Tegu rescue not eating

[Tegutula]

Hi all, hoping to get some advice as a novice Tegu keeper. Over the weekend I found someone who was selling some cheap Viv's in sizes I needed for my Boas, however due to family illness, said person was getting rid of/rehoming all of their reptiles one of them happened to be a fairly emaciated female Tegu. The person mentioned that the Tegu has been refusing to eat and that they had thought about putting it in the freezer to put it out of its misery. I love animals and I think I did what most people would and took the Tegu home with me.
She has some metabolic bone disease at the base of her tail, as the person had decided to turn off all heating and lighting to her tank and keep it that way for two months.
Now she's with me, I've bathed her, her humidity is right, she has a 150W basking bulb a 12%uvb bulb with mesh guard and still she hasn't eaten a thing. I've tried chicken, eggs, blueberries, banana and morio worms but she won't touch a thing. Has anyone got any suggestions of what I can do to help her.

 

[Tegutula]

Here's some pictures of her current state

 

[purplewombat]

Does she have a hide box with a cool and warm section? That way even if she is not feeling up to being seen, she can decide for herself to be warmer or cooler. I would try chicken hearts and livers with calcium and vitamin supplements, possibly a dead mouse. If she can muster up any desire to eat, I would think she would be craving items high is protein and calcium. How big and how old is she, do you know? Best of luck to you, thank you for at least trying/caring.

 

[Tegutula]

Does she have a hide box with a cool and warm section? That way even if she is not feeling up to being seen, she can decide for herself to be warmer or cooler. I would try chicken hearts and livers with calcium and vitamin supplements, possibly a dead mouse. If she can muster up any desire to eat, I would think she would be craving items high is protein and calcium. How big and how old is she, do you know? Best of luck to you, thank you for at least trying/caring.

Hi thanks for your response,
She does have a hide box but it's under her basking lamp so I could get her another on the cold end for sure. I've now tried a mouse as well and cat food. She is moving around a lot more and we've seen her drink water and pass urates but just won't touch a thing! I usually keep snakes but obviously couldn't leave her where she was.

 

[purplewombat]

Glad to hear she is moving about. It is one of the saddest things when a snake or lizard just lays there wasting away. I am not a fan of forced feeding, Although sometimes necessary, it often just stresses the animal even more. My tegu has a sweet tooth and really likes Wendy's three berry Frosty. Given the condition of your girl, probably should avoid dairy, but maybe try offering her some watermelon juice with a lot of added sugar, or possibly some sports drink with added electrolytes/minerals. I don't drink them, so no idea if there are any that are tasty ! Just something to get her internal hunger clock restarted. She probably also needs some time getting comfortable with her new home environment.
Take everything I say with a grain of salt, I am no expert. Had a bunch of snakes and lizards as a kid, and have had reptiles all my life, usually with good results, but also my share of failures. This is my first tegu in years, but he is doing very well, very social, great on leash, poops outside or on pad, sits with me for a few hours a night watching TV. When I was younger I used to always want to have a whole lot of reptiles and the biggest, or most interesting, etc, but now I make it a rule to just keep one and do my best for it. I went with a tegu this time since they eat such a wide variety of things and do not require live/whole prey items.

 

[Tegutula]

So I have some really amazing news! Obviously we picked our Tegu up on Wednesday this week, it is now Saturday and she has finally had her first meal with us, so we are super relieved as it's a good sign she's going to make it and continue going from strength to strength. The winner was Turkey mince in the end.

 

[Tegutula]

Glad to hear she is moving about. It is one of the saddest things when a snake or lizard just lays there wasting away. I am not a fan of forced feeding, Although sometimes necessary, it often just stresses the animal even more. My tegu has a sweet tooth and really likes Wendy's three berry Frosty. Given the condition of your girl, probably should avoid dairy, but maybe try offering her some watermelon juice with a lot of added sugar, or possibly some sports drink with added electrolytes/minerals. I don't drink them, so no idea if there are any that are tasty ! Just something to get her internal hunger clock restarted. She probably also needs some time getting comfortable with her new home environment.
Take everything I say with a grain of salt, I am no expert. Had a bunch of snakes and lizards as a kid, and have had reptiles all my life, usually with good results, but also my share of failures. This is my first tegu in years, but he is doing very well, very social, great on leash, poops outside or on pad, sits with me for a few hours a night watching TV. When I was younger I used to always want to have a whole lot of reptiles and the biggest, or most interesting, etc, but now I make it a rule to just keep one and do my best for it. I went with a tegu this time since they eat such a wide variety of things and do not require live/whole prey items.

Thank you for your help! It sounds like your doing great with your Tegu, how old is he? We haven't seen any viv defensiveness yet or aggression from our but I'm not sure if it's due to her lack of energy from having not eaten in such a long time.

 

[purplewombat]

I got Sammy last August. He still had some green coloration, so he was probably just a few months old, so I am guessing he is nearly a year old at this point. He stayed up until September, then took a 7 month nap.

Sammy the Tegu

Sammy the Tegu is where Sammy keeps all his videos !

www.youtube.com