- Messages
- 14
- Location
- Mountain View CA
Just got a major bite feeding Blizzard, 5yr Female B&W. Thawed frozen rat, held in 12" tongs. Outside in back yard. She targeted my hand instead of the rat. Had to pry her mouth open. Several cuts and punctures. I didn't need stitches. Got antibiotics. She didn't seem to get hurt in the scuffle. My theory is that she smells the rat and bites the first thing she sees moving. She is much more chill with eggs, fish, chicken and fruit. She may chose not to eat them. She has never refused to eat a rat and feeding her pre-killed rats is always sketchy.
So my theory is that rodents can quickly run away, so when she gets their scent, her instinct puts her in "tegu gun mode, safety off" - ready to attack the first visual cue at max speed. Not moseying up, giving it a few licks and then biting. I'd like to generalize this theory to everyone's tegu but I don't know if some people have tegus that don't bite hands when they smell a rodent.
7/23/2021 Update: Used a temporary partition to confine Blizzard to about 50 ft2 area without any hiding places while feeding. (She normally has the whole backyard + a heated tegu hut. ) I put her in and got the thawed rat. Walked up to the area, remaining outside the 40" high fence. Then I tossed thawed rat directly out of Ziploc bag near her. She slowly reacted, licking and moseying over to eat the rat. Very pleased with this safe procedure. This further confirms my Rat Smell + Motion = Insane Tegu theory. She didn't smell the rat until after it was motionless on the ground. This procedure avoids entering her area without necessarily knowing where she is while carrying a rat that she might smell. And holding a rat with a tongs trying to get her to target the rat instead of the tongs or my hand.
7/29/2021 My hand is 98% healed.
(moved post from Blue Tegu)
7/30/2021 Update Used the temporary partition again to feed her another thawed rat. Blizzard did not get excited and I was not where she could bite me.
8/21/2021 Update I think she is starting to anticipate getting her rat. I feed her a large frozen thawed rat on Saturdays. I moved the partition to create the temporary feeding pen. When I went to get her, she walked up to me with her head up, which she doesn't normally do. I told her not to bit me and she stopped walking. Picked her up, she was more squirmy that usual. She was watching me dump the rat in her pen and ran for it. So the "Rat smell + Moving object = insane tegu" is now in question. I'm afraid that she's learning and we will have to be careful getting her into her feeding pen.
So my theory is that rodents can quickly run away, so when she gets their scent, her instinct puts her in "tegu gun mode, safety off" - ready to attack the first visual cue at max speed. Not moseying up, giving it a few licks and then biting. I'd like to generalize this theory to everyone's tegu but I don't know if some people have tegus that don't bite hands when they smell a rodent.
7/23/2021 Update: Used a temporary partition to confine Blizzard to about 50 ft2 area without any hiding places while feeding. (She normally has the whole backyard + a heated tegu hut. ) I put her in and got the thawed rat. Walked up to the area, remaining outside the 40" high fence. Then I tossed thawed rat directly out of Ziploc bag near her. She slowly reacted, licking and moseying over to eat the rat. Very pleased with this safe procedure. This further confirms my Rat Smell + Motion = Insane Tegu theory. She didn't smell the rat until after it was motionless on the ground. This procedure avoids entering her area without necessarily knowing where she is while carrying a rat that she might smell. And holding a rat with a tongs trying to get her to target the rat instead of the tongs or my hand.
7/29/2021 My hand is 98% healed.
(moved post from Blue Tegu)
7/30/2021 Update Used the temporary partition again to feed her another thawed rat. Blizzard did not get excited and I was not where she could bite me.
8/21/2021 Update I think she is starting to anticipate getting her rat. I feed her a large frozen thawed rat on Saturdays. I moved the partition to create the temporary feeding pen. When I went to get her, she walked up to me with her head up, which she doesn't normally do. I told her not to bit me and she stopped walking. Picked her up, she was more squirmy that usual. She was watching me dump the rat in her pen and ran for it. So the "Rat smell + Moving object = insane tegu" is now in question. I'm afraid that she's learning and we will have to be careful getting her into her feeding pen.
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