tegunukkuu
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Hi everyone. I'm a new tegu owner, a pet that I've wanted for so many years now and I've just got a few questions.
I got my argentine black and white tegu (with an orange underside) a week and a half ago, she's about 4 months old and 50cm from head to tail. I assume she's female as I can't see those telltale sign near the tail but she won't keep still enough for me to be 100% sure.
So while my taming seems to be going okay, she is still quite skittish of me, especially being touched or picked up and as I was refreshing myself today on techniques I saw multiple people say to leave them alone for the first week but I removed her from the enclosure from the first day in order to feed her. Could this by why she is still skittish about being picked up and touched still as I read someone saying their tegus usually tame down in a week? Apart from the first two days where I slowly picked her up by sliding my hand under (which she still didn't like at all but she was basking and not hiding, I've never pulled her out of hiding), to get her out since I've been leaving the enclosure door open and then she's been coming and climbing out onto my arms and then climbs to the floor and often will be scratching at the glass to come out. But now should I try leave her to her own devices in the enclosure for a week even though she's been coming out every day now?
Today I was doing the ignore technique in my office as I've been doing every day, but today and yesterday, rather than just sitting on the floor I lay down with a pillow while using my tablet. It was the first time she ever came up to me during the ignore technique, yesterday she just smelled my face a bit and than ran away behind my computer where she loves to go. Today after smelling my face again she tried to take a bite out of my eyebrow, she didn't do much damage at all just like three tiny pin pricks of blood. I didn't flinch and she let go pretty quickly after realising she couldn't eat me and seemed a bit startled herself though it didn't seem like an aggressive bite to me more of a "I'm curious if I can eat this bite". I don't really know what I'm asking with this but like has anyone ever had their tegu try to take a bite out of them while doing the ignore technique or did I do something wrong?
Edit: Okay, so I was just doing more of the ignore technique before putting her back in the enclosure and this time sitting up and she tried to bite me again, my hands this time and I did move my hands away. Why would she be so bite-y towards me, is that her trying to get rid of me? Is this a behaviour that will stop? Should I try to just let her bite my hand?
Another thing is she gets a lot more stressed if I try to touch her (or even put my hand near her) in her enclosure or while she's basking, or laying down anywhere outside. But if she's eating, having a bath or just exploring the room I can typically touch her without any issue (though mostly just while eating or bathing, sometimes she doesn't like me interfering with her exploring) so is there anyway I could get her to transfer this passiveness while eating and bathing to while she's sleeping/basking outside or in general in her enclosure and especially for picking her up?
And I also have a few questions about general body language. I've noticed that sometimes she will have like a twitching on the side of the throat, where like a males jowls would grow. I can't tell if it's something she's doing purposely or what it means, sometimes it happens when she's stressed and heavy breathing at the same time and others she just seems to be doing it while seemingly calm. I've also noticed her recently sort of pushing/rubbing the palm of her hands against the carpet, especially when there's food in front of her, she did recently have a shed, could it be related or something else?
Thanks!
I got my argentine black and white tegu (with an orange underside) a week and a half ago, she's about 4 months old and 50cm from head to tail. I assume she's female as I can't see those telltale sign near the tail but she won't keep still enough for me to be 100% sure.
So while my taming seems to be going okay, she is still quite skittish of me, especially being touched or picked up and as I was refreshing myself today on techniques I saw multiple people say to leave them alone for the first week but I removed her from the enclosure from the first day in order to feed her. Could this by why she is still skittish about being picked up and touched still as I read someone saying their tegus usually tame down in a week? Apart from the first two days where I slowly picked her up by sliding my hand under (which she still didn't like at all but she was basking and not hiding, I've never pulled her out of hiding), to get her out since I've been leaving the enclosure door open and then she's been coming and climbing out onto my arms and then climbs to the floor and often will be scratching at the glass to come out. But now should I try leave her to her own devices in the enclosure for a week even though she's been coming out every day now?
Today I was doing the ignore technique in my office as I've been doing every day, but today and yesterday, rather than just sitting on the floor I lay down with a pillow while using my tablet. It was the first time she ever came up to me during the ignore technique, yesterday she just smelled my face a bit and than ran away behind my computer where she loves to go. Today after smelling my face again she tried to take a bite out of my eyebrow, she didn't do much damage at all just like three tiny pin pricks of blood. I didn't flinch and she let go pretty quickly after realising she couldn't eat me and seemed a bit startled herself though it didn't seem like an aggressive bite to me more of a "I'm curious if I can eat this bite". I don't really know what I'm asking with this but like has anyone ever had their tegu try to take a bite out of them while doing the ignore technique or did I do something wrong?
Edit: Okay, so I was just doing more of the ignore technique before putting her back in the enclosure and this time sitting up and she tried to bite me again, my hands this time and I did move my hands away. Why would she be so bite-y towards me, is that her trying to get rid of me? Is this a behaviour that will stop? Should I try to just let her bite my hand?
Another thing is she gets a lot more stressed if I try to touch her (or even put my hand near her) in her enclosure or while she's basking, or laying down anywhere outside. But if she's eating, having a bath or just exploring the room I can typically touch her without any issue (though mostly just while eating or bathing, sometimes she doesn't like me interfering with her exploring) so is there anyway I could get her to transfer this passiveness while eating and bathing to while she's sleeping/basking outside or in general in her enclosure and especially for picking her up?
And I also have a few questions about general body language. I've noticed that sometimes she will have like a twitching on the side of the throat, where like a males jowls would grow. I can't tell if it's something she's doing purposely or what it means, sometimes it happens when she's stressed and heavy breathing at the same time and others she just seems to be doing it while seemingly calm. I've also noticed her recently sort of pushing/rubbing the palm of her hands against the carpet, especially when there's food in front of her, she did recently have a shed, could it be related or something else?
Thanks!
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