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Young Tegu Worries, Need Help

Aardbark

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
735
Hello, this is about my 3 month old b/w tegu Angy. I have a bunch of worries that I could use some advice for.

Setup: 40 gallon cage, (soon to be upgraded to something much bigger), topsoil/play sand/peat moss substrate mix, basking temps 90-110f depending on time of day and spot on the rock, warm end of the cage is 90-95f cool end is 75-80f, humidity is 75-90 and I mist daily. I also have a temp gun that I use to measure the temps. Shes gone through 4 sheds with no issues, has a diet of crickets, salmon, and ground turkey, and is very calm around me.

1: How often should a 3 month old tegu who eats a ton of food every day poop? Some backstory on her diet - Recently I havent seen him poop, or find poops in her cage. When I first got her, I was feeding her 15-30 crickets a day (the number increasing as she got bigger) and she would poop every singe day, usually on her basking rock. Her diet was purely crickets, always vitamin and calcium dusted. I tried offering mango, kiwi, and other fruits, as well as ground turkey and salmon, but she would walk up to that, lick it and then move on. Its only recently that shes started eating anything else but crickets. So starting about 2 weeks ago, she switched over to a plate of ground turkey or salmon a day. But after switching to this diet, I wasnt finding any poops. Just 3 days ago, I got more crickets for her since she really enjoys hunting them and I was getting worried about the not finding any poops. Shes eaten like 200 crickets now, and I still havent seen any poops.

She still wants to eat every day, and has a huge appetite. She eats like 50 crickets a day now. She also is acting completely normal, explores, digs, basks, drinks, and is super active. I also havent seen her do the butt wiggling dance. So it doesnt seem like anything is wrong, except that I can find any poop.

So how often should she be pooping? She used to go every day in the morning, after basking for like an hour. But recently I havent seen her poop at all, even though she eats a ton.

2: How long is it healthy for a 3 month old tegu to be outside of her cage? Her favorite thing to do, is come out of her cage and explore. Her favorite place to sleep is under my blankets or pillows on my bed. She is super sweet, and whenever I open her cage and stick my hand inside, she will come running over to me and crawl up my hand and up my arm all the way up to my head. She will even chase my hand around and try to jump on it when Im doing something in the cage like misting or changing her water. She is constantly digging in her cage, looking for a way out. She tares her cage apart multi times a day, and I have to clean it up and change her water daily because she throws tons of dirt in her dish.

So needless to say, she loves coming out of her cage and exploring and digging under my sheets. How long is it healthy for her to be out of the cage? Its only like 75f in my room, and like 55 humidity. So its not the right environment for her. There is nowhere for her to bask, and the humidity is low. However after warming up in the morning, all she wants is out, and she would happily stay out all day. She will go to sleep under my pillow, and just sleep there all night. Sometimes I will only let her out for an hour or two, and other times I just let her stay out all day.

So how long should I let her out of the cage, before forcing her to go back inside?

3: How often does a 3 month old tegu bask for? My little guy will come out in the morning, and bask for about an hour, and then basically run around her cage all day. She doesnt really bask again after that. Maybe for like 5 minutes or something, but not long. I was maybe thinking that she doesnt poop because shes not basking enough? How warm should her basking spot be? Ive heard anywhere from 90-120f. Thats a huge range, which is it?

4: Humidity. What is the correct humidity for her cage? Its really hard to maintain. On the cool side after I spray it goes up to 90, but then slowly goes down to 60. But on the warm side after I spray it goes up to 60 at most, and then pretty quickly goes down to about 40. With the dual heat lamps beaming down sun rays, how can I keep the warm side of the cage humid?


I might be worrying over nothing. But its causing me a lot of stress and headaches. I just want my little guy to be as healthy, and happy as possible.
 
Last edited:

Aardbark

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
735
My beautiful little gal. She was so green when I got her, and now shes more b/w. She loves to hang out with me in my bed, under the sheets. The other picture is her poking her head out in the morning after the lights come on. The rock is supported so she cant squish herself.

Shes so smart and she even recognizes me. When I come into the room she runs up to me, but if my roommate comes into the room she runs away and hides.

20210828_213521.jpg20210831_095331.jpg20210906_110028.jpg20210909_203254.jpg20210920_144555.jpg
 
Last edited:

Aardbark

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
735
Mini update, after basking this morning she let out a huge poop. Its so weird to be so happy about poop. It was solid but not dried out, and came with a bunch of pee. It didnt look like she had to strain at all. Was also the same consistency as when she was on a cricket diet.

So maybe she is pooping less often because she is getting bigger, and her metabolism is slower?
 

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