My tegu and I

[Rachel]

Hello! I'm new to forum-ing, but I've had an Argentine Red Tegu named Minerva (Aka: Mina) since October 2011.

She has been WONDERFUL......Up until a little over a week ago. Over the last few months, she's slowly got more and more aggressive until I was forced to return her full-time to her enclosure. She was mostly free roam and sleeping in my bed with me until I realized that her being in my bed was what was making me not sleep so well, so I moved her bed into the closet.
She's always had an attitude, but has never been mean or tried to bite me or anybody, she's always gotten along with the cats and everything. Lately she's started chasing the cats across the room and thinking anything I have in my hand is for her, lunging at me when I walk past her, even trying to chase me a couple times. Yesterday she tried to bite me for the first time....My FACE. Any time I move my hands, she freaks out.
I have never fed her with my hands, I always feed her in the kitchen or the bathroom, so there is no reason why she would think me holding a spool of thread is food. She's an intensely picky eater and won't put anything in her mouth unless she inspects it thoroughly.
It's a complete flip from docile, sweet creature to horrible fear-mongering monster.

I'm moving to Germany following my wedding in a couple months and I don't know what to do. If she's going to be dangerous, I might not want to bring her with me because children are hopefully going to be in the picture before too long. I do not want to abandon her but if she keeps getting worse, she isn't giving me much choice. The hassle of importing her to Germany is gonna be a b*tch and a half.

Help!!! Thank you!!

 

[marydd]

Is there anything that you changed? Could it be that she is having a bad shed and is grouchy. Free roam tegus tend to not get the correct humidity. Does she normally brumate? I think if she is normally really good that something has changed. Or freaked her out. I think we may need more info on her husbandry and how much time she spends out is her cage, and if the amount of time she is in and out of her cage changed.

 

[Rachel]

She went from being in her cage about 50% of the time to being out all the time. She's had shedding issues since I got her, the vet doesn't know why. I believe it's because she's from LLL and ..every reptile I've heard of coming from them has some problem or other. She had a strange blood parasite that eventually kicked the bucket after a round of antibiotics that I had to inject her with.

She's never brumated. The only thing that changed besides her being out more often was that I moved my bed to another corner of the room. I soak her weekly or more to get her hydrated and such. When she's out, she has a light/heating bad in the corner of my room with a towel she likes to snuggle up on, and she gets up and wanders the house periodically. The house is tegu-proofed, so she doesn't get into anything. And then at bedtime, I put her in the closet (which she doesn't particularly like until she falls asleep, but I have to shut the doors or it doesn't get dark enough for her to sleep) and then open the door in the morning and she comes out and goes to her basking spot, and repeat. Just daily she got more and more aggressive.

I don't know if it was because she feels the need to be territorial (god knows why) or if she's experiencing some crazy lizard puberty (but she seems too old for that.) or if it's just a particularly bad shed.. But I really am not sure what to do. She's back in her cage full time for the time being because I don't want her to hurt the cats or myself. She was an extremely peaceful dinosaur until this and it's making me pretty sad.

 

[Jackie & Hellboy]

Limiting the free roam to about 2 hours a day would be better. She needs that humidity that should be in the cage, sleeping in your closet is time she should be in moist soil to stay hydrated and shed better. Any time during the day that she wants to tuck away not basking not roaming not eating or bathing she should be chilling in a humid or slightly humid place in her cage, it's just not as great for them to be in a dry house for 12 hours a day as many people believe. Now if your outdoor environment is warm enough you could build a daytime play cage for supervised sun time and outside digging (you can start a burrow for her to prevent her from digging under the cage wall if that's a possibility, something you can shove your arm in that goes down like a foot but that she can't quite fit in will drive her mad and she should force her way in there, you can add some water if your soil isn't very moist so it will hold a burrow). I'm sure she would appreciate that but as far as the aggression I don't know if that will stop it but I feel it is a must for as much time in her humid cage, that's also warmer than your house (or should be), will not be bad for her. I know you want to spend time with her and have her run as much as she'd like in the house but unless it is 60% humidity and 80 degrees mostly throughout the house with no carpet or any fabric to get nails caught in or exposed electrical equipment including sockets I personally would be opposed to free roam, I prefer outside supervised time if possible if not only a few hours daily would be better.

 

[Rachel]

I don't have a yard, I live in an apartment, so outside roaming isn't possible. She always freaks out when I take her outside, as well. She's happy if she's in a bag, but if she's on the ground, the clouds and planes and birds freak her out.

I live in Washington State, it's not ideal outside tegu climate.

If she wasn't being so aggressive, I would be comfortable having her out, but at the moment, I think she needs time to herself. I may gradually try having her out a little more, but so far, she's even been being aggressive while in the cage with me standing nearby.

 

[BigJay8232]

Hey Rachel, are you certain that Mina is female? I only ask because the overhead photo you posted appears to be of a male. My male had a rough patch his third year where he became very hissy and an all around grump but I simply attributed it to him reaching sexual maturity (hormones). He'll be 4 this Summer and he is as chill as they come now.

 

[Rachel]

Hey Rachel, are you certain that Mina is female? I only ask because the overhead photo you posted appears to be of a male. My male had a rough patch his third year where he became very hissy and an all around grump but I simply attributed it to him reaching sexual maturity (hormones). He'll be 4 this Summer and he is as chill as they come now.

I guess I always just took the word I was given that she's a girl. My vet has never corrected me, but they might not know tegus intimately I suppose?
What exactly indicates male? Since she doesn't have big giant jowls, I always just thought she is a girl.

What did you do for him and how long did he take to knock it off? How is he around kids?

 

[Jackie & Hellboy]

From what I can tell it looks to be female, (females usually have less red coloration, smaller jowls and heads and a smaller tail base from my experiences) if you've witnessed her poop and have never noticed any hemi penis' come out then she most likely is female. I don't think that males or females exhibit more or less aggression like you described so I doubt that has anything to do with it.

 

[Rachel]

UPDATE:

I think the first response about a bad shed is correct because now that her skin on her face is looking much more loose, she's acting mostly normal. She had been rubbing her face on things a lot, so I gave her her brick and her rock to rub on and I guess the moisture from her substrate is really helping her loosen her skin up. She's being a lot nicer now.

 

[marydd]

That is great news! I rub my girl down with coconut oil when I give her baths to help with shedding. You may want to try that to help the shredding. If it appears she is having a hard time shredding on her tail I take a soft tooth brush and gently scrub. She loves her tail rubbed. Hope that she was just grouchy because of the shed! Let is know if she is back to get old self soon!