tegu aggresion

[ilovelizards]

ok my tegu is getting food aggresive and has started assosiateing me with food....ok so here is what happan today i was holding a mouse then forgot to clean my hands befor i went out and petted my tegu.so all was good untill he licked my hand then when i got up to leave he lunged abit obviously trying to bit i gently pushed him away but. he started comeing back so i graved a nearby stick and kept him away so I could go inside.I graved him some hearts and gizzards and tossed it out there he ate afew while i cleaned my hands again.when i went back out all was good.so i took him out and let my mom pet him to see if he would act up.he didnt so it is my guess that ive been lazy and have just thrown live mice out in his cage.instead of prekilling it or useing my frozen stock.how do i break his habbait????
can i just stop feeding live and feed everything in his bowl??
idk what to do and im now abit afrade of my tegu now for myself and others..

 

[tommyboy]

I think this is just a lesson learned. You can never become too relaxed in tegu ownership. I think we have all made this mistake at one point. Everybody seems to have a different opinion on feeding in the enclosure. I feed my small tegu in his cage but always take him out first,put the food in and then put him back in the cage. This way he never associates my hands with the smell of food. My large guys are always fed in a separate enclosure. The food is always in there when they are put in. I feed them until they cannot eat another bite. Again my hands are never associated with the smell of the food. We keep a bottle of hand sanitizer by each enclosure and are constantly using it to be sure there are no food type smells lingering. As tame as our tegus are and as much as we would like to think they would never bite us, we need to always remember that they require the highest respect. Almost every time there is an issue like you had today it is due to us becoming a little too comfortable and trusting. I have a 3 inch scar on my hand from a bite years ago that is a constant reminder to always be overly cautious.

 

[Maro1]

5 Stars Tommyboy! Many people end up getting rid of their tegu's because they FORGET they are wild animals regardless of how tame they feel they may be.

 

[ilovelizards]

I think it is because of all the live food lately and my own lazyness i hope to break his little habait that is my fult.I normaly have hand sanatizer but resently ran out..and he hadnt been fed yet when i had gone out there and had been to busy to feed him this afternoon..but he had had 4 live mice the day befor so he didnt eat much.I normaly put meat ect out in the am befor i leave for school.He hadnt acted this way afew weeks ago(i could safely sit out there and do my homework and when ever i went out there all he wanted me to do was to pick him or let him on my lap or clime on me) because my stock of live mice had been low due to them not being full grown when i had to restart after a racoon raid eatting 2 litters of new borns befor my restart..so he had been eating frozen thawed like he should but then i got lazy with prekilling when my stock got high i love my tegu do you think i can break his habait????

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i feel so bad ive been such a forgetful owner and things are ending up like this.....i love him he has been like my little puppy dog/budy and ive never had any sort of problem till now and its my own fult not his..........

 

[james.w]

Is the only issue him trying to bite the one time when you didn't wash your hands after handling a mouse?

If this is the case, there is no problem with aggression. He smelled food on your hands AMD was hungry. How can you blame him? If you aren't interacting with him and only open his enclosure to feed, he will become food aggressive.

 

[m3s4]

Interestingly enough, my colombian, before he passed, wouldn't take turkey if he smelled my scent on it. I had to be careful how I gave it to him. If I tried to hand feed him and he smelled my fingers first, he was very apprehensive about eating that particular piece of turkey. Sometimes he wouldn't eat it. He'd lick it over and over but wouldn't eat it.

Also, if I had turkey scent on my fingers, he'd lick and blip them numerous times. Once he was satisfied it wasn't actually food - and it was my finger, he'd just turn his head away. He never bit me nor even acted like he was about to.

I'm sure many of you have had this happen as well, and to me, it shows they aren't always food aggressive and they can distinguish between you, your fingers, your scent and food.

But it takes time and a lot of interaction.

Also of note, I fed him by hand 75% of the time and I feed my arg. b&w the same way (turkey on a fork).

They don't always bite the hand that feeds them and although one can never say never, I have never been bit by my tegus while feeding.

I don't feed them live prey and I think this lessens their feeding response and aggression. When food is coming to them (being hand fed) and not running away from them (live prey) they get used to being pretty complacent.

 

[glk832]

Always have to remember they are non domesticated animals with natural wild behavior when it comes to food .... Just be careful... I dont feed live jmo.... It bring out that prey drive