Soon-to-be Keeper, Looking for Advice

[TheFrogGoesMoo]

After years of of holding off on adopting due to my economic and personal status, I've finally reached a stable enough position where I can adopt a tegu and provide it with the care and attention it deserves. The other day, a person in my community contacted me about adopting their 1 1/2 year old female red tegu. Although I've considered adopting a hatchling/young juvenile, I've decided that I want to adopt an older animal that's closer to full size. I've been prepping in my spare time all week, and she'll be joining me this weekend.

In spite of my eagerness, I have been tempering my expectations somewhat- I know that the animal will likely be less than enthusiastic about me for a while, and from what I could glean from the previous owner she didn't have as miuch socialization in her first year or so as other tegus may have. I plan on letting her settle in for a bit before attempting to interact with her, but I need a little bit of advice/reaffirmation on what the first weeks/months will look like.

Handling:
1 ish hours every day(?)
I want to ensure that she gets used to handling and being around me, but I also don't want to immediately start building negative association or stress her out.

Feeding:
For a tegu of her age, once every other day. Varied diet - i'm planning on feeding ground poultry/vegetables, with some fruit and whole prey (insects and small rodents) mixed in. Also calcium powder with at least one meal a week.

 

[Josh]

Handling you're going to have to take day by day sometimes hour by hour. Let the animal tell you when it's in the mood or not. And don't force it if she's not having it that day.

Good plan for feeding but again be fluid enough to adapt to the animal's needs. Keep a log at first so you can monitor what works and what doesn't.

 

[Josh]

p.s. welcome to the forum!

 

[LoTeq]

After years of of holding off on adopting due to my economic and personal status, I've finally reached a stable enough position where I can adopt a tegu and provide it with the care and attention it deserves....

I'm in the exact same boat! I'll piggy-back your thread

Could someone give me a rule of thumb for food portion size?
Not prey size for safety, but overall volume of a normal meal.

In terms relative to the Tegu itself would be most helpful I think.
Something compared to head size? "Babies should eat 2x their head volume every day, Adults eat 3x their head volume in food every few days"
I just pulled those numbers out of my butt, but something like that would be fantastic.

I hope that makes sense, and I'm really only looking for a super rough estimate
Thanks

 

[rsbenedict]

I have heard that portion size should equal the size of their head and that whole prey should be able to fit between their eyes so they don't choke.

 

[LoTeq]

Thanks!
I was looking at some food at the grocery store (fish, turkey, fruit) with price in mind and realized it wasn't really useful until I have an idea for the volume I'll be feeding.