When Can I Handle Him?

[Little Wise Owl]

I've had my tegu for about a month now and I've been too scared to handle him because I fear he'll stop eating. He's already a picky eater. I'm not sure if it's the time of year or if he's going to be trouble for me in the spring too... He'll eat nightcrawlers, fuzzy mice, and hornworms but will not touch crickets, superworms, or ground turkey (even though he was raised on that)...

He's extremely flighty and seems to hate my presence. He will not eat in front of me and he hides most of the day.

What should I do? Continue to leave him alone or start handling him? He's always burrowed when I do cage maintenance and if I leave my hand in the enclosure, he just goes into his burrow so he never really gets used to me in there.

You have no idea how incredibly jealous I am of you people having tegus that seem to eat readily and don't mind human contact.

 

[chitodadon]

Leave a shirt with your scent.in the enclosure

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[Diablo]

Don't worry mine is the same way. Had him about a month now and for about a week and a half now he has barely eaten and doesn't ever come out. I'm almost positive he is hibernating now. Before this though I would only be able to interact with him right before feeding him. I tried holding him and interacting the first week and all that did was scare the crap out of him and make him run away from me and hide under my bed in my room. I decided to just take it really slow after that. Each day after that if he was out of his cage I would just sit by his cage and get on my phone. He would bask and look at me. I tong feed him, because he bit my hand the first time I fed him. I know he was just tasting me and he knows now he can't eat my hand but I still just wanted to switch to tong feeding. before and after feeding I would put my hands close to him but not touch him. At first he ran from them. After a while though he would just do nothing. Then about a week ago before he started slowing down he actually climbed up my arm and was pretty calm. He did that twice so I know I'm making progress but very slowly. I do see everyone else taking theirs out and giving them baths and letting them roam. I just realized that not every tegu is going to be like that and some take time to get there.

The shirt thing didn't work for me but it has for some.

 

[Little Wise Owl]

I've been doing the shirt thing but it hasn't done anything for me either.

 

[Little Wise Owl]

I've found that he'll come out on his own if I remove the dirt from the opening of his hide and show him that the light's on. I'm still uncomfortable holding him.

 

[Diablo]

I've found that he'll come out on his own if I remove the dirt from the opening of his hide and show him that the light's on. I'm still uncomfortable holding him.

I finally held yoshi today for the first time. What I did was open the cage door to his enclosure and put a stool under the door since his cage is 2 feet above the ground. He was really curious about outside his cage so he climbed down and was trying to get down off the stool. All I kept doing what putting my arm and hand in front of him in order to keep him from jumping off the stool. He was forced to crawl on my hand and I repeatedly picked him up and put him back in his cage. So he was forced to be held by me and he did not flip out of my hand like he used to. Little things like this will help you. Just try new things.

 

[Little Wise Owl]

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, Jaeger's enclosure opens from the top so that wouldn't work for me but it will when he's in his final enclosure.

 

[DavidRosi]

If you're uncomfortable holding him he won't be comfortable being held. I found one of the biggest breakthroughs with my Colombian was confidence to have my hands near him and on him; when you're slightly nervous you become flinchy and tegus sense when you're not confident around them

 

[ReptileGuy]

The current tegu I have now is extremely social and pretty much never hides (except for when the lights go out). BUT the previous tegu I had Steve would never come out of hiding and barely ate anything as well. The only thing I could get him to eat was superworms and I was lucky if he ate some turkey. My current tegu likes to take naps though in my shirt that I whore THAT day, then the next day I put in my new "smelly" shirt and take out the old one. Just make sure there is no perfume/deodorant in the shirt as you want it to smell like YOU. I have heard that some people have to take their tegu out of its hide to get the taming process down but in your case I certainly wouldn't recommend it if he is a picky eater already.

 

[Little Wise Owl]

If you're uncomfortable holding him he won't be comfortable being held. I found one of the biggest breakthroughs with my Colombian was confidence to have my hands near him and on him; when you're slightly nervous you become flinchy and tegus sense when you're not confident around them

It's not that I'm nervous holding him because he's jumpy. I'm hesitant to hold him because I fear he'll stop eating. If I knew he was a great eater, I would have no issues handling him.

 

[Diablo]

If you're uncomfortable holding him he won't be comfortable being held. I found one of the biggest breakthroughs with my Colombian was confidence to have my hands near him and on him; when you're slightly nervous you become flinchy and tegus sense when you're not confident around them

It's not that I'm nervous holding him because he's jumpy. I'm hesitant to hold him because I fear he'll stop eating. If I knew he was a great eater, I would have no issues handling him.

He's probably slowing down. If you want to try new foods try hare-today.com. I got a bunch of ground meat (with the bones) from there and Yoshi eats all of it. Turkey, rabbit, and duck is what I got. Don't worry about him eating though because it is more than likely the fact that he is slowing down because of the time of year.

 

[Little Wise Owl]

They don't ship to Canada. ):

And I hope it simply has to do with the time of year. It's going to be a long, long winter waiting for him to wake up in spring...

 

[DavidRosi]

I've never had 'major' feeding troubles with mine, when I first got him he was a little skinny and not mad about his food (that soon changed !), but at the end of the day, if they haven't eaten for a few days, they are eventually going to eat... No animal is going to starve itself.

 

[BatGirl1]

Niles ate for me since the second day I had him.(I didn't try day one purposely to give him a day to recoop from being in pet store and in new home). For a couple/few weeks now he's been refusing food and sleeping more.from what I've been reading it is time for hibernation...so I'm no longer worried.(now that I know it's normal behavior) perhaps yours is getting ready too?

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