Tegu enclosure advice needed, .

[mythologylizards]

My name is victor i am owner and breeder of dogs and bearded Dragons. I am looking to own two tegus a breeding pair but i want to have them from baby stage so i can tame them . I want to get started and have a good enclosure . I live in Utah very cold winters with that said My question is can i keep them inside of my garage with the right set up?? i was thinking a large wood enclosure with plexi glass in the front everything sealed just two air vents . i was thinking putting a heat / uvb lamp inside with heat tape on the bottom. Will that work?? any advice on how to make this as perfect as possible please share. Any tegu info will be perfect , we are new and want to know everything about them. I have spend hours online doing reserch and i think i can be a good tegu owner. please feel free to reply.

 

[james.w]

How well insulated is your garage? If you can keep the temps around 50 minimum in the garage, it would be doable.

 

[Toby_H]

I suggest having two seperate enclosures for your pair. They will probably be fine together most of the time, but when they do need to be seperated, it's important you have the set up to do so.

In most practices, It is not a good idea to provide under tank heat for Tegus or other burrowing animals. Nature tells them to go to the surface for heat and to burrow to cool off. Under Tank Heat contradicts that nature.

What kind of temperatures does your garage experience? It's not difficult at all to insulate the enclosure and provide heat, as long as you plan ahead and build to suit. Not to mention if you plan to breed you will want to hibernate the pair through the winter. It's excessive heat in the summer that's the hardest to deal with.

It is not required, but if you could supply an outdoor enclosure for them to spend time in during the summer, they would apperciate it.

 

[mythologylizards]

cold winter nights gets as low as 10 degrees the garage is usually 20 degree's warmer inside the garage.
We are planning to build outdoor enclosures for our reptiles. bearded dragons and tegu.
we are in no rush to breed we will let them grow we want to be pet owners but would want a clutch of them in the future.
any more tegu advice would be appriciated.

 

[james.w]

Is there anything specific you are wanting to know, it is much easier that way? As long as you can keep it from getting too hot in the summer you should be ok.

 

[mythologylizards]

Ok. i was thinking they can be out all day in the summer and maybe they can sleep there if the temps are good if not bring them in to their cages. since they can't be together i was thinking 4x8 divided in the middle so 2x4 each is that good enough?
substrate what do you use?
can you use straw?

 

[james.w]

If you are saying using a 8L x 4w divided in half would be 4x4, that should be fine for sleeping only. I use cypress mulch for substrate. I have heard of people using straw but also heard it molds easily with the humidity needed for tegus. You can also use a sand-soil mixture, I never have but may try it for my monitor and rhino iguana.

 

[txrepgirl]

I don't recommend using the heat tape. But if you want to you can use a heat pannel. I wish I could give you some infos on how to house the Tegus outside where it is cold but I can't. I'm from TX.

Heat pannel info.

http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/-/medium-helix-radiant-heat-panel/

 

[mythologylizards]

thanks for the info . i am going to look into those panels now.

 

[mythologylizards]

Also i know you got to clean their **** daily but how often do you change the whole cage substrate?
and i seen a video that had a humidifier to keep it moist do any of you have it?

 

[james.w]

Entire changes should probably be done about once a year. I haven't had mine that long yet so I'm not completely sure. I use a humidifier in mine, but just started. It helps with the humidity and will hopefully help with shedding.

 

[mythologylizards]

Oh ok .. yeah i seen it on a video and i'm going to have to get one for them to make things easier for both of us.

 

[slideaboot]

I change out my coco fiber once every 3 months (I spot clean and rotate it from ground level to surface level as well, while churning it with water to keep it a bit moist). If I go to long beyond 3 months, it starts to get a bit funky.

 

[mythologylizards]

oK thanks for the information.