Hey Everyone,
First off, this site is awesome! It had been incredibly helpful. I just got my first tegu on Sunday (two days ago as of now). Her name is Lexie. She is 3' long and already quite tame. I have her in a custom built cage made of plywood and plexiglass. It is roughly 6'x3.5' with a 3' ceiling and slanted front. Setting up an appropriate temp gradient actually worked out pretty well. It ranges from ~110 at the basking spot to ~80 on the cool side.
Lexie seemed really curious her first few hours home. After scouting out her new cage for about half an hour, she showed alot of interest in me and my roommate. After a few hours, she burrowed completely (into cypress mulch). She has been there now for over 50 hours straight. I don't want to dig her out, but I did make some noise / movement nearby to make sure she was alright and try to get her to come out so I could feed her. She hissed once and flinched the next day when i was changing her water and what not. I tried leaving a little food in her cage to coax her out, but it was to no avail (does that even work when they are burrowed?). Is this typical of a new tegu to stay burrowed for days? I hope she is not trying to hibernate! I have done everything I could think of to avoid giving her cues to hibernate (cage is warm, plenty of light). It also would seem weird to me if she chose to hibernate in February of all months. Is there any reason to worry about her not eating for a few days?
If anyone has input or a similar experience to share, I'm all ears. I'm probably overanalyzing this, but it's kind of hard not to as curious as I am as to what she is up to. One more question, is it a big deal to keep tegus on a fairly long daylength schedule (e.g. 14 or 15 hours light)? I have a pretty lengthy work day. At very least, I want her to stay up late at night because that's when I'm usually home.
Anyways, enough for now. I'll post some pictures later.
First off, this site is awesome! It had been incredibly helpful. I just got my first tegu on Sunday (two days ago as of now). Her name is Lexie. She is 3' long and already quite tame. I have her in a custom built cage made of plywood and plexiglass. It is roughly 6'x3.5' with a 3' ceiling and slanted front. Setting up an appropriate temp gradient actually worked out pretty well. It ranges from ~110 at the basking spot to ~80 on the cool side.
Lexie seemed really curious her first few hours home. After scouting out her new cage for about half an hour, she showed alot of interest in me and my roommate. After a few hours, she burrowed completely (into cypress mulch). She has been there now for over 50 hours straight. I don't want to dig her out, but I did make some noise / movement nearby to make sure she was alright and try to get her to come out so I could feed her. She hissed once and flinched the next day when i was changing her water and what not. I tried leaving a little food in her cage to coax her out, but it was to no avail (does that even work when they are burrowed?). Is this typical of a new tegu to stay burrowed for days? I hope she is not trying to hibernate! I have done everything I could think of to avoid giving her cues to hibernate (cage is warm, plenty of light). It also would seem weird to me if she chose to hibernate in February of all months. Is there any reason to worry about her not eating for a few days?
If anyone has input or a similar experience to share, I'm all ears. I'm probably overanalyzing this, but it's kind of hard not to as curious as I am as to what she is up to. One more question, is it a big deal to keep tegus on a fairly long daylength schedule (e.g. 14 or 15 hours light)? I have a pretty lengthy work day. At very least, I want her to stay up late at night because that's when I'm usually home.
Anyways, enough for now. I'll post some pictures later.
