Strange eater

[beardeddragon111]

I've had my subadult B&W tegu for about a week. He has a 4x2x2 cage, and he is 2.5 ft long and 11 months old (Working on the bigger cage, going to home depot tommorow to get supplies). Hot side is 90 degrees with a 110 degree basking log. cool side is ususally around 75 degrees. Humidity is aboout 50%. Substrate is cypress mulch and sphagnum moss. What I've noticed is very odd about him is he so far has taken very little meat ( 1 mouse the day I got him, as well as a little bit of ground turkey/talapia), and has taken a lot of fruit. He has taken grapes, bananas, blueberries, and plums, but he doesnt eat the meat! And he isn't really eating enough in general :/. I do not believe he is in hibernation, he gets up 8-12 hours every day by himself. Maybe it's because his cage isn't big enough? I thought it was suppose to be hard to get them to take fruit, and people ususally had to hide it in turkey or something. I'd appreciate any help.

 

[beardeddragon111]

He recently took some more ground turkey, but he has to look at it a long time and never takes very much :/

 

[Walter1]

Hard to say. May be used to a different diet from before you got him. You could try hard boiled egg. I have a suspicion he may have been fed whole prey like frozen/thawed mice.

 

[beardeddragon111]

I did forget to mention he took a hopper mouse the day I got him. I tried hard boiled egg the second day and he took about two bites of it than left it alone. I tried another mouse 4 days ago and he didn't even seem slightly interested. Maybe it could be because of the cage size? I'm tru;y stumped. He's not eating right now because his second heat lamp went out and its not hot enough for him at the moment. I will be getting another bulb hopefully before the weekend, because it has to be shipped.

 

[Walter1]

Listen. The lizard's a black box. No idea of past treatment. In formative years may have been fed something very different. Dog food, crocodile chow. Who knows? So, you have to try various things to strike his fancy. A healthy tegu will not starve itself. Plus winter is slowdown time to boot. Keep offering these various foods. He doesn't lose wait. Don't worry!

 

[viejo]

What is his basking temp?

 

[Walter1]

Uggggh. Wait= weight.

 

[beardeddragon111]

His basking temp at the moment is only 100 degrees because his second bulb went out. I will (hopefully) have a new one soon. When I had the other bulb it was 110-120. I plan on buying some chicks and some dog food with no weird ingredients to see if he takes those. Just tried kiwi and he seems to actually hate it. Maybe I'll buy some mazuri crocodile food. Whats so weird is that he takes maybe a bite or two off everythong I offer him, then leaves it, No matter how much variety I offer at one sitting. I'll keep offering mice and fruits. He seemed to enjoy plums but I've run out ( I like them too ).

 

[beardeddragon111]

He doesnt look skinny, though he is a tegu :/, and theyre usually some fat little beasts.

 

[Bug]

tried any bugs? Get some big crix or roaches or morio worms. I've never had a critter turn down hornworms either. Good luck, and def. get those temps up asap as that should boost his appetite some. What kind of uvb are you using?

 

[beardeddragon111]

I'm using a solarglow, tried superworms, and he doesn't want them. He didn't take crickets either. I may try large dubia roaches. Got his new bulb already, so temps are back to normal. He almost started a fire several times by knocking his lamps off the cage, so they had to be tied down. I will be trying another mouse soon, as well as chicks and dog food, though that's not something I'll do very often as its not very good for them, just need him eating.

 

[Bug]

My Gu doesn't care for morios much either, but my bosc goes nuts for them. Try dubia or other roaches. I've even had luck feeding large adult red runners(Blatta lateralis) to mine, but it takes a TON to fill a tegu off red runners.

 

[beardeddragon111]

I'Ll try dubias, as expensive as they are. Should I try earthworms too? How much are red runners?

 

[Bug]

red runners are DIRT cheap. They also breed extremely prolifically if hit with some heat. Nightcrawlers would be a great idea! Huge hit in my house.

And yeah, dubia are like roachy gold hahaha

have you tried day-old chicks? If your Gu is too small, you can always chop them to be managably sized. I personally feed as close to 100% whole prey and fruits as is reasonably possible, and I don't let my critters' mouth sizes determine their prey items. That is to say, if the prey is sized such that I could chop it and feed the entire prey item within 1 week, I will offer it.

I also offer a BUNCH of variety. Is there an Asian market near to you? They often have novel food items like snails, frogs, shrimps, and turtles.

My Kepler came to me from a vendor at an expo. I was told she had been feeding on wet cat or dog food exclusively. I have never offered dog/cat food to a reptile(knock on wood) and I don't ever plan to. I don't even feed the stuff to the species it is marketed to. My dog is on raw and when I had cats they were too. There are just too few rendering plants around that even "super duper amazing top of the line more expensive than human food" brand pet foods have to share equipment with the companies that legitimately put dog and cat flesh in their foods. blech. And quality control is not up to my standards even on aforementioned top of the line brands. And like a billion other reasons, but this is neither the time or the place for that. LOL

 

[beardeddragon111]

No Asian market near me :'C. I will try to offer as many different whole prey items/meats/fruits as I can, but I can't get the weird stuff thats suppose to be so good for them :/. I'll try ordering ground meats offline and pay the painful shipping expenses. Where do you buy red runners? I'd love to have roaches that weren't at a point where $50 would get me through maybe three days.

 

[Bug]

I order from cape cod roaches. There are cheaper suppliers out there, but this guy has a wide selection and good customer service

 

[beardeddragon111]

Ok thanks, He just took a hopper mouse !!!!!!!

 

[Bug]

Yay!!

 

[Justin]

My little guy shows no interest in fruit. However The roaches he eats love fruit so he gets it in a round about way.

 

[Savemygrave]

I'Ll try dubias, as expensive as they are. Should I try earthworms too? How much are red runners?

This kind of behaviour is completely normal for a new tegu. Olive barely touched any food for nearly two weeks when we got her then one day just went nuts over some locusts! Keep at it