Two Tegus in same enclosure

[onnie0047]

After the escape of my yearling last year and several months of searching with no avail, I decided in October to buy another BW tegu. I reached out to Tegus only once again and in a couple day received "Oscar", still today sex unknown, but I think a female. 29 days later, Oscar, wild caught from Florida is rather tame, allows me to pet her and sits at the window of the enclosure waiting for me to pick her up. I then decided to buy a RED male, and found one on line, ordered him and he "Felix" arrived on November 21, 96 days ago from this writing.
From the size of each one, I suspect Felix is about 3 to 4 months younger than Oscan, the BW.

SO

I am not asking for advise, I read every article I can on a subject I am interested in, I think ive watch ever Tegu video to date that was relevant to the subject I was looking to learn about at the time, ate em up, chew them about and spit out the junk and I think Ive walked away with a fairly good understand on Tegu husbandry, but I am always looking and reading here for answers to questions I never though of yet.

But while I came across the subject of two Tegus in one enclosure, Ive never came across anyone who talks about having two in an enclosure and they had an issue with one taming down.

Oscar the b/w was already taming down when Felix the Red came to me. Felix, huffs and puffs and just can not Stand the site of a human, with little to no change since day one.

SO

a Few days ago, I removed Felix from the enclosure they were sharing and now I have two extremely upset Tegus. I have both of them huffing and puffing, be it that Oscar is more muted then Felix. Both Hiding. Came home today from work and seen Oscar had eaten and was moving about and today let me pet her without her muted huffing. Felix, hiding in the hide, curled up and deep in the substrate.

I GUESS MY QUESTION IS

Being as intelligent and as emotional as it seems these guys get, has anyone else had two Tegus in one enclosure, (not for mating purposes), separated them and had them get extremely upset because they were not together anymore? Im going to suspect that my "training" of Felix is at best back to day one....

The objective is to try and tame him down, bond with me instead of Oscar and then reintroduce them again.

Anyways like I said, not asking for advice, just wondering if anyone has the same issue....

 

[Gary]

It’s not uncommon for tegus to be in small groups in the wild. They are about as social as a reptile can be. The only thing I would caution is that having a male and a female housed together could lead to problems when they reach sexual maturity. Not only will the male pester the female and display aggression, but you could end up with a bunch of fertilized eggs.

I know others here successfully house tegus together, so hopefully one of them will chime in with their experience.

 

[Zyn]

As long as their is enough room most people can house multiple together. There a female youtuber who houses 3 BW in her house together

 

[Walter1]

I keep a 1.2 together.

 

[onnie0047]

Im not concerned about the male/female aspect of it, my question was really if anyone had heard of an issue with training/calming down one or both Tegus when two were kept in the same cage or had a similar issue. As far as either one being a male/female, Im not yet convinced of either ones sex at this point, they are still relatively babies, 6 months old give or take, purely based on the size of them when I received them.

I kept them in my office, their enclosure is close enough that I can reach my arm out and touch the cage, so they can not only see me most of the day, they could also hear me.

Now the BW is still in its enclosure in my room while the Red is out in the other room in a different enclosure, still hiding and huffing puffing when I check on it. I suspect parts of its being upset and hiding is that it was separated and moved to a new home.

Im really only looking for info if someone had the same situation where they had two Tegus in the same enclosure and had issues with taming down or if they knew of someone who had the same or similar issue or read something on it and can direct me to that article/info.

Thanks in advance

 

[AlphaAlpha]

I would see no problem with housing 2 together or it affecting how tame they become in the long run....HABITAT CHANGE is a big thing for any animal or human, it will definetly feel like you've taken a few steps back with boundaries and patience being tested.... I believe you need to put them both where you want them to end up the earlier the better and stick to building on your relationship with them..

I moved Alphas viv round the other day and hes fallen out with me

 

[onnie0047]

I would see no problem with housing 2 together or it affecting how tame they become in the long run....HABITAT CHANGE is a big thing for any animal or human, it will definetly feel like you've taken a few steps back with boundaries and patience being tested.... I believe you need to put them both where you want them to end up the earlier the better and stick to building on your relationship with them..

I moved Alphas viv round the other day and hes fallen out with me

Yep I understand they hate being moved about. Oscar was never moved, and until I moved Felix his behavior was always the same, once I moved Felix, Oscar, relatively tame, began hissing and popping at me. A week later, he has calmed down is now eating and wanting me to pick him up when he sees me in the room. Felix, no so much, he is still huffing and opening his mouth, he is eating, but not like before and hiding. He does come out but when he sees me down he goes!! Im going to keep them separated for now, I want Felix to "bond" with me more than he thinks he "needs" to bond with Oscar. Not sure if its the right move or not, but only time will tell. In May I will be building them a enclosure for the both of them, depending on how things are going, I might try to put them both back together then.

 

[AlphaAlpha]

Im sure you'll get there in the end as you seem to be sensible and have a good understanding of care to your gu's