Weird Behavior

[Wendell-X]

I have an adult Arg B&W that i let roam in a small room next to mine during the day . I had to drain and clean a small koi pond in my backyard with my sister's boyfriend. When we finished we went inside to check on him and he was interested in the smell of the pond water on us. He was smelling my sister's boyfriend's foot and tried to take a bite. He pulled away and the tegu started to chase for a sec then immediately lost interest. He later told me he felt his mouth on his foot but he never bit down like a dog will do when playing. It looked like the tegu chased based off movement, instinct, and the smell of the pond.

He hasn't done anything like that for some time until yesterday when i tried to clean up the room. I walked in and he quickly followed my foot with his head. No open mouth but again it looked like movement and instinct's. I have never given him anything that wasn't dead already and i was wondering if there's anything i can do to help avoid this. He's nice and fat and i feed him when he wakes up but i don't know about his previous owners. The people we got him from said they only gave him turkey and he was never aggressive but they were trying to sell him pretty quick. I've grown attached an I'm not worried so much about myself as anyone else who would like to see him. I've never had an issue with bringing him around stranger's but i am not an expert. The big question is how do you tell a 3 foot lizard no or am i just going to need to keep an eye on him.

Any ideas?

sorry about the huge story i just didn't want to miss any details

 

[dragonmetalhead]

Next time he grabs a shoe, take it away form him and forcibly tell him "No, bad tegu" just like you would with a naughty dog. Works on Kodo; all I need to do is make the "uh-uh" noise and he'll stop what he's doing at look at me. They're smart lizards, he'll get it. Maybe your tegu is a bit of a pediphile, lol.

 

[Bubblz Calhoun]

[size]It's instinct combined with the smell of possible food at the time. They're opportunistic animals, so they investigate anything that can possibly be food to determine if it's edible. Any other time in similar situations shower and change close before handling or even going near your tegu. Sometimes they bite first and ask questions later.

It doesn't matter if they were fed live food or not, their instincts can show up at anytime. Different things that we're not always aware of can stimulate it.

To get him use to no like Dmh suggested it takes conditioning and repetition and time. What ever you chose to use but they can be stubborn and persistent when they want something. Sometimes in the beginning a tap on the nose (to get their attention) along with no will help. Afterwards over time just no will work.
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