MacGyver's Official Thread (Pics, Vids & Taming Stories)

[Steven.]

^ i second that. I would love to know the secrets. My guy dashes around the tank when someone walks in the room...lol

sent from my phone to your eyes

 

[Murkve]

I just noticed that picture of the frozen food. Made me chortle!

I think my wife would kill me if I filled our freezer with all of those... specimens.

 

[Kasmut]

Wow what a cute little boy you've got! Like I said in another thread somewhere I am so jealous of how tame he is. I hope soon i'll be able to let my gu roam around as he pleases too

 

[Scott Hogge]

Hands are no problem. He learned quickly that hands take him out of his cage, so now anyone's hand is cool, even strangers. I make sure that any hands going near him are only to help him with whatever he wants, so there is no negative association with them. I made the whole house tegu-safe before I got him so that I never needed to catch him quickly to save him from something.. even if it took a while, I could always wait until he was slowly cornered somewhere that he would have to walk up onto my hands.

Fast movements are usually fine now also. If he is somewhere familiar its no problem at all. He is rarely in his enclosure now, but if he is, any movement at all makes him run up to the front and look up into the air waiting to be taken out. On the couch he is very comfortable because thats where he sleeps and we spend most our time with him, and nothing freaks him out there. There are a few rooms he isnt familiar with, and you can tell that he looks a little nervous/cautious when he is exploring those. Fast movements in those unfamiliar places make him take cover... but if I just give him 30 seconds and move over slowly to let him lick me, everything is fine again.

I think the biggest secret is to spend as much time as you can with him, and do the opposite of what you would do If you were interested in eating him. If he freaks out when you come in the room, try spending a lot of time in the room but don't even look at him. Eventually he won't freak out when you look at him, but he will stay alert and looking at you just in case. If you close your eyes now, eventually he will relax and close his eyes. If you are searching for him in your couch cushions, when you eventually find him, put the cushion back for 20 seconds and let him realize you are there but not dangerous first, then remove it and pick him up. Little things like that.


Unrelated eating update:
I've been trying to get him to take fuzzies. He's eaten a few, but he will always eat pinky mice and pinky rats until he looks like hes gonna pop. I put in a fuzzy in this morning that he refuses to touch, even when played with it. I poked some holes in it to get some good scent out, and still no interest. So I finally busted into that hare-today order and tried some ground pheasant meat/bones/organs, and he charged it and gobbled it down. the fuzzy is still sitting there untouched.

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[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT6GE8vaVW4&feature=plcp[/video]

This is good example of how I interact with him while he is free roaming.



Awesome news, 30 seconds hot off the presses... While I was typing this post, Mac left his basking spot, walked over to the couch and climbed up all by himself for the first time. Hes laying down behind my back right now. He's been trying to climb the couch for days but has never been able to get a good grip until now.

 

[Logie_Bear]

That is just too darn cool. I'll have to tegu-proof my reptile room and start letting Esmeralda free-roam some more. Mac is one wickedly cool gu. I really enjoy your update videos of him.

 

[Scott Hogge]

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD0GR1KGZ5I[/video]

Last night Mac climbed into my pant leg and fell asleep. When I later went to sleep, I didn't want to kick him out of the pants so I took them off and let him keep them. This is him this morning still hanging out in the pants, not quite ready to wake up completely.

 

[chitodadon]

Lol wow how did u get him so tamed so.early good job

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Murkve]

Ha! Sig has climbed in my pants before. Not the greatest feeling in the world.

 

[Scott Hogge]

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VukKwW9zBuw[/video]

So hes awake and out of the pants now. He just took a few bites of ground rabbit. Yesterday he ate a ton of ground pheasant, so I have high hopes for all these whole ground animals I got from hare-today.com

When I figure out what his favorites are I'm going to start mixing all those up together and adding fruit to that staple mixture.

I still have ground quail, duck, goose, llama (yeah, thats right... ground llama), & salmon left to try. He LOVED the pheasant yesterday.

 

[Scott Hogge]

I bought a bunch of dog toys for Mac that he has shown zero interest in. Still loves the bathroom drain cover and my fish nets over by the aquarium. He was dragging one of the nets around for a few min so I grabbed my camera to get some of it, but he had just finished. So instead I turned it into a short vid on him coming when I call his name.

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s1kXv7P4IQ[/video]

 

[Scott Hogge]

He ended up eating a bunch more rabbit after I broke that big chunk into smaller bite sized pieces. I busted out some ground duck meat/bones/organs later and put it down by the leftover rabbit. He gobbled down a bunch of the duck also but didn't touch the rabbit anymore. Not sure if he prefers the duck, or if the rabbit was just too cooked now from sitting out all day. I'm going to do a side by side taste test of all the animals as soon as hes had a proper meal of each first.

 

[Scott Hogge]

[attachment=4883]

He is just a tad bit short of 15 inches at 7.5 weeks old.

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Just found Mac taking a nap under the beanbag chair, so I shot a vid of how calm he is even if you disturb his naping.

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLRAh9SH7ak[/video]

 

[aambumann]

Hi Todeyius- I received Quincy Magu ( Mr. Magoo ) the exact same day from Ty as well. Great guy. Maybe they are brothers? Quincy will let me put my hand in his cage and slowly lay it next to him, or just lay there when I am doing cage maintanence. He will let me pet the middle of his back, and kind of raise up as if you were petting a cat. Occasionally he will crawl on my hand and try to use my arm as a ladder to get out of his tank. He does not care to be picked up or have his head and tail touched yet. I have not tried the free roam yet. I did try putting him in the bath tub, he did not seem too keen on that yet either. He gets up around 6 am and most of the time he is back in bed before I get home from work, 4 pm, past couple of days he has been up when I got home. When he is I try to feed him for the second time that day, otherwise I feed him before I leave the house in the morning. He loves his basking spot, that is usually where i find him when he is up when I get home. His water bowl usually is filled with mulch, like he had a party while I was gone. I gave him some chicken liver today when I got home for the first time. He seemed to really enjoy it. Tommorrow's breakfast will consist of scrambled eggs and mixed vegetable baby food, I think, both are first attempt food items, and some chicken liver. Thanks for listening (reading) Good Luck with Mac.

 

[Scott Hogge]

Hi Todeyius- I received Quincy Magu ( Mr. Magoo ) the exact same day from Ty as well. Great guy. Maybe they are brothers? Quincy will let me put my hand in his cage and slowly lay it next to him, or just lay there when I am doing cage maintanence. He will let me pet the middle of his back, and kind of raise up as if you were petting a cat. Occasionally he will crawl on my hand and try to use my arm as a ladder to get out of his tank. He does not care to be picked up or have his head and tail touched yet. I have not tried the free roam yet. I did try putting him in the bath tub, he did not seem too keen on that yet either. He gets up around 6 am and most of the time he is back in bed before I get home from work, 4 pm, past couple of days he has been up when I got home. When he is I try to feed him for the second time that day, otherwise I feed him before I leave the house in the morning. He loves his basking spot, that is usually where i find him when he is up when I get home. His water bowl usually is filled with mulch, like he had a party while I was gone. I gave him some chicken liver today when I got home for the first time. He seemed to really enjoy it. Tommorrow's breakfast will consist of scrambled eggs and mixed vegetable baby food, I think, both are first attempt food items, and some chicken liver. Thanks for listening (reading) Good Luck with Mac.

Awesome. When I spoke to Ty he only had a couple reds left and I think they were all the same clutch. Looks like we are extended fam now. =) Mac still hates his baths too, so it must run in the family.

Sounds like you are taking the right approach and he's turning out nicely. Once they are trying to climb up your arm to get out, the hardest part is over... it goes must faster from there. If you let him climb up more often he will start to see you as very useful. Eventually he will be clawing at the enclosure when you walk by because he wants you to stick your hand it to let him climb out.


Mac climbed up the couch today all by himself for the second time now. Its definitely gonna become a new habit of his. The first time, he left his basking spot to come over and join me on the couch. This second time, he had already climbed a beanbag chair on the opposite side of the room and was sleeping there, but about an hour later he startled me by snuggling up into my arm on the couch. He sure gets around.

 

[Scott Hogge]

Quick clip of how chill Mac is now, even if I go next to him and yell "BOO!"

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5yoOv-ec_0[/video]

 

[Scott Hogge]

[Video] MacGyver follows me around

This is how MacGyver follows me around now when he wants to take a nap in my pants.

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RINqNhfNmIA[/video]

There is also a failed couch climbing event at the end. He has still only made it up the couch twice, but he tries many times a day.

 

[Scott Hogge]

This is how chill mac is if I wake him up at 1am for a petting video.

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHn_8-unsYE[/video]

 

[Scott Hogge]

Cute little MacGyver yawn clip

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElyYuBkSaTQ[/video]

 

[Scott Hogge]

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38dmE_L2BQM[/video]

I got home from Burning Man yesterday to find that Mac had grown more than an inch in the 5 days I was gone. He's about 18 inches now. He has no problem climbing the couch at all anymore, and now climbs it multiple times every day and sleeps there every night.

I had planned to keep him in the enclosure while I was gone, but having been 100% free roaming for so long now he refused. Within a few hours of me leaving he had already figured out how to climb back out, so the tegu-sitter just let him continue free roaming. Other than that he gave the tegu-sitter no trouble. The tegu-sitter said it took him a few hours to get used to him, but he just backed off and gave Mac his space, and by the end of it they were best buds.

 

[Logie_Bear]

Mac is just too darn cute! I love the yawning vid. <3 Also, I'm so jealous you went to burning man. It's one of my life goals to get out there .