I have a Colombian Tegu and she's a lot of fun. While they will never be as tame as the Argentines, they can enjoy being out and about. We feed ours out of the cage (but never by hand), so she associates us with food and good things. We feed her gizzards, chicken, fish (all washed and raw meats), crickets, mealworms, and a mouse once a week. She gets an egg once a month with the shell crushed up. We also give her some fruits and veggies, but we mix it in with her meat because she won't eat it unless it smells like meat. We also sprinkle vitamins on her meat like we do any other captive reptile. She likes a huge water bowl to sit in, high humidity, mulch or shavings to dig around in, and a big hidey to sleep in.

When she wants out, she goes to one corner of her cage and jumps up to the screen. We open her lid and she climbs up our arm. We try not to "catch" her or she just gets angry. We acclimated her to us by leaving our clothing in her cage so she could have our scent around. It was really just myself and one daughter, so she seems to respond to us differently. My daughter is her primary caregiver, so she receives less tail lashing and huffing! We all get huffed at on a daily basis, but we know what her temperament is like and respect it. We don't touch her tail or back legs, we don't feed her by hand, and we know she likes to be petted softly by the side of the neck just behind the ear.

Ours is about 1 1/2 yrs old and is almost 2ft tip to tip. We know she is a female because of the size of her femoral pores. If you are familiar with these on bearded dragons, they are circular pores located near the vent that run crosswise along the rear legs. In the females they are almost not noticeable, but quite a bit larger in the males. I have not handled a male Columbian so I cannot make much of a comparison for you.

Enjoy your new pet!

Laura

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