recovered to the point that you can't tell that they ever had it. I'm going to have to post some before and after pics one of these days just to prove my point. Really amazing what happens when you give them food that they would normally eat in the wild and proper sunlight.

 

[laurarfl]

I started feeding chicken necks, too. I can only get them at grocery stores that cut their own chicken. They are cheap, but one package is a meal for all my guys. I do take off the skin where all the fat and yuckies would be stored.

 

[Toby_H]

I typically pay $3 per lb for Tegu food... and my large adult male eats about 1/4 lb meals every 3rd day.

When shopping for whole prey I divide the average weight of each prey item by the price and determine a price per gram, then buy the cheapest per gram...

Also, take time to talk to the butcher at your preferred grocery store. I've gotten quite a bit of meat extremely cheap because it was near the end of it's shelf life. I do not suggest feeding spoiled meat to your Tegu, but keepign in mind Tegus are designed/evolved to eat scavenged meat, something a couple of days past shelf life by human standards is good eating by tegu standards.

 

[carcharios]

laurafl,
At giant, the necks come with the skin already removed. I guess a little fat wouldn't hurt them though. I also supplement their diet with eggs every third feeding or so. They really love eggs and I try to purchase the healthier varieties at the store.

I've never done this but was thinking about it recently. We recently visited the Lakota Wolf Reserve in Northwestern NJ and they feed their wolves deer road-kill if it is found fresh. I've sometimes wondered how my tegus would take down a fresh road-kill squirrel. At the moment, I've only seen my tegus consume food that was bite-size. Can tegus eat food that is bigger than their mouth? Do they tear it apart with their claws and shake pieces of flesh free with their mouths like a Komodo Dragon or would they simply give up on it if it were too big to fit in their mouth?

 

[james.w]

I would worry about parasites with any sort of roadkill.

 

[carcharios]

Well, I kind of found my answer today. As it turned out, my cat killed a medium sized rabbit and decapitated it. I found it by my garage door this morning. Not wanting to waste it, I gave the head to my smaller tegu, Diego, and the body to Frieda.

First off, Diego crushed the head in her mouth - literally flattened the skull, compressing into a wafer sized meal. I NEVER knew her jaws were that strong.

Then it was Frieda's turn. I kept thinking she would tear off pieces like a monitor using her forelimbs or shake junks off like an alligator. Not the case. She actually engulfed the entire body. I couldn't believe she could actually fit a rabbit down her hatch, but within about 3 minutes, it was gone.

So I never got to see if they would tear pieces off because both tegus were surprisingly able to completely swallow their meals.