Tegu puberty??

[Scriffignano]

I think Saphee (young female Argentine Blue Tegu) is going into tegu puberty now... When I got her in August 2020 she was 20 grams and 12 inches and now she is over 1.2 lbs and at least 2 feet long. I've noticed signs of heightened food aggression for the past few days and I think she is getting more angsty over time. It started with over excitement to get fed. Scratching at the enclosure walls in the morning, pacing around, waiting for me to show her the meal, etc. Then she started lunging at the food with a gusto that I have never seen before. Sometimes she would clear her body length in a single lunge. "Thank God I only handle food with forceps and rubber gloves." I thought. This persisted for a week or two and then yesterday she got ahold of my finger a couple of hours after being fed. She charged the door as I went to go and do some bonding with her. Thankfully it was only a small cut as she got mostly fingernail with her teeth, but that still really hurt. She backed off a few seconds after biting me and was otherwise her normal gentle and curious self. Today though was a different story. I went to feed her and she was not happy about me waking her up for food. She puffed herself up and did this little strut while doing what I can only describe as push ups. She was also wagging her tail very slowly. I had never seen her do that before, but it clicked in my mind as a threat display. She took the rat I had for her, but... she just gave me this death glare all while swallowing her breakfast.

Am I reading too much into this or does this sound like the onset of tegu puberty?

 

[rantology]

Does sound like puberty to me!

 

[Scriffignano]

She tried to have another go at my finger so... Im going to concur that Puberty is setting in.

 

[Debita]

They will turn on you - and you just have to look at it as if it's a 2yr old human having a tantrum. I have a male that is completely soft natured now, and I'm sure glad I stuck it out. For awhile, I thought I wasn't cut out for the daily tantrum, and threat. THEY WILL TRY YOUR NERVES!! Some worse than others, and a few, not at all. I actually had a female that just flew through puberty and had little-no aggression. She was a peach.

Watch their body signs carefully, and you won't get hurt. If they're bobbing - they're a couple stages in to the aggression. When they first raise up, that's the first sign they're not happy, along with heavier breathing. To me, that means approach carefully (slowly) or don't approach at all, and wait until later.

It will subside over time - but no one knows how long. Most people thing about 2-3 weeks, but my beast didn't calm down for 10 months. Good luck!!