Taming "the beast"

[J.LRegius]

Hi guys!
I'll still be on the forum, using what little experience I had to help you other tegu owners out there. BTW if there is a bit of burnt plastic on your powersun THROW IT AWAY!!
All you need is time and love, make sure your tegu knows you are not a threat to it. You could start by holding a strip of chicken (with tongs) above your lap, this will get your tegu to come to you from his enclosure. When your tegu is sitting on your lap give it the chicken. (make sure you have a bowl of chicken nearby and don't let your tegu get close to that bowl though) Pick up another piece of chicken (with tongs) and raise your arm so that your tegu will have to use your arm as support to reach the food, do not deny him the chicken and let him eat it. Next pick up another strip of chicken and hold it (WITH TONGS) so that your tegu must climb onto your shoulder to reach the chicken, after he is perched on your shoulder feed him the chicken. Repeat this everyday and in no time you'll have a perfectly tame tegu!

I must stress that if you don't use tongs your tegu may associate your hand with food and will bite you. I hope this helps! Justin.

 

[MIKE-ZILLA]

Im not so sure about your tactics on taming a tegu. I prefer gentle handling ,bin feeding, and not letting the tegu see me with the food. what happens when your tame tegu is 4 feet long and he jumps at you when your holding the tongs? what happens when he jumps, misses the tongs and gets your wrist instead?

 

[MIKE-ZILLA]

Im not so sure about your tactics on taming a tegu. I prefer gentle handling ,bin feeding, and not letting the tegu see me with the food. what happens when your tame tegu is 4 feet long and he jumps at you when your holding the tongs? what happens when he jumps, misses the tongs and gets your wrist instead?

 

[J.LRegius]

lol this was intended for little-medium sized ones!

 

[J.LRegius]

Well it worked brilliantly for Ty and it might work for other tegu owners, anyway you are supposed to hold the food so that when he climbs up on you he can't reach it. Then give him the food.

 

[MIKE-ZILLA]

yeah, I was kinda thinkin about mine when I replied. shes almost 3' .she jumped at me one day when i was placing her food. was kinda scary

 

[J.LRegius]

well it's the owners decision whether or not this method will work, of course the tactics you mentioned I think are also very effective. It depends what kind of personality your tegu has really...some take to gentle handling well some don't...