Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a B&W tegu for about 8 months now and heis about 18 inches long. when i first got him he was tame i could pick him up even without a glove but ihave not picked him up for about 3 months and he is a monster. when i walk in the room he jumps from one end of the cage to the other to try to get me. i feed him in a bowl when he is asleep. how can i get him to be tamed again. i was thinking about getting rid of him and getting another and hold him every day.

Hi

Dont stop you need to keep with it.

He will tame down again you just got to bite the bullet reach in and hold him. Wear some gloves to protect yourself and in a couple of weeks he will be back to normal. Just have to make sure you stick with it dont give up.

cheers
Scotty & Lester
Bellydragger Reptiles

should i grab him around the neck or try to scoop him up

this is what worked for me to tame my argentine black and white tegu and it will probably work for you. I set up patterns and always held him before he ate so that way he knew by being held he was getting a reward. THe feeding bowl idea which you are also using worked great for me. try to hold him with your one hand around his belly and the other on the tail if at first he doesn't like that just set down and hold him on your legs or put him on your shirt. I believe that if they are on a bigger cage they will tolerate handeling better probably because they don't feel like moving so much when they are out of it because they already have space.

I've found that if you wear one glove and instead if pinning them down. Grab at the base of the tail with your bare hand and slide the gloved hand under the belly they seem to settle down pretty quickly. Then take the glove off when you think it's ok.

You know when my family was in Cancun a driver told us ther was no chicken in the Mexican restaurants. They all serve iguana. Did you ever wonder what tegu tastes like??? Just kidding. Keep trying.

Mike B.

I am totally in agreement with Akita. Nivea, a female red, was tame when I got her and I didn't pay much atention to her for a while and she went nuts. So I figured, logically, what works for training a dog would work for a tegu..They're not stupid. I took her out for about 20-30 minutes a day then fed her a cherry, her favourite, or something like that when she went back in her cage. I also pet her and stuff when she's out. She seems to like that. After about 2 weeks she's TOTALLY tame again. I can trim her nails, bath her and the sort again. I must say she was never to the point of biting, but I've got some nice claw/tail marks on my arms still...hope that works for you.