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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.

<blockquote data-quote="SnakeCharmr728" data-source="post: 141885" data-attributes="member: 1234">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 &quot;your tegu will die!&quot; 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&nbsp; 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.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="SnakeCharmr728, post: 141885, member: 1234"] 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. [/QUOTE]

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