What would you trust your argentine tegu to hang out with in terms of other pets?

[Squam8]

Obviously I'm talking about supervised hangout, outside of the cage. I see videos of tame tegus hanging out with cats, and dogs, and getting along just fine. But even if I raised an argentine tegu from a baby and kept it super tame, I feel like I would be nervous letting it around my 5 pound chihuahua (even if they grew up together). If I missed a body language cue, it could result in a tail whip or something that could potentially be bad if your other pet was on the smaller side. So what do you guys and gals personally trust your tegus with? If the animal is obviously too big to easily swallow, is a tame tegu generally cool with it? This question assumes that your tegu is fed pre-killed food items, as i assume that would probably make a difference in its attitude towards other animals.

Would you let your tame tegu hang out with your pet chicken? How about your cat/chihuahua? How about your pet pigeon? Once we get to pigeon size I imagine we're starting to get into sketchy territory. Obviously your pet rat would be a bad choice for supervised companion, as would your pet parakeet.

I'm just looking for your personal opinions on the topic, and what you personally feel comfortable with.

 

[Walter1]

Some tegus are wet noodles it seems, still I wouldn't trust them.

 

[Zyn]

I carry my blue on my shoulder, we have 5 dogs a Maltese, Yorky, Pug, pit German Shepard mix and a 120 lb golden retriever. I wouldn’t risk it, what’s the point of putting extra stress on a reptile. They don’t handle stress like mammals and id worry about a food response towards our Yorky she’s pretty small

In the end I only let him hang out with myself and my wife. One false step and the Tegu would react with his reptile brain and defensive strike and welcome to vet bill city. I just don’t see the point I doubt the Tegu gets enjoyment out of it like a dog would. They just aren’t programmed that way.

 

[Squam8]

I carry my blue on my shoulder, we have 5 dogs a Maltese, Yorky, Pug, pit German Shepard mix and a 120 lb golden retriever. I wouldn’t risk it, what’s the point of putting extra stress on a reptile. They don’t handle stress like mammals and id worry about a food response towards our Yorky she’s pretty small

In the end I only let him hang out with myself and my wife. One false step and the Tegu would react with his reptile brain and defensive strike and welcome to vet bill city. I just don’t see the point I doubt the Tegu gets enjoyment out of it like a dog would. They just aren’t programmed that way.

Yeah, i think I'm in agreement with all this. Iv'e seen the youtube videos of people letting their dogs around the tegu and the tegu really doesn't seem to give a crap about the dog at best, and at worst they seem to not really enjoy it.

 

[Greg Williams]

My black and white tegu and my cat do fine, MissKittyKat just stays up on her tree if she gets unsure

 

[Guman]

Mine does fine around our cat under close supervision. But, then again one of our bearded dragons and our iguana have made the cat scared of the scaled friends. The iguana tail whips him if he gets too clise and the BD has been known to run up and bite the cat on the nose. The cat always has a look like you as* that was not nice; mom tell him that was not nice!

 

[AlphaAlpha]

I would trust my tegu around any cat or dog as long as they are under supervision and have being trained how to act around each other.

Better in my eyes to have animals cohabiting in the same building that are used to each other than ones that are not, just incase they were to be left alone on accident.

 

[MasterJedi]

Tegu love to be around with other pet or people. It’s my dog I don’t trust because 1 dog maybe easier to supervise but when u have 5 dogs hunt like a wolf pack. My cat always in the same room with Tiberius and the leader of my dog. Just one dog in a time. Tegu can be overwhelmed and over powered by to many animals in the same room.

 

[Griffin]

That’s inherently false MasterJedi. Tegus are solitary animals, hence the reason you don’t see “Tegu Packs” in the wild. And tegus do not show facial expressions displaying emotion, in other words you have no idea if the tegu loves your other pets. Don’t let your dog or cat or any other animal around the tegu, bad idea and worse potential consequences.