Newbie!!

[Coliosis]

Hello everyone! I'm brand new to this forum (well I've browsed a bit) and new to tegus as well! My boyfriend and I just picked up our beautiful Argentine BnW from Simply Reptiles at an expo yesterday. We have been talking the past week or two about getting one "eventually", so he was definitely an impulse buy. lol. He was the only one at the expo and he has a white nose just like I wanted!
We aren't sure of the sex (it's impossible to tell when they're young right?) but we guess a boy! So I'll go with that for now lol
We were told he is about 3 months old and is captive bred. I weighed him last night and he is 136g.
Here he is and his home that we had to throw together last night as well:

Let me know what you think!

A few questions...

How much should I be feeding my guy and how often? I read on 1 site that hatchling-yearling you feed 1-2x a day as much as they want, and on another breeder's site it said feed them every other day...so now I'm not sure.
Should his diet mainly be crickets/insects at this age? That's what I was told at the expo, but it seems like ground turkey is the main staple protein when I research online.

I'd love to know what/how you feed your tegus about my guy's size!

Any suggestions/tips/opinions/comments welcome!!

 

[johnyb]

Hello and welcome!
Your going to love owning a tegu im sure!
I am fairly new myself so i dont want to give you advise like i know everything.. so with out being softmoric.. i do have some pointers.. or i can atleast share with you my experiences.
-Feeding.. should be everyday or everyother day depending on time of year, the meal itself.. and ofc the tegu. (for example: mine eats stricktly every three days i dont know why lol)
Ground up turkey balls... roll em up and make them bite sized, make sure you dip them in calcium.
hard boiled egg cut up, chicken hearts and gizzard, goliath worms... rats.. chicks... they can eat lots and lots of things.


Make sure the temp and humidity is correct and he/she will out grow that enclosure soon enough =p

 

[Coliosis]

Oh I love it already!
Okay good to know, thanks for the info
We bought a few hornworms and pinkie mice today so I'll try those tomorrow, do you think pinkies are too small?
Would you recommend something like a rubbermaid bin that you can't see through as a feeding bin? I tried using a 20 gallon tank but he just kept scratching at the sides wanting out. He didn't eat anything today, slept most of the day, but he ate some supers and phoenix worms yesterday evening.

I'm pretty sure my little guy was always fed in his cage so do you think it will take awhile for him to eat in a separate bin?

His basking temp gets to 110F at the hottest spot, but that's directly under the light beam (I use a 50W halogen bulb), the rest of the basking area is 100-110F. The cool end is 74-76F. He has a Reptisun 10.0 UVB light as well and I use Repcal calcium and Repcal multivitamins. Should I switch between calcium with and without D3? I have both already so that wouldn't be a problem.

Sorry lots of questions...thanks in advance!

 

[johnyb]

All of it sounds pretty right on.
I herd tegus have difficulty absorbing calcium with out vitamin d.

I dont feed in a bin.. Its recommended so try!
good luck hope i was some help

 

[Coliosis]

Our tegu has basically been sleeping since we got him, but he has been waking up more and more over the past week and he seems like he is starving every time he's up too Just the other day he ate a big hornworm and about 15 superworms and I swear he would have kept eating...but I didn't want to feed him too much since he's been sleeping so much. His poops look normal too, even though I've only seen a few and only in the past week! lol
For awhile he seemed to have a pretty bad wrinkle down his sides which we assumed to be a sign of dehydration. We have been making sure he drinks every time he's up and we've been spraying the tank and substrate fairly often and it seems like the wrinkle is almost gone Here are some pictures!

 

[james.w]

The wrinkle down the side generally means an empty stomach. What size aquarium is he in? Do you have plans for a permanent enclosure?

 

[Coliosis]

Oh okay, so what would be a sign of dehydration then? He's in a 4ft long 120 gallon tank right now but yes we definitely have plans to build something larger in the same spot that his tank is in currently. We have some more baby beardies on the way so we are building an enclosure for all of them and then the tegu is next! His enclosure will be about 6.5' by 3.5' and then we will be moving out in a couple years and plan on building something even larger since we are considering breeding them in the future.
His tank is fine for now though right? Although I'm sure he'll outgrow it in no time We weighed him 2 weeks ago and he has gained 15g since then!