Just got a tegu! adult female, but.... what is she?

[pouchedrat]

So I picked up an argentine black and white tegu female today from a woman rehoming her. Beautiful, lovely, friendly, huge, but one thing seemed off. I remember while researching long and hard (we were planning on getting a baby this summer but this girl came up instead) I remember the whole "colombian vs. argentine" tegu debates and how you can tell them apart via the nostral scale.

Well... hers is like, singular. on both sides.

I'm such a newbie.... oh well. At least she's a sweetheart, colombian or argentine!

 

[chitodadon]

Of there is no spots on the head she is a argentine

from Samsung Galaxy S3

 

[TeguBuzz]

That's an argentine. Congrats on the new addition.

 

[dragonmetalhead]

Argentine without question. Colombians are more pointy-faced and sleek by comparison.

 

[pouchedrat]

Thanks!! Like I said, newbie. I figured she was, but it felt like every thread I'd come across would be about "hey look at my argentine!" and someone would note the scales on the nose and tell them it was a colombian instead. I just wanted to confirm since that is what I adopted her as. Plus I ran into some images while searching for "adult columbian tegu" that looked VERY much like an argentine! It seems like adult images are hard to come by for the smaller species.

She is absolutely amazing btw. She comes to the side of her enclosure when I walk nearby. I'm definitely going to have to have serious hours-long bonding time with her

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

Congrats on the new tegu and welcome to the site. Like previously stated she's definitely an argentine. The quickest way to tell the difference between argentines, colombians or goldens is the spots in side the scales on their head. Where argentines scales are usually one solid color (or outlined), red, black, white or what ever. The others will have yellow, white or gold scales with black spots or speckles in them.

Loreal scales vary from one to the next some have one scale on one side and two on the other.

 

[james.w]

Are you sure its a female??

 

[pouchedrat]

Well, she was adopted out as an adult female, and from what I can tell from trying to sex them, that's what she is.

She also escaped yesterday from her temp cage. She was able to reach the top and pull off the hardware cloth I had nailed on.. It's a little under 6 feet x 4 feet x 22" high, but since she was in hibernation I figured it'd be ok until we got her permanent enclosure in. I had to put multiple layers of cloth on and nailed it down every inch or so to be super-sure, and half is covered up to hopefully keep humidity up.

Anyway, her cage is in the basement (there's a floor panel heat emitter and two lamps with ceramic bulbs, two with mercury vapor, and UV lights all across for light cycles, but I'm keeping it cool and all the wattages are LOW just spread out across one side), and when I found her she was underneath a pile of laundry, so she probably needed to burrow. I threw a bunch of fleece in with her last night (she did all this LATE at night) and she burrowed underneath it and hasn't moved since. She also wouldn't eat, but seemed on the move and was digging a lot. I think adopting her while she was in hibernation threw her off....... so definitely going to let her be until she's ready to come out. Hopefully I'll have her permanent cage by then. Hoping to order the taller version of the boamaster 8 footer with tax return money. Either that or the 10 foot retic one, since I need a cage for my savannah baby eventually as well (whichever I get, I'm getting two to stack).

I COULD build them, but honestly after what she did last night, I'm more comfortable having someone ELSE do the work and just pay for it, LOL! I also managed to break the glass panels on TWO doors to another cage last night....... I let go of the door and it slammed shut and shattered, then while laying it on it's back and trying to nail on hardware cloth at 1AM last night so I wouldn't have ANOTHER escapee, I stupidly put my knee through the glass on the second door!!!!!!! gahh... just a bad night all around.

this is what you get when you adopt a full grown lizard underprepared. We were planning on buying the adult cages, then buying a baby come summertime, but someone local had an adult they were rehoming and I was all "OK!" Yeah.... but she's amazing, and definitely down for the winter again.

 

[chitodadon]

They are escape artist mine ripped his screen top and got out too yesterday

from Samsung Galaxy S3

 

[TegusRawsome80]

Premade cages are terrible for monitors. I would suggest building a custom cage that will hold 2+ feet of substrate for your baby Savannah monitor

 

[pouchedrat]

Premade cages are terrible for monitors. I would suggest building a custom cage that will hold 2+ feet of substrate for your baby Savannah monitor

True. trust me, I've been reading up on it all. I know they need a ton of dirt (his tank currently is over 50% sand/substrate mix, with a huge bowl of water big enough for him to completely submerge in.. and that's where he spends most of his time). I've been checking up on all the how-to cage building for monitors long before I got the sav baby, and have built enclosures previously, just not for a large and strong lizard. I think these recent mishaps have made me incredibly nervous about DIY.... I'm not trusting myself now. I think my first step should probably be buying a heavy duty window instead of ordering large panes of glass, and build around it. But like I said, very nervous....

 

[TegusRawsome80]

If he spends most of his time in his water the cage probably isn't humid enough.

 

[pouchedrat]

If he spends most of his time in his water the cage probably isn't humid enough.

his fave water bowl is underneath the heat lamp... I know they need high humidity as well compared to what most care sheets and dealers will tell you... kind of like how sulcatta need high humidity and most don't get it because people think "desert" animal even though they're burrowers. that and savs aren't from sandy deserts.

he has two heat lamps set up, temps rise about 110-120 under the lamps, I try to disperse heat around so it's not concentrated in one single spot. But he enjoys it in the water bowl directly underneath.

 

[james.w]

Can you post some pics of your sav and tegu enclosures? The boamaster will NOT work for an adult Sav. Maybe for a tegu, but I don't really like them for that either.

 

[chitodadon]

Sonhow would two 6 ft long vision cages stacked on top of each other made into one tank

from Samsung Galaxy S3

 

[SnakeCharmr728]

If your monitor is spending most of its time in the water dish directly below the light, I would move the dish elsewhere so he can be below the heat... Its not in a savannahs natural behavior to be soaking in the dish. They dont do it unless the husbandry is missing something, unlike niles and water monitors will spend a great deal in the water...
I would bump his basking temp up to 135-140, and give him as much substrate as possible, even if you have to rig up some boards to place in front of the doors to hold the dirt in. then make the substrate damp enough to clump when you squeeze it in your hand. If theres any air vents, seal em up. This will greatly improve your humidity.

I know you didnt ask for monitor care advice, so Im sorry if its stepping on toes, but I run a rescue for monitors so this is just what I do. Hope this helps.

 

[pouchedrat]

This image is a over a month old, there are now two heat lamps on top. 40 gallon breeder, the savannah was 12 inches and now is getting to 14 inches long. I want to get the adult cages done or purchased or whatever within the next couple months so I can move them in immediately. I did the tegu and cage acquirement backwards, I WANTED to get the adult cage FIRST before getting a baby in the summer, but decided to go with getting a rehome who was local but was in hibernation.

I'll get new photos whenever it's not 5AM and everyone's asleep.

/edit- oh and the sav's dug up the thing big time since this pic was taken

I use disposable plastic bowls for water since he uses it as a bathroom and also kicks dirt in it. I get them free from work in huge stacks, and toss them out when needed. They're lids we don't use for large cheesecake platters

 

[SnakeCharmr728]

If you level it out a bit more so that it puts the surface closer to the basking bulb and use a flat rock, the dirt and the wood dont hold the heat so it makes it pretty impossible to get a surface temperature that is high enough. the rock will hold the heat. What is your ratio of sand and soil? it looks really sandy....

 

[pouchedrat]

If you level it out a bit more so that it puts the surface closer to the basking bulb and use a flat rock, the dirt and the wood dont hold the heat so it makes it pretty impossible to get a surface temperature that is high enough. the rock will hold the heat. What is your ratio of sand and soil? it looks really sandy....

today's pic, bit too wet at pic time, just misted and replaced the water bowl..

I think it was 1 bag sand to 2 bags dirt, but I'll admit it isn't mixed very well.

I stuck a second bowl for water on the opposite side of the tank just now to see how it goes, although I need to bury it, I just threw it in and took a pic lol.

I never thought of placing a rock in there. I mostly keep tarantulas and a few snakes and lizards, only now getting into the larger species with the monitor and tegu (and honestly they're going to be my only large species). I just remember so often everyone telling you NOT to place rocks in any enclosures because if they dig underneath it, it could collapse on them and crush them. I guess I have that drilled into my head and didn't think it'd ever be ok for any species. All of my final tarantulas' enclosures have foam and great stuff sculpted and painted to look like rocks, and any wood is permanently affixed, so there's zero chance of anything collapsing.

---

I should probably mention I'm a bit cage obsessed. If something's inappropriate, I'll try to go above and beyond to fix it. I don't want to do the final cages until I'm 100% certain about what to do. So far I've watched a TON of build videos and looked at a ton of threads since early last year when I decided to get a sav (and didn't get him until late fall when I was CERTAIN what I was getting into, but of course that doesn't always work either. Everything I thought I was going to do I wound up questioning), but I was hoping to save time by buying a cage. If the 8 x 3 x 30" and the 10 x 4 x 30" are both not good enough for an adult female argentine tegu nor sav, I guess I'll have to do a build anyway for both cages....

I'm trying to not take things personally, as I know you guys just really care about the animals in question and don't know me from any other newbie who comes by. It's just been a VERY VERY long time since I've felt like a complete newb to any animal forum, lol... I forgot what it was like to take it

 

[james.w]

Your Sav cage is all wrong. Savs NEED deep substrate, a high basking spot temp and 50-80% humidity throughout the cage. You can't get the in a small aquarium with a screen top. If you did your research you should have already known these things. Get a 8*4*4 enclosure ASAP for the Sav. If it is a female you will definitely need to have deep enough dirt so she has a place to lay eggs. My Sav grew to 30" in 7 months or so. You will have a severely dehydrated monitor on your hands if you don't get things fixed quickly.