Let me know.

[psychocircus91]

As some of you have seen, my chacoan tegu yearling is coming next week. I wanted to verify that everything is set and am open to suggestions.

I am doing a closet enclosure. I am laying down a tarp and will provide substrate. It is 6x6xvery tall
The ambiant humidity is 62% and that is before adding substrate with moisture, so I am not concerned.

I have a powersun 100 watt, another basking bulb of 150 watt which i am hanging from a shelf. I also have a fixture for a florescent uvb tube but it sounds like I won't need it with the powersun.

I have a cat litter box for a hide which I plan to make extra humid.
I have a 3x1.5 bin for water.

I also purchased a calcium supplement.

Am I missing anything? Thanks.

 

[psychocircus91]

Also has anyone ever purchased a yearling from a breeder? I'm wondering if he will be much harder to tame down? Johnny said all of his tegus are handled, but I'm sure it's not to the extent that many of you handle.

 

[laurarfl]

I have worked with several older tegus. My first tegu was 4yo and tame but very cage aggressive. She is much better in that regard and is my primary tegu for educational shows. Then I purchased a yearling red from Bobby Hill that had been purchased as a hatchling and returned. He had some handling and was very easy to work with. Next was Charlie, a 3yo (I think) red male that had a rough background from TegusAreAwesome. TAA had rescued him and was working with Charlie, but he was not exactly a super tame tegu. Charlie is friendly and will hang out with me outside, but doesn't like to be petted or carried. You can tell he still has that little bit of mistrust waaaayyyy back there. I can hand feed him, but I can't touch him, lol. And now I have a yearling coming tomorrow that apparently has a bit of attitude.

So, it is not too hard to work with yearling tegus. They are young enough to make a good impression. I'm sure Johnny has treated them well. I heard from someone who bought one recently and they had good things to say.

The enclosure settings look good. I've never set up a closet enclosure, so can't comment too much on that. I would be sure to have a reliable temp gun or digital thermometer so you can get a good reading and set the height of the lamps at a proper distance.

 

[psychocircus91]

Thanks for sharing! I plan to bathe my tegu every day (assuming he allows me). If so should I ditch the huge water tub and just give him a medium sized water bowl? It seems to take up a lot of space and I want to give my guy a lot of room

 

[Dubya]

[attachment=6636] (ahem)

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

If humidity is kept up with then they don't need a bath daily a big bin or bowl for soaking. Some don't like to or even use them for that anyway.

 

[Dubya]

I used to put a big water basin in Gwangi's enclosure, but all he ever did was throw dirt into it. Never bathed. I keep humidity up though. Now I just give him a big regular bowl. If you want to avoid mold in your closet enclosure, if I were you, I would line the walls with something waterproof like maybe Coroplast or something. Your tegu might eventually scratch through the tarp on the bottom, allowing water between the tarp and floor. I do not think the closet thing is a good idea. It may be better to build a complete waterproof enclosure that fits the closet closely and slides into it.

 

[laurarfl]

Hmmm...difficult call. The only reason I bathe my tegus is to have them poo before they come into my house or go to an event. Mine do soak in their water tubs. I don't use a big one, though. It is bigger than a shoe box, but a tub you would use for a small snake rack.

 

[BatGirl1]

I have a flat tote thing from walmart as a swim tub and two water bowls plus moist peat that I water w a garden sprinkler thing (hand held) plus i have a fogger going. I couldn't imagine having to wash mildew from a closet. Hmmm look at it like a bathroom without mildew proof paint. It will be hard work. Under the substrate too will get nasty. I think if it were a dry climate animal yeah. But given it has to be so humid etc i agree with building something water resistant.

 

[psychocircus91]

I used to put a big water basin in Gwangi's enclosure, but all he ever did was throw dirt into it. Never bathed. I keep humidity up though. Now I just give him a big regular bowl. If you want to avoid mold in your closet enclosure, if I were you, I would line the walls with something waterproof like maybe Coroplast or something. Your tegu might eventually scratch through the tarp on the bottom, allowing water between the tarp and floor. I do not think the closet thing is a good idea. It may be better to build a complete waterproof enclosure that fits the closet closely and slides into it.

Hmmm...difficult call. The only reason I bathe my tegus is to have them poo before they come into my house or go to an event. Mine do soak in their water tubs. I don't use a big one, though. It is bigger than a shoe box, but a tub you would use for a small snake rack.

I have a flat tote thing from walmart as a swim tub and two water bowls plus moist peat that I water w a garden sprinkler thing (hand held) plus i have a fogger going. I couldn't imagine having to wash mildew from a closet. Hmmm look at it like a bathroom without mildew proof paint. It will be hard work. Under the substrate too will get nasty. I think if it were a dry climate animal yeah. But given it has to be so humid etc i agree with building something water resistant.

Thanks for the tips guys. I'm aware of the risk of mold, but like I said the humidity is consistently at 62% as is and I only plan to raise it to 68-70% I can't imagine that would cause too much of a problem.
I may look into some water proofer though.
As for the tarp, those things are pretty tough, but again I'll keep an eye out.

I'm gonna give it a go and if problems arise, I have no problem building an enclosure. Plus it will only be my problem, not the Tegus.

I want the closet enclosure for a few reasons. The obvious one is space and convenience. I can make space elsewhere, but this would be easier. Also I like the idea of being able to walk into the enclosure and sitting there. It will making taming him easier for me. I'm also not really worried about the closet. Back in the day when I was going to get a puppy, I was going to gate him off into the closet while I wasn't home to keep destruction to that area lol.