Tegu Bite - Keeping it real...

[Debita]

@Walter1, and @RomanPort and now @Mcpinchynubs.... Now that I have fixed the constipation/blockage issue....I wanted to tell you guys about my idiot blunder.


On Monday - I received a nasty bite from the vice grip of my 2 yr old male, Skully. I had to pry open his mouth (top jaw) with my left hand, while also emitting 3 loud yelps from my own mouth. It was completely my mistake. I'm now one of those idiots that got too casual - thinking I could quickly dangle a (thawed) mouse for him to eat while he took a leisurely bath in about 6" of water.

He jumped with voracious intent.

I have never seen him jump before. I had no idea he could jump that fast, or that high. I found myself to be grateful that he didn't pick that moment to go into one of his favorite death rolls. I'm sure he didn't know he was grabbing onto my thumb, but he didn't know he needed to let go of it either. He had never gotten food from me while in the tub - and thought that he only had one chance to conquer that mouse.

It took a lot of strength to pry open those jaws. New respect for Tegu power.

Blood everywhere - but no stitches. The trauma of the vice grip did more damage than the several painful puncture wounds I now wear as a badge of honor. My thumb was about 3 times it's normal size. Today, only 2 times, and no red streaks running up my arm!!! No joke - shooting pains (while on Advil) all night long the first night. It took 24 hours to wind down the pain a bit.

Yes he could've broken my thumb. Yes, he could have shredded it. Wow - how happy am I? (*phew!)

 

[RomanPort]

Geez. I'm glad that it wasn't worse and you'll be okay. I wish I had some magic words of advise. I hope that it'll get better soon. Keep us updated.

Do you think there's going to be any long term damage? How're you doing now?

 

[Debita]

No - no long term damage. Just to my ego maybe...I did NOT think that he had any inclination to just jump and grab that mouse. It took me by surprise that's for sure. So often he just puts his nose on it to check things out, then he very carefully takes it from me - no jumping, no desperation....haha. It's pretty sore still - no bending it yet. Thanks for the kind words. Did you finish your enclosure yet? I just purchased a (custom) bigger one about a week ago and will get it in about a week.

 

[Walter1]

I'm with RomanPort. Also, though, "voracious intent" is a phrase I will incorporate in my descriptive analyses.

I think you interpreted the matter well!

 

[Debita]

My ego feels a little better. I'll be proud to know you're using it.....

And....I think he's eating and drinking with regularity now. Back to feeling his oats. Thanks!!

 

[Mcpinchynubs]

Wow! My goodness I am glad you made it out with out major damage. Be safe and I wish for your speedy recovery.

 

[Debita]

Thank you very much. Watch out that your nose isn't mistaken for some delicious food one day. Lol

 

[AlphaAlpha]

Glad to hear your ok and WOW that must have hurt I couldn't imagine how powerful a large Argentine could be .... Speedy recovery and tongs

 

[Debita]

Tongs...tongs...tongs. It hurt like a bugger. (Still does) Thanks Alpha - won't be making that mistake again.

 

[nightanole]

Yea i remember when my male was only like 1.5lbs. I tried to feed him a dubia by holding the wings. It didnt go well...

My thought pattern was "well hes only a little bigger than a beardy".

 

[Debita]

Haha!... their jaws are vice grips with teeth. I'm still bandaged up a little!

You think you know or understand things....I've been to the Grand Canyon several times - taken photographs, and admired the grandeur.

Then I hiked to the bottom. There's a whole other world going on down there that demands respect.

 

[Merlot]

I’ve seen my gu do some pretty miraculous jumps, left the cage open as I was prepping the bath and he hopped up straight to the top of the enclosure and was just standing there like what do I do now? I grabbed em and put em in the bath. Only time he lunged at me was when I wasn’t feeding him enough because he prolapse that I fixed myself and I didn’t want to feed him to much so he doesn’t hurt when he makes a poop and was wanting him to make some small gradual poops. So when he knew it was feeding time and saw that mouse he leaped like Spider-Man towards that bad boy and kind of scared the **** out of me. So if he/she is well fed I think your gu will do less of that. Mine was just going through like a two week jumping binge trying to see what he can conquer but is giving up now lol. They can certainly jump high far and fast. My male is about 28” and getting girthy and when my female was his size she was eating less than him. This dude got a serious appetite.

He slightly bit my hand a little for a second last night and felt like he knew he was wrong and I saw it coming cuz he was looking it like he inspects his food before he goes for a well placed bite on his food. I tapped him on the snout and hissed at him for it lol and we carried on about our chilling. All was good after. I don’t think I washed my hands good enough after I cracked some cod liver oil pills

 

[Debita]

Skully is 40"+ and still leaped like he weighed a pound. I think he's about 10 lbs. now. Basically - he looks like a small aligator. I was interested in your prolapse issues, because I just fixed a blockage/impaction problem with him and worried about it becoming a prolapse problem. So far so good - but ...but...but - he's still producing grainy (like salt) and calcified pieces of urate. I'm not sure what else I can do to encourage him to drink more. I am drowning his food, and offering bottled water whenever he'll take it. We're not out of the woods.

So what caused the prolapse with your guy?

 

[Barbara Whyman]

I quickly learned to always use tongs though Tyrus has not acted aggressively towards me when it comes to eating he does not distinguish food from fingers. Hope you do not have long term damage to your thumb I have 2 fingers injured over 15 years ago (not bitten smashed under 80 pounds in the gym that still often hurts.

 

[Merlot]

Well my Gu wasn’t having regular bowel movements for a short while and I noticed he was eating and not pooping so I relaxed on the food a bit, I was feeding him ReptiLinks ground whole prey sausages and was usually thriving on these bad boys as my other Gu did. But, I think he was too small to eat these sausages or at least as many as he was able to eat. I try to mix Soemthing else with the sausages like veggies or fruits for fiber what have you. And ultimately, while he was having digestion issues/bowel movements/constipation, his stomach couldn’t probably crack the casing of the sausages open, even though they’re made of natural collagen, and when he pooped he was pushing too hard. This happened twice and never before with ANY other lizard I’ve had. I freaked out, googled it up because he woke up after bedtime to look for a spot to poop and pushed way too hard and a-whole fell out basically. I immediately noticed it and it was like he knew I was fixing it, I put him in the bath with Luke warm water, not hot or cold, more room temp almost, believe it or not, I dumped a bunch of sugar in the bath water and mixed around, let him hang and calm down and when he was calm i took the shower head and sprayed his rectum that was hanging out with water until it was nice and pink and normal looking again. Had to get some of the substrate off with my fingers by gently massaging or grabbing it off. I used some reg vasaline and put it all over his area/cloaca/rectum and returned him to the water until he got it back in. One time I masssged it gently back in til he could just make a good inhale to get it in, the other time it went back in jsut with the sugar water, cleaning, and vasaline. And then just let him hang with me a while outside the enclosure and calms him down. I now slit the Sausages before giving them to help with digestion, temp using them more sparingly until he get bigger. He can now eat a pretty nice sized medium fuzzy mouse which is great. He LOVES whole smelt cut up in his fav bite sized pieces.

With the impaction, you just gotta crack some fish oil or cod liver oil pills in his/her food. (Cod liver oil preferred) that stuff lubes em up so quick. My Gu, since I been putting that in his meals pretty much with every meal, poopin like a champ and I feel like he totally cleared out his system and was really hungry and ready to eat. Been great since. I swear by the cod liver oil. But just get the pills, most of the liquid stuff is scented and my Gu’s have been picky to the scented stuff, and LOVE the good ol naturale fish smell. That’s why he nipped my hand a little when we were hanging cuz I left some on there. Do you and your GU a favor and get the cod liver oil pills and crack a couple in his meals esp on the main bites you think they’ll take first or won’t waste time with (we kind of know their behaviors)
Shucks and take some for yourself too. They are ridiculously good for nails, skin, and all that. My gu’s skin looks amazing and shiny all the time


For the water issue try trickling some water on his snout to kind of imitate rain and be patient. And lot more bath time, maybe some grapes with all the water in there or something of the like. They can get good water from the fruits

And a little white hard calcified urate is ok. It’s how the excrete the remainder. Mine was basically peeing and letting out urate until I gave him some good diet change with fiber and fish oil etc.. and boom, back to good poops that makes papa proud. And pissed. Cuz his poops are crazy big for his size but thanks god healthy.

 

[Tamera Rooney]

Eek, been there, done that. When Chiquita was a little baby, I fed her an itty bitty mouse with my finger. The mouse was the same color as my finger, so chomp! I laughed but dang!

 

[Merlot]

Lol my only fear of me continuing to feed these sausages to him other than the digestion. Is they literally look like perfect little biteable thumbs. So I always get weary when first starting to handle him so he doesn’t think my fingers are literally the suasages I feed em lol

 

[Debita]

Great responses Thanks! - I'll try doing the Cod Liver Oil. I've been doing the fish oil but I can try that too. Good job on the prolapse Merlot - I'm doing baths, trickling water, all that. I've done tongs since I got him, because he was so darn angry - but lately he's been happy to see me, and I just got careless. My fault.