New Baby settling in

[Odonata]

I took Wednesday off of work to stay home with my boys and await the arrival of our new Black and White Argentinian Tegu.

Shadow arrived at 9am.

So far he has totally trashed his setup to the amusement of the boys. He mostly hung out in the basking spot or warm side hide the first day and didn't eat anything. Next morning he dug under the water bowl, basking rock, hides and generally turned things upside down! He has been calm enough to allow my son to stroke him on the back of the head without running away, and not skittish until you try to pick him up (him/her...).

I was not sure that he knew that the food dish actually had food in it because he dug so much it was filled with bark. I put a couple of crickets in loose and he devoured them. I then put a few mealworms/superworms on the basking rock and he took those.

Yesterday I decided to feed him in a separate bin so that he was not eating off of the substrate. I put in 5 crickets and then put Shadow in. He initially sat there looking uncomfortable, with the crickets looking equally worried in the opposite corner. I walked away for a few minutes and heard a lot of scurrying around. Looking in the bin Shadow had consumed 4 of the crickets and was tearing into the last one. I will go with bin feeding from here on knowing that it seems to work.

Is there any concern on the surface of the bin being slippery? I was wondering if I should line it with something to provide traction.

I will post some other pics as he settles in more.

 

[nessanicolle]

I'ts adorable! And I would say as long as it's able to catch the food it should be fine.

 

[tommyboy]

I have noticed that my guys rely heavily on traction while eating. Although I don't think it's a necessity now, I know it helps them especially as they get bigger and are eating larger meals. Good luck with Shadow.

 

[ilovelizards]

make sure it has a goog lid on it,when my tegu was young he jumped from his feeding bin and disapperared for the intire winter 6-7 months inside the house.

 

[Odonata]

I decided to outfit the feeding bin with some traction matting I found laying around. Shadow seems to like it, and it makes me more comfortable that he is not sliding around. I have hardwood floors throughout my house and my Polish Lowland Sheepdog badly injured one leg sliding on the floors until I placed my rugs.

Shadow seems much more interested in crickets than anything else I put in. I am assuming that is due to the movement of the crickets triggering an instinctual behavior? Any suggestions on other stuff to try. So far I have tried crickets, mealworms, waxworms, superworms.

Here is Shadow in the traction mat lined bin:

 

[Odonata]

I tried some scrambled eggs today but Shadow ignored that and only ate superworms and mealworms.

Digging has become a favorite activity and Shadow regularly pops a head out of the substrate to check on things!

A couple of photos.

 

[LizardzRock]

looks like your new gu is fattening up Im getting mine in the next week or so.

 

[bmx3000max]

mabe hes not use to you feeding him in a diffrent encloser, mine was like that...if you really want him to start eating in a seperate encloser youll need to give him his favorite food...try pinkes cause baby gus go crazy for them...then i bet you hel eat it since the movemont will trigger its hunting instinctnts to eat it....pretty cool to watch too

 

[Odonata]

Shadow is continuing to settle in and responding well to routines. Eating well, and much more willing to be handled. He has nibbled my fingers a few times when I have reached in for him, but this seems to be more of a peck than a bite, and seems to indicate that he is either hungry or does not want to be messed with. He is starting to come to my hand and climb on me when I open the door of his enclosure, and generally seems much more relaxed. The green is fading already.

A couple of pics from earlier today:

 

[bmx3000max]

Wow hes getting big quick is he still skitish to you

 

[Logie_Bear]

Aw, he's so cute! It's sad to see the green go. He looks very healthy, is he still only eating insects/ whole prey items?

 

[Odonata]

Wow hes getting big quick is he still skitish to you

Actually he has lost pretty much all of his fear of myself and the household activities that go on around him. He seems totally unperturbed with the regular opening of his enclosure and if anything acts confident and curious the majority of the time.

It is a totally different lizard than the one that I unboxed only a short time ago.

Aw, he's so cute! It's sad to see the green go. He looks very healthy, is he still only eating insects/ whole prey items?

Feeding is pretty varied and he eats a ton, I feed him until he stops eating twice a day. If I try to only feed him in the morning he will be nippy in the afternoon and excavating the corner of his enclosure where I leave a dish with a small amount of worms - he digs that area up hoping to find stray worms that have crawled out of the dish and might still be hanging around.

I feed him crickets in a separate bin, and if very hungry he will also eat other food stuffs in the bin. I don't have a lot of time in the morning though so leave him a corner bowl with food in the enclosure. So far he is eating mostly insects, crickets, grasshoppers, mealworms, superwoms, waxworms. I also give him ground turkey, scrambled eggs (shell and all), cherries, and bluberries. He is definitely less interested in the fruit but would eat a lot of egg and turkey given the chance. I am limiting those foodstuffs at the moment to every other day at most.

I realize feeding in 2 locations probably is not ideal, but it is a routine now, and fits with my schedule. I believe that at this age my main concern should be with his development from a nutritional standpoint, and he is becoming tame (accustomed to handling, not sure tame truly applies yet) as a matter of course.

 

[Odonata]

Shadow has been in the house for a month now. He has shed 3 times to my count and grown considerably. Some days he feeds only once in the morning but occasionally he also eats in the afternoon/evening. He definitely lets me know if he is hungry. His diet is becoming more varied, and he seems to be becoming less picky. I have more recently had him eating a range of fruit items (blueberries, strawberries, peaches, nectarines) in small amounts as well as copious amounts of insects. The insectivorous bit is getting a little taxing as he eats such a large volume. He does get some pinkies/fuzzies (actually awaiting a shipment today of 500 frozen mice and 6000 frozen roaches....), turkey, chicken.

He has grown so fast that I have had to adjust his enclosure as his original basking rock became far too small. I replaced that with a 12"x18" paver that seems to work well. He has chosen to create two burrows that he uses, one under the basking rock where he sleeps at night and one under a large piece of cork that he visits during the day on the cool side. He is not a big fan of the water, never seen him in the big dish, and when he goes in the bath he swims around and never seems entirely comfortable (he does have a shallow end and mat for traction in the tub).

He is almost 18" long now. I obtained a wire pen made for guinea pigs that I have on the back deck, and I put him in that to hang out in the sun while I drink coffee in the morning. Part of it is in the shade but at that time of day the sun is not too intense and he hangs on the warm deck boards and soaks it up. His life seems good, I am often jealous!

I have his next enclosure almost ready, awaiting some Arcadia lighting units and bulbs and it should be complete. I am still designing what will be his full time large enclosure. It is becoming a serious project!

Awaiting food:

Almost full

Food coma

 

[kymzilla]

wow, so big so fast!
i wish my gold would grow faster haha. Shes just finally starting to eat the meatball sized portions of turkey and my "frankenstien" mix that i've been putting in. I wish she'd eat live crickets, but she never has with me anyways.

 

[Odonata]

Video update on Shadow:
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQsVO8NKFpo&feature=vmdshb[/video]

For the video I decided to feed him by hand, but I usually only feed him with tongs. The major recent progress is that I can get him to come out of his burrow when I call his name more often than not. This is both true for when he is hungry and when he is not. I was a little surprised by this as I figured he would learn to associate my voice and his name with feeding, but did not think he would respond merely for the attention at this point. He will come out of his burrow, seek attention for a little while and then head back underground once he has had enough.

When I come home from work he will lay with just his head poking out of his burrow watching me come and go until I sit down and give him attention, then he gets excited and wants out.

 

[Odonata]

First a pic from 9-15

Here is Shadow eating:

[video=youtube]http://youtu.be/j5Odztts1JA[/video]

And after seeing Esmeralda eating quail eggs I thought I would pop this up also as they seem to be a favorite.

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtUAYhL_Xe0&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Shadow is 24-25 inches long now, but has suddenly slowed down on his eating, is much more picky, and spending more time underground. He also is very determined to get out of his enclosure, stands on his rear legs to get my attention, and any time I put my arm in he jumps on me and instantly climbs out. He has really taken to exploring as much as he can get to and seems to be super confident.

 

[Odonata]

I thought I would add a few post hibernation pictures to this thread.

Shadow hung out with me a fair bit this past weekend, these pictures were when I was sitting on the bed doing email and Shadow was occupying himself with some stuffed animals of my boys. He became especially interested in this teddy bear and then went to town on it, trying to grab the eyes...it was very funny, and he looked quite dejected that they were not edible.