Tegu on the loose!

[grendelsmother]

Hi all, my daughter's pet tegu escaped and has dug himself a cozy hole in the ground and is resisting capture. We live in the tropics so cold weather is not an issue. Sigh, does anyone have any tips for getting him back, besides the obvious 'put food in a bag and hope he crawls into it'? Kid is heartbroken, 3 days of mourning her lost lizard and now he's found alive and well but doesn't want to go home.

Question about tegu habits in the wild - will he stay in that one hole in the yard, or will he roam and dig himself a new hole every night? I am thinking that we might just end up with a neighbor tegu in our yard rather than a pet one. If he stays in the one hole, she can at least feed him scrambled eggs and hang out with him in the yard if we can't catch him. Note: he's a juvenile, about the size of my forearm including tail.

 

[grendelsmother]

Also note - I live in a developing country with no animal control or similar public agency to ask for assistance from. And we live in a housing complex with lots of green space, but it's surrounded by concrete jungle so there is no chance of him invading the wild, breeding, or harming the environment.