Hello guest! Are you a Tegu enthusiast? If so, we invite you to join our community! Our site is specifically designed for you and it's a great place for Tegu enthusiasts to meet online. Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your Tegu and enclosure and have a great time with other Tegu fans. Sign up today! If you have any questions, problems, or other concerns email josh@tegutalk.com!

Reply to thread

Message

Very skittish as juveniles and took longer to tame than Argentines. I just had one to raise from a youngster; one came to me as an adult. They aren't subspecies, but completely different species. Being two different species they are quite different and at the same time, similar. Colombian= T teguixin and Argentine= T marianae

There is someone breeding Colombians in Germany (I think). But they have a really long incubation time of 5-6 months. Usually what we find in the US is that CB Colombians means they were farmed raised in a large group, but not really hand raised as companion animals.

It is their wiring that makes them flighty and defensive, not whether they have seen a predator. As they grow and develop, they condition or associate positive and negative. Reptiles do not have the large processing part of the brain that mammals have. They work mostly with the limbic system (react, then think) that basically tells them "good for tegus" or "not good for tegus". A young tegu will most definitely see you as a predator (large, moving, reaching from above). But in time, you catch it and do not eat it. In fact, you take it out of the enclosure and give it food. It begins to associate you with "good for tegus" and not as a scary something to be avoided.

In smaller species, the ones that respond the fastest and survive are obviously the ones that will live to reproduce. I don't think all of the details have been described, but I do believe that docility is somewhat inheritable. There was an interesting article in Nat Geo about a group of foxes that was able to be bred to have tame offspring in 10 generations. People are claiming that Colombians are tamer now than than 10 years ago. Is it selective breeding or are we better at keeping them? or both?

<blockquote data-quote="laurarfl" data-source="post: 113981" data-attributes="member: 401">Very skittish as juveniles and took longer to tame than Argentines. I just had one to raise from a youngster; one came to me as an adult. They aren't subspecies, but completely different species. Being two different species they are quite different and at the same time, similar. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />&nbsp; Colombian= T teguixin and Argentine= T marianaeThere is someone breeding Colombians in Germany (I think). But they have a really long incubation time of 5-6 months. Usually what we find in the US is that CB Colombians means they were farmed raised in a large group, but not really hand raised as companion animals.It is their wiring that makes them flighty and defensive, not whether they have seen a predator. As they grow and develop, they condition or associate positive and negative. Reptiles do not have the large processing part of the brain that mammals have. They work mostly with the limbic system (react, then think) that basically tells them &quot;good for tegus&quot; or &quot;not good for tegus&quot;. A young tegu will most definitely see you as a predator (large, moving, reaching from above). But in time, you catch it and do not eat it. In fact, you take it out of the enclosure and give it food. It begins to associate you with &quot;good for tegus&quot; and not as a scary something to be avoided.In smaller species, the ones that respond the fastest and survive are obviously the ones that will live to reproduce. I don't think all of the details have been described, but I do believe that docility is somewhat inheritable. There was an interesting article in Nat Geo about a group of foxes that was able to be bred to have tame offspring in 10 generations.&nbsp; People are claiming that Colombians are tamer now than than 10 years ago. Is it selective breeding or are we better at keeping them? or both?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="laurarfl, post: 113981, member: 401"] Very skittish as juveniles and took longer to tame than Argentines. I just had one to raise from a youngster; one came to me as an adult. They aren't subspecies, but completely different species. Being two different species they are quite different and at the same time, similar. :) Colombian= T teguixin and Argentine= T marianae There is someone breeding Colombians in Germany (I think). But they have a really long incubation time of 5-6 months. Usually what we find in the US is that CB Colombians means they were farmed raised in a large group, but not really hand raised as companion animals. It is their wiring that makes them flighty and defensive, not whether they have seen a predator. As they grow and develop, they condition or associate positive and negative. Reptiles do not have the large processing part of the brain that mammals have. They work mostly with the limbic system (react, then think) that basically tells them "good for tegus" or "not good for tegus". A young tegu will most definitely see you as a predator (large, moving, reaching from above). But in time, you catch it and do not eat it. In fact, you take it out of the enclosure and give it food. It begins to associate you with "good for tegus" and not as a scary something to be avoided. In smaller species, the ones that respond the fastest and survive are obviously the ones that will live to reproduce. I don't think all of the details have been described, but I do believe that docility is somewhat inheritable. There was an interesting article in Nat Geo about a group of foxes that was able to be bred to have tame offspring in 10 generations. People are claiming that Colombians are tamer now than than 10 years ago. Is it selective breeding or are we better at keeping them? or both? [/QUOTE]

Verification