So I think I've decided to call my new tegu, Twirp!
Today Twirp was already above ground when I got there at 7AM(the light automatically goes on at 7am, and shuts down at 7pm).
I offered him a thawed pinky and surprisingly he ate it without much hesitation! The last couple days he's only ate crickets and refused worms. After the pinky(large pinky too) he was still hungry and ate a bunch of crickets. I was told to keep feeding young tegus as long as they can still eat(pls correct me if wrong).
After a few hours I noticed he's beeg running around the cage(5ftx2ftx2ft) all morning.. so I gave him more crickets and he went crazy chasing and eating them until he got full.
Finally at 1pm he went back in his hole where I think he'll be staying for the rest of the day.
I have 35% sand and rest organic soil as substrate as it burrows real well and keeps the tunnels moist. Works well for Savannah monitors so I figured tegus will like it too. I'm also trying to make the soil bio-active. With 2 species of earth worms living in there.. I see them grab stuff and pull them below sometimes... I still need to get some roly-polies, and other cleanup crews to make the soil fully bio-active!
I'm using the solor-glo murcury vapor UV bulb + a ceramic emitter on 1 side of the tank, they are good for making the basking spot about 110F and also creates a gradient of 75F on the other end, and 85F to 90F on the hot end. Today I need to buy another solor glo to replace the old one as it's been 8 months now, and they said the UV level will be gone by now.
Today Twirp was already above ground when I got there at 7AM(the light automatically goes on at 7am, and shuts down at 7pm).
I offered him a thawed pinky and surprisingly he ate it without much hesitation! The last couple days he's only ate crickets and refused worms. After the pinky(large pinky too) he was still hungry and ate a bunch of crickets. I was told to keep feeding young tegus as long as they can still eat(pls correct me if wrong).
After a few hours I noticed he's beeg running around the cage(5ftx2ftx2ft) all morning.. so I gave him more crickets and he went crazy chasing and eating them until he got full.
Finally at 1pm he went back in his hole where I think he'll be staying for the rest of the day.
I have 35% sand and rest organic soil as substrate as it burrows real well and keeps the tunnels moist. Works well for Savannah monitors so I figured tegus will like it too. I'm also trying to make the soil bio-active. With 2 species of earth worms living in there.. I see them grab stuff and pull them below sometimes... I still need to get some roly-polies, and other cleanup crews to make the soil fully bio-active!
I'm using the solor-glo murcury vapor UV bulb + a ceramic emitter on 1 side of the tank, they are good for making the basking spot about 110F and also creates a gradient of 75F on the other end, and 85F to 90F on the hot end. Today I need to buy another solor glo to replace the old one as it's been 8 months now, and they said the UV level will be gone by now.
