Whole prey for tegus - how much?

[themedic]

Herplings, mine show that aggression with canned foods, its like they smell it and go crazy over it, they never attack each other and hopefully never will but dang do they tear it up.

 

[lazyjr52]

Here is a couple of links that I found about impaction in reptiles if this helps any.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impaction" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impaction</a><!-- m -->

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://hubpages.com/hub/Reptile-Digestive-Health-1-Constipation-Impaction-and-Obstipation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://hubpages.com/hub/Reptile-Digesti ... bstipation</a><!-- m -->

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://hubpages.com/hub/Impaction" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://hubpages.com/hub/Impaction</a><!-- m -->

AlsoI have to agree with Bobby that giving your gu a varied diet is better health wise. But that is just my personal opinion.

 

[carcharios]

Just put out some canned bumblebee tuna. It was really flaky though so I hope they'll eat it.

 

[Toby_H]

I would like to know the source of your information for the generalized statement of "fur isnt digest well in reptiles" considering pretty much every snake in captivity is fed a staple diet of rodents and or rabbits with little to no issues. There are even reptiles that have evolved to become more efficient at hunting mammals. I guess I need an explanation as to what you meant?

I do not know of an 'authoritive source' to site, but I have heard this (fur is hard to digest) as a 'common knowledge' in the reptile industry/hobby for many many years...

I know I've seen undigested fur balls in the stool of a few of my animals over the years...


It may be less critical with snakes as they are likely to eat one large prey item per week which has less square inches of hair per ounce, and they have more time to digest it.

Adult Tegus are more likely to be fed a small pile of smaller prey resulting in more square inches of hair per ounce, plus eat such things on a daily basis.

Thus the weekly furn intake of a Tegu would be far greater than the weekly fur intake of a snake.


Personally, I feed my Tegu hairless mice and do not worry at all about fur one way or the other. I just ordered 300 of the available 1,000 20 gram hairless mice from American Rodent. I've bought from them before and was very happy with my purchase.