Sleeping..

[zazzmomma]

My 8 week old Argentine BW is sleeping a lot..we brought him home this past Wednesday and he will his out at nite and burrow to sleep(timer turns light off around 9pm) and then won't appear til early afternoon like 1:30ish. Then when he's out he lays on the ground or up by heat and sleep still and lays there. He has eatin some supers and lettuce but not a lot..is this normal?

 

[Mootworm]

I'm thinking maybe your temps are too low? That's usually the first thing to check with sluggish herps. That said, my tegu is a lazy bones and doesn't poke her head out until about noon. What type of enclosure is it and what are the ambient and basking temps? What is he eating? Btw, I would avoid lettuce - no nutritional value. Check out the food list for good veggies to offer, though some will not take fruits and/or vegetables. Try to get your hands on some roaches, he might like those

 

[zazzmomma]

This is each half of his enclosure, in the first photo there's a powersun and we added a 50w halogen above and in the second photo above that half there's 150w basking bulb. Rite under the basking spot with the powersun is around 100F, the other side is 90s and all around the bulbs is 80s and everywhere else is 70s. He ate a couple super worms, and licked some eggs I scrambled but otherwise won't eat anything else. I've put fruit in there and we r trying the ground raw turkey tomorrow to see if he will eat that..

 

[Mootworm]

I wouldn't be too worried as of yet. You've only had him for 4 days, correct? Give him time to settle in. Mine was pretty finicky the first two weeks, now she's a ravenous beast lol. Beautiful enclosure btw!!!

 

[zazzmomma]

Ok. Wen should we start handling him? I don't want him to b scared of us..and thank u!!

 

[Mootworm]

Well I'm probably not the best person to ask about handling. Technically, I waited like a month and a half lol. By my baby was hibernating, so I saw her MAYBE 5 times during that period. But I waited until she was alert and active to start. I'm going really slow with her, I don't want to run into any issues with forced handling.

I started out hanging near her enclosure, sifting through her dirt while she was up, changing water etc but no touching/picking up. I tong feed in her enclosure ( I know some dont agree with that), but she is really responsive to that. I figure a full tegu will be less flighty and aggressive than a hungry one. After tong feeding, I'll let her bask for a bit then touch along her back. I still haven't graduated to picking her up yet, I'm just letting her get used to my presence and learn that I'm not going to hurt her. It's a very slow process, and is kind of frustrating in that aspect, but I'm hoping it'll pay off in the long run.

Sorry for the novel!! Haha hope that helps some.

 

[zazzmomma]

Kind of!! I'll put my hand by him and he will come to me and lick me a couple times then go back to laying. Down and I'll pet his back and talk to him. Once he's out ill open the doors and talk to him everyday. He won't eat for us really yet either from the bowl or by tongs. It happened once he ate from his bowl.