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Are Columbians really as hard to tame as I have read. I think I got shafted on my recent Tegu purchase and they sold me a Columbian instead of an Argentine, which is what I was told it was. Are the Columbian really impossible to tame?

It really depends on the individual.

I can share some of my current experiences with my Columbian, and the experiences others have shared with me:

For one thing, there appears to be a lack of printed information about the specifics of keeping Columbian Tegus, which is unfortunate since there are some very real differences between the Columbian and Argentine varieties.
An individual shared with me his experiences of studying Columbian Tegus in the wild and basically explained that the environment which they live is a high competition habitat more so then that of the Argentines which may account for some of "skittishness" of the Columbian Tegus.
The other issue is Columbians are either all Wild Caught or Captive Hatched, and I've begun to wonder what impact that has on the Tegus psychology. Are they nearly all half-crazed by the time we get them into our homes? I dunno, but they are often highly stressed which certainly doesn't help with their temperment.
When we finally get them into our homes there is also the issue of the environment we are providing them. Like the Argentines the Columbians love to burrow and spend very little time outside of the homes they build for themselves, now this is something I've noticed about the Columbians, if given enough substrate to burrow in they will use that over an artificial hidebox, I've seen the opposite with the Argentines again, this is just my own experience. Burrows provide security which I believe goes along way toward stabilizing their personalities somewhat. It appears that the Columbians unlike the Argentines are nearly intolerant of being observed and basically avoid interaction with people whenever possible. BUT, there are quite a few exceptions to this rule, some Columbians are more tolerant than others as I have experienced a few that had no problem with handling.
Finally, the issue of "Tame".
I personally believe that few reptiles ever "tame", some are just more tolerant of people than others, and fewer still actively seek out human interaction.
Your experiences with your Columbian may be completely unique. My Columbian is active, eats voraciously and is intolerant to my presence and spends most of its time "underground". This may change, or not. But I like mine the way he is. My 2 cents of advice is simply accept your Tegu regardless of how he or she interacts with you, if at all, and enjoy it for what it is.

Hope this helps,

-Kit

I can't add much to that except to agree with what you said on Argentines. Both of mine prefer sleeping in a chamber in the hide box instead of just being buried in substrate.

Kit,
Thank you so very much for the information. I greatly appreciate it. Very informative. I will work with my Tegu to see if he will become "Tame"/Tolerant of handling. I have already spoken to the place where I bought him/her and they said that since it was their mistake, they sold me a Columbian and told me it was an Argentine, they would give me a few months to work with it and see how it goes. If he/she is not somewhat docile, they would work out a store credit for me since they do not to refunds or returns, even though it was their mistake. Thanks again for the info, it is greatly appreciated.

Jason
a.k.a. Gamerjjt

dont think they are impossible to tame down. just more of a challenge. where i work we got in 2 colombians one is totally tame the other will chase your hand around the cage trying to bite. lol. my thoughts on colombians being more "aggressive" is this. Argentines for the most part all are tame or will be as long as you interact with them at least 1hr a week. they are also all Captive Bred. while colombians for the most part atleast in the past were Wild Caught. more and more i see colombians being CB. and it seems that there are more and more "tame" colombians now. i know BRG had one that was extremely tame. so on your colombian i'd say it depends a lot on if its WC or CB. not to say WC wont calm down and become tame and not to say all CB will be nice little lizards. just interact with your tegu a lot. and it should calm down after time, and as it gets bigger.

Matthew,

Do you know who is breeding Captive Bred Columbian Tegus?
Aside from the exotics like the Blue tegus I have never encountered a Captive Bred Columbian "Black" or "Gold" Tegu and I've looked high and low.
If you have this information please share, I'm skeptical of many of the claims people make about them being CB simply because they are priced all wrong (CB for 35$ and less, doubtful) and there is little to no information about breeding these Tegus in captivity.
Let me know if I am simply looking in the wrong places.

-Kit

I'll give you my perspective on colombians. I absolutel ADORE them!

When I got Blake (my colombian) I was working at a pet store. Like one of the posts before me, we got two of them in. One that was the nice tegu and then there was Blake. NO ONE wanted to do ANYTHING with him. So looking for a challenge, I decided to work with him. I worked with him at the store for a month. I got him to the point that it wasn't all that difficult for ME to get him out of his cage. Once he was out, I could let pretty much anyone handle him. Finally after that month I bought him because I realized how attached I was to him when someone else expressed interest in buying him.

That was about a year and a half ago. Since then I've handled him every day, with a few exceptions for camping trips. For me I believe that consistancy is the key. My schedule with school and work has been such that I was lucky enough to get him on a mostly permanent schedule. I would take him out of his cage at almost the same time every day and take him out for roughly the same amount of time.

Sorry this post is getting so long, but I just love my guy! The results of my work are a relatively lovey tegu. I let him roam around the apartment and I take him outside for walks (on a leash of course). He still gets a little huffy in his cage when I go to get him out, but that's mostly because he really doesn't like to have his basking time interupted. But he will crawl up into my lap and relax and once or twice has even fallen asleep.

However, the result of me and only me working with him is that he's not very tollerant of other people. I don't really mind, he's my baby. He doesn't enjoy being held by others, but will settle down when I take him back. If I'm the only one home in the apartment (I work evenings, so this is how it usually is) he'll run around every where. If there are other people about he'll stay mostly under the furniture.

I hope this helps, and I'm more than willing to tell you anything else you want to know about my experiences with Blake (and there are quite a few intersting stories!).

Lindsay

Lindsay, I have decided to keep the little Columbian. The pet store that I got him from said that I could keep him for a while and see how it goes, if it is good, great. If it goes bad, then they will be willing to work out a deal with me for store credit or something. I have been trying to work with him/her, but I work like 12 hrs a day, 7 days a week. When I get home, all I want to do is go to sleep. I realize now that this is going to be a project that I will need to continue to work on. I will have to sacrifice a little sleep, but I don't mind it is worth it to have a friendly animal that is willing to tolerate handling, even if it is only by me.

Thanks for the info,
Jason

I'm glad to hear that you're going to give it a try! I think that you'll find that the more you have to work at it, the bigger the pay off.

That does really suck about your work schedule. That's pretty insane. You could maybe try a little multitasking. Get the lights set on timers so that your tegu's awake time is during the times that you would be able to do something with him/her. As you're getting yourself ready for sleep, maybe bring him/her into the area where you are. If you're eating bring the tegu in there.

I started off pretty slow with Blake. It initially took me 45 min. just to get him out of his cage. It took him a while to settle down and I didn't want to get bitten. After that ordeal, I would take him into the bathroom (a nice easily cleaned and easily enclosed room) and let him wander around for 10 min. Then gradually as it took me shorter and shorter amounts of time to get him out of his tank, I would let him spend more time wandering around. It also helps with the potty training.

Good luck with your baby!!

Lindsay

I adopted a Colombian gold as a juvie and he's almost 2 now. When I first got him, he bit and tail whipped me every chance he could, and I didn't trust him to be around anyone else.

I picked up some great tips here on the forum, and worked with him on a daily basis. I don't have to stock large quantities of bandaids anymore, and now I can take him out in public on a harness. He's still a bit fiesty, especially compared to my mellow Argentine red, but I wouldn't get rid of him for anything.

Glad you decided to keep your lil guy. Let us know how things progress!