Puberty

[Rhetoric]

Anyone know an age frame when they've passed the moody puberty phase? Guru is 13 months and has never gone through a moody phase. I thought it was more like 1.5-2yrs but I was going through some of the old threads and some of those posts said they go through it around 8 months..
Side note, its kind of cool to read through all the old posts on here!

 

[Kebechet]

Link hasn't really ever gone through the "moody puberty" thing either. The closest thing that I can think of, is when he was just under a year, and I was starting taking him outside for walks. He got a little spooked a couple of times, gaped at me a lot when I tried to pick him up (only when we were outside) and thrashed a lot, but this was very brief. I got bit a little once on the hand after I picked him up, but I attribute that to him being out and about for a few hours with me, and me ignoring his "I'm irritated and scared, and want to be somewhere familiar now!" body language. The only other time I got bit was a little before that when I was attempting to hand-feed him some meat. He got my entire finger plus the meat in his mouth, and seemed as startled as I was about him getting ahold of my finger. He now generally refuses to eat from my fingers, and will only eat from my hand if he's eating something from my palm.

I'm going to guess the moodiness of the tegu depends on a number of factors: how often they're handled, where they're being handled, if there is food involved, and how socialized they are in general. When he was a baby I worked to socialize him with cats, dogs, and everyone on the street who wanted to check him out. I've never once seen him get possessive of anything (except when he was chewing on things because he was teething) I've only ever had one tegu so far, so my current opinion is definitely biased, but I have to wonder how much of this puberty aggression is just due to not socializing the animals with everyone at a young age, not understanding body language, and not messing around enough in their enclosure to the point that they see it as their "territory" that they have to defend. It could be that after a year and a half everyone finally just adapts to each other and the tegu is like "whatever" and gets on with life if you go into his cage, or pick him up, etc.

 

[Rhetoric]

That would make a lot of sense. Thanks! Hopefully our little men wont go through a moody phase

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That would make a lot of sense. Thanks! Hopefully our little men wont go through a moody phase

 

[reptastic]

Hey consider yourself lucky, I havnt really had the displeasure of dealing with it fully, storm and rayne have remained somewhat sweethearts, I'm hoping they don't go through it

 

[Rhetoric]

LOL no complaints! Just really curious about the whole thing

 

[dragonmetalhead]

Kodo's been awfully antsy lately when I take him out. Still uber-calm, but not mellow like he was. He is always crawling and squirming around in my hands, lol. I was wondering if it might have something to do with puberty.

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@ Rhetoricx: The fact that your signature says "They're re taking the hobbits to Isengard!" was earned you my eternal love. I am a HUGE LOTR nerd.

 

[Rhetoric]

How old is your tegu? I've mostly read about them getting crabby when they go through it but every now and then I see posts where people have said their tegu is more clingy. I thought Guru might have been starting to go through it in April but he just had one off day.

@ Rhetoricx: The fact that your signature says "They're re taking the hobbits to Isengard!" was earned you my eternal love. I am a HUGE LOTR nerd.

I'm assuming you've seen the youtube video where they've turned it into a song.. I've had it stuck in my head for DAYS. lol.

 

[dragonmetalhead]

I saw that video YEARS ago, it's a classic. I don't know exactly how old Kodo is; I got him at a local pet shop. No real idea of his background or origins. When I got him I posted on this forum asking how old he was based off size and the best guestimate is one year. He's somewhere between 24 and 27 inches (I can't get him to sit still long enough for an accurate measurement) and last I took him to the vet he weighed about a pound and is doing great. He's still friendly, not aggressive in the least, just constantly in motion. The other day Kodo jumped nearly three feet off a chair and nearly gave me a damn heart attack. I've read too many stories on this forum of tegus falling and dying and I'm already a wee bit paranoid. He keeps trying to walk off the counter at work, which is probably nearly four feet high at least. I always have him leashed when I take him out (which has saved his scaly butt more than once) and if he tries to walk off I put my hand out for him to crawl on. Kodo does always look before he leaps, however; he's a clever boy, lol. I hope he calms down when this is all done, I miss my little buddy who used to just chill on my shoulder!