Tegu Food List

[Dana Brown]

What and when do you feed a tegu. I just got a big one a few days ago and I am clueless about it. Anyone have a feeding chart by any chance? I am so new to this!

 

[Walter1]

Hi Dana- I want you to succeed. You have a 1+ yr old. She's still growing. Every other day offer her frozen/ thawed mice to her fill, dusted with "calcium with D3". This way she gets whole animal nutrition. Once a week, offer her chicken hearts or gizzards or chicken tenders, or ground anything or good quality wet dog food, all dusted with calcium that has D3. This is a starting point to be adjusted as things progress.

 

[Dana Brown]

Hi Dana- I want you to succeed. You have a 1+ yr old. She's still growing. Every other day offer her frozen/ thawed mice to her fill, dusted with "calcium with D3". This way she gets whole animal nutrition. Once a week, offer her chicken hearts or gizzards or chicken tenders, or ground anything or good quality wet dog food, all dusted with calcium that has D3. This is a starting point to be adjusted as things progress.

Thank you Walter1

 

[Walter1]

You're very welcome. Be flexible. For mice, consider rodentpro.

 

[fcasey]

Hi Dana- I want you to succeed. You have a 1+ yr old. She's still growing. Every other day offer her frozen/ thawed mice to her fill, dusted with "calcium with D3". This way she gets whole animal nutrition. Once a week, offer her chicken hearts or gizzards or chicken tenders, or ground anything or good quality wet dog food, all dusted with calcium that has D3. This is a starting point to be adjusted as things progress.

I'm curious as to why you would need to dust mice with calcium and D3.

 

[Walter1]

In case the mice aren't fully grown. Especially important while the tegu is rapidly growing and bone development.

 

[Lizardess]

Perfect list! Now if we just had an app for the iphone with this as a prominent button.

 

[Scale1234]

Hello,I was wondering if this list of food concluding tegus of all stages as some of these food may not be a good diet depending on the tegus age. Also I haven't got a tegu yet but I may be getting one in the next few months or so!
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[BeWatee]

Love this list. This will be a great help for me as a beginner.

 

[Walter1]

Hi Scale- more often feed as young and more important calcium as young unless a breeding female. Pretty much same food throughout life, though. Mostly, a matter of frequency and amount.

For Bewatee- Great. When you get your Argie, update.

 

[shawn-n-jessica]

so newb question can I just take the raw turkey, fowl, beef, and use crickets, worms, roaches and mix fish like salmon, catfish, tilapia, shrimp and crap.... and grind it all together and make meatballs for food, just sounds like a way to get a lot of everything... still put on plate fruit light vegs, and dust everything, also his eggs but that's what I have been wanting to do and was curious. right now just rotating like crazy and wish to just blend it all

 

[Walter1]

For a fresh meal, blend it all and serve. For freezing, not sure about egg. Also, freezing will slowly diminish nutritive value.

 

[shawn-n-jessica]

No eggs always fresh but yes the rest make enough for 2 weeks and blend fruits vegs and all meats into tons of meat balls... this will be fine no issues... I kno freeze will harm in long run but freeze each days in a pack and only 2-3 weeks ahead of time... not months would it be fine... last time I tried I did only turkey shrimp earth worms and vitamins and had so much he couldn't eat it all fresh so b I threw out was unsure of freeze

 

[Walter1]

Seems ideal to me. Lucky lizard.

 

[Joanne Julia]

Great list thank you very informative

 

[CameronJayBauer]

Equal parts of cocktail franks, Hillshire Farms Lil Smokies, and saurkraut.

I realize I'm quoting you from a post written 3 years ago haha. But I read through all 7 pages of this thread, and this comment stood out to me. Looking back at it, I now realize you were most likely just making a joke, which I can appreciate. XD
But if this was meant to be a joke, I wanted to clarify that before any uneducated new tegu owners accidentally start feeding their lizards hilshire farms sausage (or any cooked sausage for that matter)... Because I can see that mistake being made by someone missing the joke here XP

 

[CameronJayBauer]

On a separate note, I've seen a couple mentions of beef liver, or other beef organs here, and that made me wonder.
I remember reading somewhere not so recently that you should avoid giving your tegu beef in it's diet. Mainly because a cow is not a prey that a tegu would ever be consuming in the wild, which makes sense to me.
That being said, the reality is that a captive lizard's diet will consist of whatever the owner chooses to feed it. Therefore if beef has nutritional benefits that would be good for the tegu, it might then be a good idea to feed it accordingly.

Anybody have any input, or experience with success, as far as including beef in a tegu's diet?

 

[Moral3x]

Are plums good to feed them?

 

[dpjm]

Plums are fine. Most fruit is fine, but watch the sugar content. Try to use low sugar fruits as much as possible.

 

[dpjm]

I remember reading somewhere not so recently that you should avoid giving your tegu beef in it's diet. Mainly because a cow is not a prey that a tegu would ever be consuming in the wild, which makes sense to me.

I don't think that in itself is a good reason to avoid a certain food item. Wild tegus probably don't eat most of the food we give them in captivity. As long as it's a good approximation, that's the key.

Unless there is something specific about beef that makes it indigestible or otherwise toxic to tegus, but I doubt that is the case.