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Pure VS Hybrid Blues

Best Option?

  • Pure Blue

    Votes: 2 66.7%
  • Blue&BW Cross

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Blue&Any Cross

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Black and White

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Doesn’t Matter, they’re all the same

    Votes: 1 33.3%

  • Total voters
    3

Russet

New Member
Messages
1
Hello. I’ve had some prior experience years ago with a blue tegu. I’m considering buying one sometime soonish. I enjoyed the “big but not too big” size, temperament, and of course the subtle blue coloration.

I’ve been trying to look up breeders, etc, to get an idea of what I’m getting myself into. It looks like prices are a fair bit higher than what I remember!
Why are there so many hybrids these days? Why are they cheaper than pure blues? Is there a noticeable difference in size/look/temperament if I get one of the cheaper BW crosses?
I remember that blues are thought to be a subspecies of the BW so I’m assuming it’d have the least differences as a cross. I’ve never handled the other tegus so I’m not sure what the standard temperaments are of BWs, Reds, etc in comparison to blues.
I understand that there was only a small batch originally brought into the US and that some may be trying to get “fresh blood” by outcrossing. I wasn’t expecting it to blow up like this, though! Were pure blues already starting to show signs of inbreeding beyond the burnt nose? Might be simpler to just get a BW!

TL;DR: I was set on a standard blue but now there looks to be more crosses than regular ones. What’s the best option? Is getting a hybrid “settling” or the better option because of health?
 

Walter1

Moderator
Staff member
1,000+ Post Club
5 Year Member
Messages
4,384
Welcome.

There is some debate as to the taxonomic status of a blue tegu. For what it's worth, I think that there is something to it. Attentive keepers note that they don't brumate much. Jowls of males are reduced. Distinctive pattern.

Argentine Giant Tegus have a broad geographic range, and collectors for the pet trade often out-pace science in finds.

Hector's Habitat produces blues. He has a good reputation. I keep WC Argies from a site in S. Florida. Doubtless a founder population that was released by a wanted importer. Where did they come from in S. America? Who knows.

However, a pure Argie, or a blue, is predictable in many ways. Hybrids have an appeal to people, but by their very nature, increase crossing increases unpredictability in traits. Of course, when it's done unethically by endless back crosses, your get animals horribly compromised in health.

The best pet is the one you want. The goal is to know what comprises what you want! Hope this is helpful.
 

bocacash

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
69
Location
Deerfield Beach, FL
There is no doubt, in my mind, that MOST of the cross/in breeding is driven by the desire to 'create' (and name) the newest craze in Tegu's...and greed !
I am generally against it...for those very reasons ! I am afraid it will go the way of dogs...weird looking, compromised, problem riddled, 'boutique' animals that defy normal description or function ! SAD. I know animals CAN cross/in breed in the wild...but, it is done under nature's hard rules...if it doesn't HELP the breed survive by an advantage over others...it quickly disappears ! Under human protection this rule is circumvented and even disadvantages are allowed to continue in the species...to the detriment of that species ! Pardon me while I step down off my soap box, now ! :)
 

Walter1

Moderator
Staff member
1,000+ Post Club
5 Year Member
Messages
4,384
There is no doubt, in my mind, that MOST of the cross/in breeding is driven by the desire to 'create' (and name) the newest craze in Tegu's...and greed !
I am generally against it...for those very reasons ! I am afraid it will go the way of dogs...weird looking, compromised, problem riddled, 'boutique' animals that defy normal description or function ! SAD. I know animals CAN cross/in breed in the wild...but, it is done under nature's hard rules...if it doesn't HELP the breed survive by an advantage over others...it quickly disappears ! Under human protection this rule is circumvented and even disadvantages are allowed to continue in the species...to the detriment of that species ! Pardon me while I step down off my soap box, now ! :)
I recognize strong biological training. Nothing for me to add to that.
 

Walter1

Moderator
Staff member
1,000+ Post Club
5 Year Member
Messages
4,384
Exactly. Some of the maladies are even predictable by breeds. Hip dysplasia, breathing problems, etc. Problem with tegus is the unknowns associated with the very morph itself and/or the extent to which animals were inbred to capture the trait that causes problems. All things being as equal as can be in care, I wonder what the frequencies of prolapse are among morphs and WC?

What a person buys is of course not my business, but I consider it my business to understand the the risks and their causes.



Perfect examples are all the allergies, and seizures in dogs now. Didn't exist 40-50 years ago. Nobody took their dogs to the vet back then...only when injured as I remember it.
 

Dylan koch

Member
Messages
311
He is so white I can take some pictures of them if they comf out I just have ones a month or so old so they are alot bigger now
 

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