Inland EmpireTegu Mentor

[bigmike]

I have a 10 month old Red Argentine Tegu. I have made pretty good progress with him but am having a few issues that have my family second guessing whether or not it is going to work out.

He used to be extremely hesitant with human interaction but this has improved. He has become very persistent with his desire to come out of his enclosure. He willingly comes out and is pretty receptive with regards to my interaction with him.

However when it is time to be put away he hisses, lunges, and fights it all the way. He wont let me pick him up and have to coax him onto the ramp for his cage and then carry that to the cage to put him away. Recently he bit my wife's toe, my sons hand, and my dogs paw.

Although I have made progress with him, if I cant improve this behavior I may have to find him a new home. I have spent allot of time and money on him and did my research before making my decision to purchase one for a pet.

I am looking for an experienced Tegu owner in my area that can come to my home and try to help me and/or educate me on how to resolve my issues.

I live in Riverside, Ca. and am willing to discuss compensation with someone who can help me resolve my issues.

[attachment=3588][attachment=3589]

 

[james.w]

What size cage is he in and what is his total length?

 

[bigmike]

What size cage is he in and what is his total length?

His cage is 6ft long x 3ft deep x 2ft high. He is just over 2 1/2 feet long.

 

[james.w]

Is he getting enough to eat? What are you feeding, how often, and how much?

 

[bigmike]

Is he getting enough to eat? What are you feeding, how often, and how much?

Mixture of raw turkey, chicken gizzards and hearts with calcium and vitamin supplements. He is eating about 5 ounces a day and the last few days that has slowed down. I place the food in his cage when I leave in the morning and he eats it slowly throughout the day. My wife is home so she keeps track. I also give him about 6 blueberries which sometimes he eats and sometime he doesn't.

 

[omgtaylorg]

this is kinda off subject but in that diet you should be giving him a whole prey item once a week, a rat for example...and for how much hes filled out in those pics 2 1/2ft long seems really really short for how big he looks

 

[spark678]

You should wear shoes and keep him away from other animals. And dont associate your hands with food.

 

[bigmike]

this is kinda off subject but in that diet you should be giving him a whole prey item once a week, a rat for example...and for how much hes filled out in those pics 2 1/2ft long seems really really short for how big he looks

He is probably closer to 3ft right now. Here are some additional pictures.

[attachment=3595][attachment=3596][attachment=3597]

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You should wear shoes and keep him away from other animals. And dont associate your hands with food.

I am doing actually already doing that. The food is placed in his cage before I go to work when it is dark and he is still asleep. After the toe incident everyone wears shoes ad yesterday was his second interaction with my dog and the first time he actually showed aggression towards her.

 

[TeguBuzz]

Tegu puberty.

 

[james.w]

Tegu puberty.

Definitely a possibility, just give it some time. Keep the tegu and dog separated and keep toes and fingers away from his mouth.

 

[slideaboot]

I agree. These guys are ALL ABOUT time. Not all of them are friendly "out of the box" like some can be. A TON of patience and good practices will pay off, eventually. Get some welding gloves, let your tegu come to you (it WILL happen, eventually). There are a ton of threads on here about getting tegus acclimated to you and handling. It could be months, but it's all worth it.

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

It just sounds to me like he wasn't ready to go back in his cage. Like a kid throwing a tantrum when they want to spend more time staying up late, outside or at the park.

As for the biting, how's his body language before he bites? Is it aggressive or more inquisitive? It could've been one or the other in each situation for different reasons, food, security and or territorial.

If it's food related it can easily be fixed by washing you hands and feeding him a little more or more often. Security or territorial will need more work. With the dog it's the first couple of times they've met so you should expect some issues with that from one or the other. You can work with it for a while to see if it gets better and they get use to each other or just keep them separated.

For now take it slow and don't let them get too close to each other. To where the tegu feels insecure or that it has to defend itself. It needs time to figure out that the dog is not a threat. At the same time watch your dogs behavior since it has already been shown aggression and bitten by it.

 

[bigmike]

Over the last couple of days Capone has wanted out of his cage more frequently and it he doesn't get out he digs up his substrate and kicks it all over how cage. Last night I had to move a small piece pod wood because he was using it to hang from the protective cage around his basking lamp.

Normally when I llet him out of his cage he climbs on my hand to my lap, and then to the floor. Tonight he bolted out over my hand and across the floor. Them about 10 minutes later I actually watched him chase my wife across the room.

She had flip flops on so I thought that may have been it. Could this all be part of Tegu Pubert?

 

[TeguBuzz]

He may feel threatened? Or he may be hungry and toes may look like food. I say let him be for a while. Never had a gu chase me around like a mad man.

 

[JohnMatthew]

It sounds like your GU is not very comfortable in his enclosure. It could be a problem with temperature, humidity, diet, substrate, parasites, lack of hides, visual stimuli(some require more privacy than others) or a number of other possibilities. It could be puberty related and he's just re-testing the "boundaries" of your relationship. I'd try to figure out a way to make him more at ease in his enclosure and keep handling/interaction to a minimum until after hibernation - maybe he'll sleep it off.

 

[Thumper]

Can u put up a picture of your enclosure?