Hello everyone!
I am in search of a small, 1ft-2ft lizard which has similar care requirements as a tegu. I'll provide a bit of back story later.
Specifically, I'm searching for an animal that can be raised primarily on the "tegu diet" [heavily based on vitamin/calcium fortified ground turkey or chicken breast], is not ultra-sensetive to heat and humidity variations, can accept daily bathing without suffering from scale rot or the like, and is somewhat tolerant of handling.
So far I have two primary choices, the Fire skink and the Major Skink [Egernia frerei].
I was originally going for the land mullet, since it is huge, impressive skink with requirements and tolerances very similar to a tegu, but is ultimately much smaller than a tegu. It also looks surprisingly similar to a tegu.
I chose the Major Skink after I was informed that the Land Mullet is extremely rare in the US and may fetch over $2,000 for one individual. The Major skink is much easier to find, much more readily available, and are all CBB.
Unfortunately, I can find almost no information about the care for Major Skinks. They are omnivores, and appear to like eating mushrooms. That and they don't like to be handled too often. Other than that; nothing. Land Mullets are supposedly very cold hardy, and the people in Australia who keep them say that they're one of the most idiot-proof lizards to own, but almost nothing is written about the Major Skink.
Does anyone have experience with this species?
The Fire skink is much more readily available. It doesn't grow to as impressive of a size, but more info is available and seem to be more tolerant of human contact. The downside to them is that it is very hard to find CBB individuals.
As for the fire skink, my primary question is can they handle the tegu diet?
Further, does anyone have any further suggestions for similar lizards?
For some reason, I can't bring myself to warm up to Blue Tongue Skinks. I know they're excellent pets with excellent personalities, but for some reasons I just don't have much of an interest in them.
The guys at varanus.net told me that an ackie monitor would NOT be a good match for me. The tegu diet doesn't work, and letting it free-roam just isn't a good idea.
Anyway, now for some back story.
About two and a half years ago I bought a baby black and white tegu from Varnyard named "taco". At this time the landlord of my college apartment was tolerant of any pet that wasn't a ferret, or a big dog, and was totally okay with "giant lizard". Even as a baby, whenever I was around, I would open his cage up and let him free-roam around my room. I have him a daily bath so he wouldn't poop on my floor, and his diet probably consisted of 90% ground turkey [with vitamin and mineral powder], with some pinkies, eggs, and fruit making up the remaining 10%.
This routine worked for several years, growing into a big, fat, healthy 4ft adult male. The ground turkey got replaced by chicken breast, and the pinkies got replaced with rats and chicks, but pretty much everything else remained the same. Plenty of free-roam time, daily baths, etc. I even got a harness and a stroller for him so he could go outside [which he did, and he was exceptionally well behaved on his first time out].
Unfortunately, between when I first got him and now, my friends and I moved into a different apartment with a different landlord, who had a loose "no pets" policy. She made an exception for a pair of leopard gecko's my friends had, but I didn't tell her about the tegu [which at this time was still very small]. I kept him under her nose for a long time, until about a month ago. All my friends and I are graduating this year, and she will need to do tours of the apartment for new tenants. Since there's no way I would be able to hide a 4ft lizard from her, I told her ahead of time that he was there, since I hoped that would work out better than her "discovering" it on her own free time.
Well, her reaction was something along the lines of "Oh my God no". So I had to give him away. It was.... a very bad day. Taco is currently living with a wildlife specialist who does shows and demonstrations for small children and public events. I have visitation rights whenever I want [but I'm in college now and the wildlife specialist is in my home town, several hours away]. I do take comfort that he's in a good place, but I really miss him, and owning lizards in general [oh yeah, Taco was my only lizard].
I do own a pair of small rubber boas. They're adorable and I love them, but they're just not the same as a lizard. They lack the same personality... or activity level as a lizard. This is why I'm looking into something smaller, but similar to a tegu. My landlord should be more tolerant of something that doesn't exceed 2ft.
To reiterate: my basic criteria for a lizard is that it takes well to the "tegu diet", can handle daily bathing and the free-roam time that follows, and isn't super-skittish and untouchable. I don't expect any lizard I get in the future to have Taco's personality and laid-back disposition, but I don't want a super flighty ameiva or something exceptionally defensive.
Thank you for your time!
p.s. the wildlife specialist who took Taco also said that he has bred "Dwarf Tegus" in the past [he used to run a pet store]. Apparently, with time, developed very similar personalities as the larger tegus, and could be fed almost anything. If anyone knows a source for these lizards, I'd love to know. As of right now though, they seem unobtainable.
I am in search of a small, 1ft-2ft lizard which has similar care requirements as a tegu. I'll provide a bit of back story later.
Specifically, I'm searching for an animal that can be raised primarily on the "tegu diet" [heavily based on vitamin/calcium fortified ground turkey or chicken breast], is not ultra-sensetive to heat and humidity variations, can accept daily bathing without suffering from scale rot or the like, and is somewhat tolerant of handling.
So far I have two primary choices, the Fire skink and the Major Skink [Egernia frerei].
I was originally going for the land mullet, since it is huge, impressive skink with requirements and tolerances very similar to a tegu, but is ultimately much smaller than a tegu. It also looks surprisingly similar to a tegu.
I chose the Major Skink after I was informed that the Land Mullet is extremely rare in the US and may fetch over $2,000 for one individual. The Major skink is much easier to find, much more readily available, and are all CBB.
Unfortunately, I can find almost no information about the care for Major Skinks. They are omnivores, and appear to like eating mushrooms. That and they don't like to be handled too often. Other than that; nothing. Land Mullets are supposedly very cold hardy, and the people in Australia who keep them say that they're one of the most idiot-proof lizards to own, but almost nothing is written about the Major Skink.
Does anyone have experience with this species?
The Fire skink is much more readily available. It doesn't grow to as impressive of a size, but more info is available and seem to be more tolerant of human contact. The downside to them is that it is very hard to find CBB individuals.
As for the fire skink, my primary question is can they handle the tegu diet?
Further, does anyone have any further suggestions for similar lizards?
For some reason, I can't bring myself to warm up to Blue Tongue Skinks. I know they're excellent pets with excellent personalities, but for some reasons I just don't have much of an interest in them.
The guys at varanus.net told me that an ackie monitor would NOT be a good match for me. The tegu diet doesn't work, and letting it free-roam just isn't a good idea.
Anyway, now for some back story.
About two and a half years ago I bought a baby black and white tegu from Varnyard named "taco". At this time the landlord of my college apartment was tolerant of any pet that wasn't a ferret, or a big dog, and was totally okay with "giant lizard". Even as a baby, whenever I was around, I would open his cage up and let him free-roam around my room. I have him a daily bath so he wouldn't poop on my floor, and his diet probably consisted of 90% ground turkey [with vitamin and mineral powder], with some pinkies, eggs, and fruit making up the remaining 10%.
This routine worked for several years, growing into a big, fat, healthy 4ft adult male. The ground turkey got replaced by chicken breast, and the pinkies got replaced with rats and chicks, but pretty much everything else remained the same. Plenty of free-roam time, daily baths, etc. I even got a harness and a stroller for him so he could go outside [which he did, and he was exceptionally well behaved on his first time out].
Unfortunately, between when I first got him and now, my friends and I moved into a different apartment with a different landlord, who had a loose "no pets" policy. She made an exception for a pair of leopard gecko's my friends had, but I didn't tell her about the tegu [which at this time was still very small]. I kept him under her nose for a long time, until about a month ago. All my friends and I are graduating this year, and she will need to do tours of the apartment for new tenants. Since there's no way I would be able to hide a 4ft lizard from her, I told her ahead of time that he was there, since I hoped that would work out better than her "discovering" it on her own free time.
Well, her reaction was something along the lines of "Oh my God no". So I had to give him away. It was.... a very bad day. Taco is currently living with a wildlife specialist who does shows and demonstrations for small children and public events. I have visitation rights whenever I want [but I'm in college now and the wildlife specialist is in my home town, several hours away]. I do take comfort that he's in a good place, but I really miss him, and owning lizards in general [oh yeah, Taco was my only lizard].
I do own a pair of small rubber boas. They're adorable and I love them, but they're just not the same as a lizard. They lack the same personality... or activity level as a lizard. This is why I'm looking into something smaller, but similar to a tegu. My landlord should be more tolerant of something that doesn't exceed 2ft.
To reiterate: my basic criteria for a lizard is that it takes well to the "tegu diet", can handle daily bathing and the free-roam time that follows, and isn't super-skittish and untouchable. I don't expect any lizard I get in the future to have Taco's personality and laid-back disposition, but I don't want a super flighty ameiva or something exceptionally defensive.
Thank you for your time!
p.s. the wildlife specialist who took Taco also said that he has bred "Dwarf Tegus" in the past [he used to run a pet store]. Apparently, with time, developed very similar personalities as the larger tegus, and could be fed almost anything. If anyone knows a source for these lizards, I'd love to know. As of right now though, they seem unobtainable.
