Tiny Red Argentine Tegu?

[Lady2Lucky]

Hi All,

We're new to tegus but have been happy lizard owners for years (beardies and monitors). We purchased our little tegu now named Atasi at a Reptile show from a breeder back in November that seemed to know what he was doing. He said the tegu was a few months old. He was about 10 inches long (give or take, this is memory). He seems healthy and happy. He eats, shows obvious interest in his surroundings while awake, enjoys burrowing through his substrate, he lets his dubia out of their bowl so they're more entertaining, etc.

Still, I'm starting to be worried. He doesn't seem to eat very much (especially compared to a young beardie!), maybe a few roaches every couple of weeks. He also sleeps most of the time. We have to pull him out of his caves to see him. We tried waiting until he awoke on his own, but went a week and a half without seeing him! And he is very small still, even though he's supposed to be a year old now.

Cage set up: 100 gallon "turtle tank" 6' wide, 18" tall, 18" deep. 6" of reptibark substrate. He has a moss hide as well. The cage has a mercury vapor heat lamp and two halogen mini domes. It also has natural sunlight over 1/2 of it. The basking area is 90-100 degrees F (variation from natural sunlight) and the cool end is 68 - 72F. We humidity it in winter, but just occasionally spray down the bark in summer, because we live in an area with natural humidity at 50% in summer.

Feed: Dubia that we raise and dust with Reptivite or ReptiCalcium, both of which have D3. Occasional fruit which he seems to enjoy (esp. blueberries), and sausage for the occasional treat, because it seems to be Tegu crack. We tried feeding veg for the first few weeks, he never touched it, presumably not hungry enough to do so.

Handling: We dig him out of his current hide once per day - three per week.

Activity level: He does not seem to want to be around us while awake. Occasional evening sightings.

Question: What are we doing wrong? and Why is he so small still?

Pic of Atasi from today with banana for scale. The banana is a smaller one.

 

[Walter1]

Welcome. Yes, something is not right. I can think of two possible causes. One, he thinks it's winter and has slowed down. this is normal and essential for good longterm health of Argentine and Red Tegus. If that is the issue, make sure that the day length is 14-16 hrs long. The ambient air temperature apart from the basking site and the cool hide should be in the low to mid-80s F. Offer new foods, such as whole frozen/thawed fuzzies, hoppers.

The ther possibility is some underlying medical problem. Always good to take a new herp to the vet anyway. Here, you may have a particular reason.

 

[rantology]

A few roaches every couple of weeks & lots of sleeping may indicate brumation, but possibly induced by low enclosure temperatures. Babies should be eating machines, taking lots of food every day. Your baby also looks like he has some stuck shed issues.

My 2 cents for you:

---Basking area is not hot enough, aim for 110-115 (boost to 120-125 when they get older). The "cool" side should be about 75-80 degrees. This is important for their digestion and metabolism so may be the cause of low appetite

---Humidity- Reds need the highest humidity of all tegus or you will have shed problems, you should aim for minimum 75%. I recommend also filling the hide with sphagnum moss and keep it damp, especially when they are in shed. You can also try adding a little bit of crushed vitamin B complex to the diet to help with sheds (source)

---Diet: Reds also tend to like more fruit in their diet, but all tegus should be offered fruit with their staple whole prey at every meal (berries, papaya, mango... there is a big list here on the forum. Insects are good, they love those when they are little. Try to get him to eat whole prey as early as possible on top of those so they will be getting the most robust nutrition (also they will burn through your roach colony if not )... Another option is Repti-Links, I use these myself and love them. Also add a little bit of fish oil or feed a bit of fish (or both!) to help with skin health. They generally wont eat vegetables on their own so you have to "hide" those in the other foods.

I would recommend an enclosure change asap if you can, top opening tanks are notoriously difficult to procure the proper metrics for tegus since all the heat and humidity just evaporates right out the top screens. Cheap temporary option is a Grow tent, excellent at holding humidity and heat. Or possibly try to modify it by sealing as much of the top as you can to help hold humidity. You could also consider just going straight for the adult enclosure.

Lastly, all babies that are having growth issues I would personally suggest to have them checked for parasites by a vet - you can never be too safe.

Hope that helps & wishing you two the best of luck, keep us updated

 

[Lady2Lucky]

Hi all, trying your suggestions, thanks a bunch!

 

[AlphaAlpha]

Great answer walter1 & Rantology

Just going say Vet check and meat, meat, meat

 

[Lady2Lucky]

Okay, basking temps and cool end temps are up as suggested. We already had the top of the cage closed with a plastic top that we made (with holes cut out for lights). We've been humidifying the tank and wetting his substrate and moss hide for the last few days. No sign of improvement yet, so vet check next (was the weekend here).

Thanks!

We're also looking at updating his enclosure to an adult-sized one.

 

[Lady2Lucky]

Hey, I just wanted to update this thread now that we have a healthy happy little red. Short version: with humidity increases and a little fish oil applied, our red cleared his blockage, which seemed to be why he wasn't eating. No abnormal parasite load. He now eats healthily a couple of times a day and is much more active. All the old shed is gone and he's shed completely another couple of times. He's growing!

Longer answer: So we already had made a lid for the enclosure, but as folks suggested, this was not keeping in the humidity that well. We're making a bigger better enclosure, but while we are doing that, we got him a sprayer and a fogger that run on a timer. We got a humidistat to run them in his new cage, but didn't want to set it up twice. Now his humidity levels never drop below 60%, and are usually up near 80%. And yes, times at 60% are very brief, usually restricted to early mornings when the lights aren't heating up the substrate to the same extent.

The food we didn't have a problem with before, we have a dubia colony and always dust before feeding, but the fish oil was key. Luckily, he's always enjoyed fruit at some level, and is particularly fond of blueberries. Also, the fish oil led us to discover a new favorite food of our little red, fish! He will also eat any fruit and veg that have been dipped in fish oil. Even though they are slippery. He then spends minutes afterward trying to lick his lips. So cute. We did buy some Repti-Links, but they haven't come yet. It's a nice convenient package, so thanks for the tip!

Finally, lights and temps. We did raise him up a bit so he has a higher basking temp area, but since I'm a researcher, I also checked peer-reviewed literature to double-check his lighting setup. Several major zoos came together to publish the attached paper on heating and lighting. It seems that his previous heats and lights should have been okay. So probably the major issue was impaction from poor humidity maintenance. Just thought I'd add it here for folks to see. A pretty cool rundown on lighting and heating for a lot of reptiles, not just tegus. I hope it helps someone else.

 

[AlphaAlpha]

thanks for the update.