Let me tell you all how I fell in love with Tegus.
I rescued a 4 feet long female black and white Argentine giant Tegu lizard, whose owner abandoned in a cage in my backyard. The first time I saw her was when she came out of hibernation the last week of February and I thought, what am I going to do with this dinosaur :?:
Before her I have had a dog, many tropical fish, birds, but never a reptile. So I started getting all the info I could get, but it wasn't until I saw the video tegu-attention on youtube that I decided to keep her. At first I feed her live rats, but noticed an increase in activity (aggressive movements) during and after chow time. So I changed her diet following a list posted on this site. It took me around a month of error and trials to get Bubba to enjoy grapes, cherries, banana, papaya, scramble eggs, cooked chicken and beef.
The easiest part was to give her raw eggs, turkey breast, raw chicken and beef, all this with calcium powder.
Then I tried placing a shirt inside her enclosure for a week. It was a complete success. From that moment on every time I stepped inside her enclosure she would remain very calm allowing me to spot clean the pen and to pet her like a puppy. I started dedicating her one hour every day. Still wearing gloves, a couple of weeks later, I started picking her up and letting her outside to roam free for an hour or so everyday. She would start digging looking for snails and eating grasshoppers especially if they jump in front of her.
By mid June I don't need the gloves anymore and Bubba has learned to eat and poop outside her enclosure. Now she is allowed inside the house to take a bath, hang out by the dirty laundry bag, hide inside the closet or just roam around the whole house.
She loves the shirt placed inside her enclosure, and cuddles in it before falling asleep.
I rescued a 4 feet long female black and white Argentine giant Tegu lizard, whose owner abandoned in a cage in my backyard. The first time I saw her was when she came out of hibernation the last week of February and I thought, what am I going to do with this dinosaur :?:
Before her I have had a dog, many tropical fish, birds, but never a reptile. So I started getting all the info I could get, but it wasn't until I saw the video tegu-attention on youtube that I decided to keep her. At first I feed her live rats, but noticed an increase in activity (aggressive movements) during and after chow time. So I changed her diet following a list posted on this site. It took me around a month of error and trials to get Bubba to enjoy grapes, cherries, banana, papaya, scramble eggs, cooked chicken and beef.
The easiest part was to give her raw eggs, turkey breast, raw chicken and beef, all this with calcium powder.
Then I tried placing a shirt inside her enclosure for a week. It was a complete success. From that moment on every time I stepped inside her enclosure she would remain very calm allowing me to spot clean the pen and to pet her like a puppy. I started dedicating her one hour every day. Still wearing gloves, a couple of weeks later, I started picking her up and letting her outside to roam free for an hour or so everyday. She would start digging looking for snails and eating grasshoppers especially if they jump in front of her.
By mid June I don't need the gloves anymore and Bubba has learned to eat and poop outside her enclosure. Now she is allowed inside the house to take a bath, hang out by the dirty laundry bag, hide inside the closet or just roam around the whole house.
She loves the shirt placed inside her enclosure, and cuddles in it before falling asleep.
