New Tegu Owner

[thommack]

I had monitors for many years, then went to just cats, but about two months ago a good friend found a three foot B&W Tegu on his front walk in West Chester, OH!! I took him(?) to care for him until we found the owner or someone who wanted him, but no owner found (or report of a missing tegu) and the person I thought would take him fell through.

"Ted" is 37 inches long and weighs 7 pounds. I think Ted is a male but I'm hoping from the attached photos someone might be able to guide me on how to tell, (So for now I'll call Ted he/him.) He has gone through a complete shed since I got him. Ted has an incredible disposition and since the day I got him has not showed any aggressiveness. He comes out of his hide when I call him, usually expecting to be fed, but doesn't get upset if there is no food. He is content to be petted while eating, and I usually feed him by hand with forceps. Only occasionally when he gets really into eating has he opened his mouth like he might want to eat me, but as soon as I pull away and then let him get a better lick/smell of my hand, he realizes that it is me and ignores it. So far he is incredible!

Right now he resides in a spare bedroom, but I am getting ready to build him a new permanent residence. It will be a 4x6 section connected to a 3x4 section (so 10' long on one side) with a direct window view out the back. I know that won't give him UVB through the glass, but at least Right now he has a large water basin (which I have never seen him use) and a nice basking spot. His hide has a high quality animal heating pad (the type that will not burn an animal or catch fire) and that his is normal sleeping spot.

Ted gets fed almost every day. His appetite, feeding schedule and diet is quite different from what I had with my monitors, and I had about 5 different species at one time. He is not a fan of vegetables - zucchini is about the only green vegetable he will eat, along with tomatoes, which many consider a fruit (he loves tomatoes - red and yellow and they are fresh from our garden). Meat wise I feed him raw chicken, beef, tilapia (fish), sardines, shrimp, scrambled eggs and dust about every other feeding with ground eggshells for calcium. I also have fed him cicadas and wild crickets when I can catch them, both of which he really likes. I do not have a UV light for him yet but plan on getting one for his new enclosure.

A few questions:

1. Is the daily feeding schedule appropriate? I have seen some people say every other day, others say a couple of days feeding, one off, etc.

2. I usually feed him about 3-4 ounces of food. Is that enough for a tegu of Ted's size/weight? He isn't losing any weight, that's for sure!

3. When it comes to UVB light, the local pet store had ZooMed Reptisun 5.0 UVB and 10.0 UVB bulbs. The funny thing is that the label said that 5.0 was for tropical reptiles and 10.0 was for desert reptiles, but the box recommended the 10.0 for tegus. I've read about about UVB ratings being misleading, so was wondering if anyone has recommendations on a UVB bulb for my size tegu.

4. One photo shows a bit of a shed problem at the very tip of Ted's tail. When he went through his full shed it was clear that the last 8-9" of his tail had not properly shed and he actually had two layers of shed. They both came off except for the last couple of inches where only his latest shed came off. What is the best way to safely remove this?

5. Back to my original question on sexing Ted. Suggestions of what to look for?

 

[Debita]

What a beauty!! From your photos, Ted seems more like Tina. My B/W Argentine female looked a lot like yours. And, at 37" she would show more jowls if she were a male.

I would not feed her every day unless you just like doing it - but watch her weight closely. My male eats about every 2-3 days, but seems to be slowing down with the days getting shorter. 3-4 oz sounds about right - the best thing to do is to let her eat until she walks away. It will vary from feeding to feeding. I like what you're feeding her, and one of the more common things fed is ground turkey. I get the higher fat version, not the lean stuff. I use a ground calcium because it's easier than eggshell. Cheap - less headache. Start supplementing with fish oil and Vit B-complex right away to help with shed.

It's always difficult to advise people on the gradient temps they need to use for captive Tegus. Generally, 70 dg for the cooler (escape from the heat) side, and she is an adult so she can use a strong basking temp of 110-125 dg. If the top temp for your basking area causes your cool area to heat up past 80 dg, I would back off the basking heat to 115 dg, and so on. I think their cool area is as important as the heated side. The ambient (mid) temp should be in the 80's.

You need to monitor the humidity (I have a mister) to give her a good moist atmosphere. It's super important for their skin. I've heard people going as low as 60%, but I've always gone toward 80%. Placing a good hide with moistened sphagnum moss inside will be a good way to supplement that effort.

I have a Repti-sun 10.0 UVB bulb in my enclosure.