Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok, so everything has been fine with Amigo for his first week until yesterday....I am waiting to hear about my frozen mice, so my hubby bought some pinkies from the pet store, I don't like to feed my lizards live food, but it was a case of having to yesterday, anyway, Amigo was in his enclosure and ate the first one just fine, but looked full, so my hubby went to grab the other one out of there, and amigo charged him, hissing etc. Is this a common problem with feeding live food, or just a typical hungry tegu incident??

Thanks,

Ley x

Hey! You broke your cherry and got your tegu mad at ya huh? LOL I have done in with both of mine already
Hope you learned your lesson:
NEVER be an Indian Giver with a tegu
Your lucky he's so little! LOL
But seriously, it's hard to tell when they are full...just leave the food in there until he goes to sleep. Sometimes mine shock me with what they can eat...other times they turn their nose up in the air, close thier eyes (so they can really ignore me) and chill without eating anything more then what a waterdragon would eat.
I get my new babies in a couple of weeks. I'm setting up the cages as we speak :>

Life is good.
-----
Yours,

NiCoLE

"Trying to save someone from their own stupidity is like trying to teach a pig how to dance: it wastes your time, and annoys the pig."

- Robert
Heinlein

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some tegus just get a bit rowdy when its feeding time. Taz gets a crazy look in his eyes i put the food in there and let him be till hes full. i can hand feed him. hes never bitten me but hes gotten close and when he charges for his food and jumps it can be a bit scary, so i dont really do it anymore.

>>some tegus just get a bit rowdy when its feeding time. Taz gets a crazy look in his eyes i put the food in there and let him be till hes full. i can hand feed him. hes never bitten me but hes gotten close and when he charges for his food and jumps it can be a bit scary, so i dont really do it anymore.

I use hemostats to feed now...works great!
-----
Yours,

NiCoLE

"Trying to save someone from their own stupidity is like trying to teach a pig how to dance: it wastes your time, and annoys the pig."

- Robert
Heinlein

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Thanks for the adivce guys....today's feeding went a lot smoother, thanks to leaving him alone to eat!!! I can sacrifice hand feeding if it means that I keep my fingers

Ley x

Hubby's lucky to still have his fingers.

I don't feed live food, either. My gold, Ravage, is a very aggressive eater, and huffs & tailwhips if I try removing his food dish too early. After he has his fill, he moves to another part of his cage or into his hide box.

My red, Ripley, often takes a few bites, explores a bit, comes back and takes a few more bites, etc. She usually tilts her head to one side with a "hey! I'm not done with that!" look if I try to take her bowl away too early.

A food dish works great for my tegus. They recognize it immediately, and if I reach in their cage without it they don't go into feeding frenzy mode. Other folks use a separate cage or even the bathtub for feeding.

A funny (and gross) story... While removing an uneaten mouse from Ripley's cage, she quickly jumped up to claim it and we each ended up with half. I don't recommend mouse tug-of-war.