Tegu not growing

[Tguy123]

Hey guys, I purchased a Argentine red tegu about 7 months ago, when we got him he was already 7 months old, and about 16 inches. He's now over a year old and only 19 inches. He refuses to eat 2/3 times I try I feed him.
He's also been losing his toenails, recently he lost his toe alltogether, please help! I don't know what to do.

 

[laurarfl]

You would have to tell us more about his set-up such as temps, diet, etc. so we can help you with that end. Of course, if an animal is not doing well, nothing beats a trip to a good reptile vet. A vet is going to be vastly more help than anyone on the Internet.

He needs to have good basking spot with a surface temp of 120-130, humidity of around 70-80% to help with the shed that may be constricting around his toes. The reason why a vet is so helpful right now is because he do an examination and find out if your tegu is slowing down for winter and not eating as much or if he is having health issues such as low calcium that is decreasing his appetite. Any food without bones should be well supplemented with calcium, and the tegu needs access to a quality UVB source or oral Vit D supplementation. Perhaps a bask in the sun for about an hour and some calcium rich food may perk him up a bit.

 

[Tguy123]

You would have to tell us more about his set-up such as temps, diet, etc. so we can help you with that end. Of course, if an animal is not doing well, nothing beats a trip to a good reptile vet. A vet is going to be vastly more help than anyone on the Internet.

He needs to have good basking spot with a surface temp of 120-130, humidity of around 70-80% to help with the shed that may be constricting around his toes. The reason why a vet is so helpful right now is because he do an examination and find out if your tegu is slowing down for winter and not eating as much or if he is having health issues such as low calcium that is decreasing his appetite. Any food without bones should be well supplemented with calcium, and the tegu needs access to a quality UVB source or oral Vit D supplementation. Perhaps a bask in the sun for about an hour and some calcium rich food may perk him up a bit.

I feed him pinkies 2-3 days of the week, he usally eats them, I try to feed him raw fish and raw turkey, but usally doesn't eat it. He never eats any fruits or veggies, ive only found him eating blueberrys, ive offered him a lot of fruits but he never eats them. His basking spot is about 110 degrees. He doesent have a UVB bulb but if I get one what wattage light do you think woud be best? Ill post some pictures of him soon.

 

[19cobra93]

What substrate is he on? Your humidity is probably off as well.

 

[Tguy123]

What substrate is he on? Your humidity is probably off as well.

Hes on aspen and im trying to keep his humidity up but it goes down to 50% - 60% a few hours after I mist it

 

[19cobra93]

Hes on aspen and im trying to keep his humidity up but it goes down to 50% - 60% a few hours after I mist it

That's a big problem right there. He's not a hamster or guinea pig. Aspen doesn't hold any moisture at all and is a terrible substrate for a reptile. You can mist all day long and he's not going to benefit from it. I would immediately swap out his substrate for almost anything else (except newspaper). There are many different types you could use that are readily available at any home improvement store (Lowes, Home Depot, even Walmart in the outdoors section). Just make sure it doesn't have fertilizers in it. Peat moss for example works well, especially when mixed with other things. Anything that stays moist for long periods of time, and is resistant to mold.

You can save him, you just have to act now.

 

[Tguy123]

That's a big problem right there. He's not a hamster or guinea pig. Aspen doesn't hold any moisture at all and is a terrible substrate for a reptile. You can mist all day long and he's not going to benefit from it. I would immediately swap out his substrate for almost anything else (except newspaper). There are many different types you could use that are readily available at any home improvement store (Lowes, Home Depot, even Walmart in the outdoors section). Just make sure it doesn't have fertilizers in it. Peat moss for example works well, especially when mixed with other things. Anything that stays moist for long periods of time, and is resistant to mold.

You can save him, you just have to act now.

Ok i have a huge bag of cypress in my garage but a breeder told me aspen is good.

 

[Aardbark]

Definitly get him a UVB bulb to bask under. Or he will get MBD (Metabolic Bone Dissease) and that would be very bad. In fact if he hasn't had a UVB bulb for his whole life, Im surprised he is still alive, and that he has any bones left. Its basicly denying a reptile sunlight, and they NEED that. He probably has MBD, which means that his bones are decaying. A regular light bulb is not the same as a UVB bulb. Its one of the 3 big things that a tegu needs. Food, water, and UVB. Its very very important, without UVB he will die.

 

[Tguy123]

Definitly get him a UVB bulb to bask under. Or he will get MBD (Metabolic Bone Dissease) and that would be very bad. In fact if he hasn't had a UVB bulb for his whole life, Im surprised he is still alive, and that he has any bones left. Its basicly denying a reptile sunlight, and they NEED that. He probably has MBD, which means that his bones are decaying. A regular light bulb is not the same as a UVB bulb. Its one of the 3 big things that a tegu needs. Food, water, and UVB. Its very very important, without UVB he will die.

How does he recover if he has MDB??? What should I do??

 

[Aardbark]

You have to make sure that he gets UVB. Get a bulb and make sure he basks under it. And even better than a bulb is natural sunlight. But definitely get a bulb, as fast as possible. Most pet stores have them, just make sure its a UVB bulb.

Also when it comes his food, get some calcium powder and sprinkle it on to his meals.

 

[SnakeCharmr728]

Aardbark went a little overboard on expressing the importance of UVB. They will not DIE from lack of. but in order to prevent health issues you have to have a correct/high whole prey diet. I have sucessfully kept one of my males, Rex without uv for his entire 10yr life and he has a great bone density and calcium levels. NOT to say that people shouldn't offer it but scaring someone with "your tegu will die!" is not educating them on why its needed. If you offer more whole prey (whole animals, fur bones and all) then they can get the vit.d3 from the liver of the food source.

My advice is to change his substrate to help shedding and bump up his humidity so that he can be better hydrated, bump your basking surface temp to 120-130. You didn't mention your ambient temps, if your ambient (air) temps are too cool then he may not be waking up enough to want to bask and eat. So make sure your warm side is mid 90's, and cool side around 75-80f. At his size he should be able to take more than pinkies. pinkies lack a lot of nutrients which probably plays a big role on why hes not growing. Try offering large fuzzies or even hopper mice, try feeding small meals daily if he will take it.

Can you post some photos too? Also a good idea would be to run a fecal test at the vets to be sure he doesnt have a case of internal parasites sucking the nutrients from him.

 

[Tguy123]

Heres a few pics,

 

[Tguy123]

In the last picture, I forgot to mention, he did loose his tail about a week ago, and he needs a lot energy for his tail to regenerate. so that makes things a lot worse.

 

[SnakeCharmr728]

Well hes not terribly thin but could gain a little. Reds tend to have shedding issues when they dont have fruits and veggies in their diet. Upping the humidity in the enclosure will greatly help this. You said you had cypress mulch that you could use, I would mix in some organic top soil (walmart 1.89 a bag) with it, it will hold burrows and moisture better than just straight cypress. At that size he can definitely take larger food items. Try hopper mice, you can also blend up some fruits and veggies in a blender and then use a meat syringe and inject the mixture into the mouse that way hes still getting the nutrients from it. Also, they tend to randomly decide to start eating fruits/veggies, especially with size/age so keep offering them even if he wont eat them, you never know one day he may. You can also try drizzle just a little bit of raw egg yolk over new food items to entice him to eat them. But I think offering large mice will definitely improve the growth rate. but be sure to bump your temps as well.

 

[Aardbark]

Aardbark went a little overboard on expressing the importance of UVB. They will not DIE from lack of. but in order to prevent health issues you have to have a correct/high whole prey diet. I have sucessfully kept one of my males, Rex without uv for his entire 10yr life and he has a great bone density and calcium levels. NOT to say that people shouldn't offer it but scaring someone with "your tegu will die!" is not educating them on why its needed. If you offer more whole prey (whole animals, fur bones and all) then they can get the vit.d3 from the liver of the food source.

My bad, I was working under the knowledge that they WOULD die if they didn't get any UVB. That's what I was told. I didn't mean to use a scare tactic, I thought it was a serious problem and was genuinely worried.