Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just got my big red tegu out of hock with the vet to the tune of over $600. And there will be followups.

Just wanted to let everyone know that when a tegu wants to brumate...let him alone! No matter how much you want to see your new baby, or adult, for that matter.

My 3.5 inch red male, Loiosh, has never brumated, so when he started to spend more of his time in his hide, I figured maybe he was going to go down this year. But whenever I went in to get the smaller female to put her in her feeding bin, Loiosh would stick his head out and flick his tongue in the way he does when it means "Rat???" So, I'd scratch him and socialize with him while I thawed him a rat, and feed it to him. (Yes, I feed the big carnivore by hand, but I've raised him from a hatchling, and I know my lizard. DO NOT try this at home with your own animal!!! If I tried this with his half-sister, they be calling me "STUMPY!" He would politely take his rat as always and eat it, and bask for awhile, and go back to bed.

Then I noticed that I was not getting Loiosh-size 'lizard bombs' in the enclosure. This is not always easy to check, because the female is great at mushing the piles like Godzilla with the buildings in Tokyo so you cannot always tell who made what. After several days of no giant size lizard bombs, and no progress with warm soaks, it was off to the vet. Xray said we had a blocked up intestine. After oiling and more oiling and swimming in warm water and enemas and fluids injected internally, still no lizard bombs.

So last Tuesday, Loiosh had abdominal surgery. The vet took out 189 grams of stool! The silly lizard had gotten up to visit with 'Mom' and eaten because it was the polite thing to do, even though he was internally shut down in brumation! Vet said that if she had not seen Loiosh with me, she never would hae believed that a lizard could bond that strongly with his 'human' that he woulld interrupt his brumation to visit and 'do dinner.'

Needless to say, I will be being very careful each winter from now on. But for the new folks that get babies who are in brumation, this should help you decide to just let your little ones sleep until they are ready to get up, and not to feed them heavily until they are truly awake. Not everyone has the resources to cough up that kind of money for a vet bill.

Hopefully, he will do fine, but we are still watching to see what he does when I try to give him two tiny pinkies on Monday. He'll probably be insulted; he's used to good siza rats!

Leslie

Thanks for the reminder. I bought a baby black and white about a month ago and recieved him/her mid hibernation. I'll make sure to be real carefull in letthing the little lizard wake up fully.

Wow Leslie!!

This winter is the first winter that meego hasnt wanted to brumate, he is still quite active and eats and basks just like he does in the summer. His digestive system has slowed down a bit though, so he takes a bath almost every night to make sure nothing is getting stuck in there.

Very, very good advice!!!! Let sleeping tegus lie!

Leyla x

Here is a baby pic of meego!!.....sooo cute

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1.0 husband
1.3 kids
0.1 african sulcata tortoise
1.0 Argentine Black & white tegu
1.0 green iguana
1.0 egyptian Uromastyx
2.3 canine buddies
0.1 Ball Python

The temptation for a first-time tegu owner to dig up their deep-sleeping pet is great. But as you pointed out, brumation or hibernation involves such a slowing down of metabolism that any food in the system could rot; that's why the tegus that are going to go down for the winter fort go off-feed for a while. They know what they're doing and they know how long they need to do it; we need to know to leave them alone in their shut-down state.

Very important advice, thanks for posting.

Bill

probably not what you want to hear after all that money spent but you may want to check on how your caring for them. a tegu is not going to shut down and begin hibernating until there stomach is empty. and when they are preparing for hibernation they wont eat. they will totally refuse the food. so it could have been something else, not him trying to hibernate or brumate as you were saying. my tegus would never eat any food after about a week of starting to get into hibernation. i even tried to see if they would eat after about a week. i've cut open rats and gotten live ones put infront of them. my tegu has seen them and flicked his tongue at them. but he is only interested in finding somewhere to go sleep in. so just thought i should let you know about that. not saying your wrong on how you do everything. but something could be out of place.

In the wild or outdoors, yes tegus tend to stop eating on their own. When kept indoors, their activity becomes unusual. I've seen captive tegus still eager to eat, despite having been hibernating for weeks or months already and no access to heat. I've warned people many times when hibernating your animals, do NOT offer them food, whether they want it or not. Most cases of feeding hibernating lizards I've seen lead to fatality.

I assure you that nothing is 'out of place' with my tegu care, but thanks for your concern.

My vet was in touch with not only top reptile vets, but with several folks that have bred tegus for years, as was I, when this whole thing started. All confirmed to my vet, who is pretty new to tegus, that my husbandry was just fine. As a matter of fact, it was one of the vets, who keeps tegus, who suggested to my vet that the problem was caused by the close bonding causing him to get up to visit and eat with his human.

The fact that you have not had this happpen is good, but some tegus are pigs and will continue to eat no matter what. Also, the level of brumation is not the same for each tegu, or even for each tegu in each year. Yes, if you cool them down, they will probably brumate hard, but mine are never cooled, and the female brumates to one extent or another every year. The male never has until this year.

And believe me, the money was not a concern for me. I've spent way more than that on surgery for rescue horses, knowing that they were not likely to make it at all.

Leslie

do you feed them anything but rats?normally i would say it is ok to house more than one tegu together,but reading your situation,i might recomend seperating them or atleast when the "time of year" is approaching.just my 2 cents.glad to see though that lizardmom is willing to shell out the money to ensure the well-being of her aniamls,most wouldn't and it is very sad to say,but it is a miracle that the lizard is still alive,because most people not only couldn't,but wouldn't spend that amount of money for anything other than a dog or cat.
cheers to you!you are a good reptile botherer/keeper.