New to the Tegu Scene

[Kamau Le Boidae]

Hiya lovelies, I'm a youngster in the herpetological community, but I've been a long-term resident here regardless. I've owned two beardies, moved up the line with two Chinese water dragons, and most recently (as in four years ago) added a sand boa to my collection (although I soon hope to add a tegu in there within the next year or so).

Now, to move onto the meat and potatoes of this thread, I'm a sophomore in high school who's had her heart set on working with reptiles since I was a small child. I hope to attend college in the next few years to major in biology, and minor in music and literature. I have a very wide outlet of interests but if I had to choose one over the other, it'd undoubtedly be my passion for animals and nature in general.

Now, I know this isn't the topic of the thread, but if no one minds me slipping a quick question in here I kinda am stressing out about this a little.

I plan on going to a college out of state, and am wanting to live on campus although I'm not sure how lenient they'd be on me keeping a miniature zoo in my dorm XP
Anyways, I know for a fact I can pay for these animals, I'm already going to be paid to attend a particular college, but my issue lies in finding housing that won't mind a snake or lizard. Are apartments, for the most part, pretty tolerant of these animals? Or do I need to do some serious hunting and have to jump through hoops to keep them? I can see that most of em say that they have a policy on cats and dogs, but... I'd just like some feedback from people who have experience with this.

Anyways, thank you for your time

 

[Rebecca Stout]

I've found that in most apartments when you say its a "caged animal" (like a hamster) they will let you. However a tegu has a very misunderstood reputation. So you might have an issue with that. What is very concerning is being able to fit an enclosure in an apartment. Argentines requre 8 x 4 foot cages. Maybe if you get one female you can do with 6x3. Colombians can have smaller cages, but not by much i'd think.

 

[Rebecca Stout]

You know if possible, have it in writing or on the lease somewhere they you do in fact have a pet lizard. I'll tell you why. I had pets that my apartment land lords said was no problem. I wasn't even required to have a pet deposit because they viewed them as "caged" (which they werent really, they were ferrets). So I had many pets. And they let me because we took better care of our place than the average person. Everything was great for years. Then the apartment complex was sold. The new owners came in and said to everyone only 2 pets allowed and they didnt care if it was 2 frogs or two dogs. Two was two. Ridiculous. So there I was with all of these snakes and ferrets etc. I was like, how can you change a contract, I have a years lease. Well, technically for us, they weren't changing policy as it was no on record that I had pets and that they were allowed. Thankfully they let us move without repercussions. Its just given the fact that many people have prejidice against reptiles, if you specifically say on the lease that you have one, rather than just one "pet", then you can ward off the possibility of a new owner coming in and saying, "you can't have that monster, its only dogs and cats here" or somethign to that nature.