Greeting all, I am a long time lurker, first time poster. Thanks alot for the help you all have provided over the years, I have found many discussions helpful in the forums here.
I have a female Argentine B&W tegu about 7 1/2 years old and a male nearing 10 years. Both are healthy and energetic, and have been cohabitating ever since she was big enough to be with the male (about 6 years now). She has long since grown much larger than him. They live in a large hand-built terrarium, that I am considering rebuilding even larger this summer with multiple hides, more climbing and basking areas, etc. The male had a problem 3 years ago and had to have one of his hemipens removed, but he recovered well and is great again. His tail has been broken since he was very young, but it has capped pretty clean, and we do periodically have to do a little maintenance on it, the female I have tried very hard to ensure her tail is never stressed, but unfortunately she got it caught about 4 years ago and lost about 4”. I was really upset about that, after having tried so hard to make sure she never had reason to drop it. But she’s otherwise grown it out very nicely and it’s not all that bad anymore. They have never cohabitated with or even met any other tegus.
They’re both very well socialized, and can be handled at any time. We often bring them with us to outings, Home Depot, and other various places and events. They also have a good amount of outdoor running free time in the yard or on the deck when it’s warm outside (Minnesota, USA!). In the terrarium they have a large hide, 5” deep cypress chips for Substrate, lots of climbing surfaces, cork tube, a large basking stone and a litter box sized water bowl for wading or drinking. I jokingly tell my friends that my tegus have Andersen double-hung windows in their house (it’s true!) I also have an automatic misting system and regularly add water to the cypress chips to keep things humid. We always feed them outside the terrarium to try and minimize the defensive attitude of that environment.
I’ll probably be one of the quiet ones on the forums here... tend to be very busy with life and as I’ve had them for so long now, nothing is new or surprising anymore, so I don’t frequent the boards as much anymore. But as noted above, a general thanks to all the various posters and topics, I’ve found many helpful bits around the forums over the years.
here’s some random pics for you, over the course of their lives
~Tek
I have a female Argentine B&W tegu about 7 1/2 years old and a male nearing 10 years. Both are healthy and energetic, and have been cohabitating ever since she was big enough to be with the male (about 6 years now). She has long since grown much larger than him. They live in a large hand-built terrarium, that I am considering rebuilding even larger this summer with multiple hides, more climbing and basking areas, etc. The male had a problem 3 years ago and had to have one of his hemipens removed, but he recovered well and is great again. His tail has been broken since he was very young, but it has capped pretty clean, and we do periodically have to do a little maintenance on it, the female I have tried very hard to ensure her tail is never stressed, but unfortunately she got it caught about 4 years ago and lost about 4”. I was really upset about that, after having tried so hard to make sure she never had reason to drop it. But she’s otherwise grown it out very nicely and it’s not all that bad anymore. They have never cohabitated with or even met any other tegus.
They’re both very well socialized, and can be handled at any time. We often bring them with us to outings, Home Depot, and other various places and events. They also have a good amount of outdoor running free time in the yard or on the deck when it’s warm outside (Minnesota, USA!). In the terrarium they have a large hide, 5” deep cypress chips for Substrate, lots of climbing surfaces, cork tube, a large basking stone and a litter box sized water bowl for wading or drinking. I jokingly tell my friends that my tegus have Andersen double-hung windows in their house (it’s true!) I also have an automatic misting system and regularly add water to the cypress chips to keep things humid. We always feed them outside the terrarium to try and minimize the defensive attitude of that environment.
I’ll probably be one of the quiet ones on the forums here... tend to be very busy with life and as I’ve had them for so long now, nothing is new or surprising anymore, so I don’t frequent the boards as much anymore. But as noted above, a general thanks to all the various posters and topics, I’ve found many helpful bits around the forums over the years.
here’s some random pics for you, over the course of their lives
~Tek
