Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I love them both. For differnt reasons though. I like the blues because of thier smaller size and thier very unique coloring, but they dont prefer fruit I hear(I have lots of fruit in my house, vegetarian). Then, I really like the black and white chocoans...wow... stunning animals... Thier coloration is by far my favorite, and I hear they love fruit, yet... they are flipping big! I am planning on handling my tegu whenever possible. Which includes, taking him to pet stores(socialization), walking him outside in the back yard, and maybe even letting him/her free roam my house when he gets to the point where a cage may be too small.

How big do the chocans get? 48inches? What would be the cage size for such a large animal? 6' feet seems to too small, but I may not be able to provide an 8 ft cage. Money isnt really a problem, and it never will be since animals are not cheap.

Oh ya, in each species, which is the better gender? I know temperment is varied in each animal... But I want an extremely mellow animal. Hopefully I can find this in a tegu, it is going be my first large lizard.

Thanks for all the help, and sorry for the longs posts... and please.. Pictures are appreciated!
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Starkey
Mystic Eye

Hi,

I had the same kind of questions before I bought Amigo a couple of weeks ago, he is an argentine B/W tegu, I have to tell you though, when we bought him (Aug 16)he was 2 months old or so barely 17 inches, and in the last 2 weeks or so he has gained well over an inch in length. On the temperament side, he is wonderful, I picked a male because I didnt want to deal with any eggs down the road, and I couldnt have made a better choice. He is very sweet, and calm, the only trouble I have had so far was his possesiveness with live food, which I will avoid feding from now on. So far he has eaten quite a few veggies, he really likes mashed potatos!!! (believe it or not)
My husband and I built a 6ft x 4ft enclosure for him, and right now he looks tiny in it, but like you we are prepared for the extra expense down the road. I have attached a pic of Amigo on his first day home, I hope this post helps you with your decision...btw we got Amigo from Bert Langerwerf at www.agamainternational.com

Leyla x

I've got two Argentines both are Chocoans or "white headed". According to Ron’s website the white headed ones tend to be bigger then the black headed morph. In either case you should plan on a male getting to 48" and of course they might get bigger then that. My graphing of my females length shows me that she will get to about 3 1/2 feet. Other gender differences show once the females are mature enough to lay eggs. The females will get grumpy around this time. They can also get egg bound and have problems with that. I know a 6' cage sounds small for a 4' lizard but they tend to be laid back if they're comfortable. Mine are both more then happy in their modest 8' by 3' home. When I take mine outside they get tend to get more active but they do stop to bask too. Once the shock value wares off a 4' tegu doesn't seem so big it's like the size of a large cat.

Rollin. Any chance of you posting a picture of your 4 foot cat THAT would be something. What do you feed a 4' cat? (Anything it wants.....)

MAP

Hehe well I was talking more in terms of weight and not length. You've got to figure more in terms of snout to vent for the real size of the animal. Most of a tegu is tail; my 4' and a couple inch tegu boy has a snout to vent of about a foot and a half. He doesn't seem much bigger then a cat to me and you know a cat's got all that fluffy fur. In terms of weight a large tegu is 15 pounds and large cats are 15 pounds. Here's just a random site with a 15 and 20 pound cat with snout to vent of 24". If I saw a 4' cat I'd be more then a little wary, my friends cats were little devils!
http://www.creighton.edu/~caudillo/cats.html

I can't compare Blues to Chocoans, because I don't have either one. But I do have a pair of 3 year old Argintine Black and Whites. Both are about 4' in total length, but the Male outweighs the Female by a couple pounds.

They are eating machines and will eat anything, but if you offer them meat and fruit at the same time, they will go for the meat everytime.

I'm currently keeping them in an outdoor enclosure 12' x 5'. They come out when it warms up a little and bask for awhile, before they start exploring, digging, and looking for food. Then it's back to the borrow (where they spend most of their time).

As a general rule, B/Ws are very docile (as are mine) Of corse this depends on the keepers habits. I've only been bit once, and that was totally my fault - I got in the way of a feeding frenzy. Be sure to keep your Tegu well fed, and make sure it knows YOU are NOT food.

I love them both, but if I had to choose, I'd have to pick the Male. He is a total Lap Lizard (or as I like to call him - Lounge Lizard). And I love his giant head. The Female is tame, she just gets board quick, and want's to be left alone.

This is only MY experience, and I feel ALL tegus are great animals! I'm sure you'll be happy with your new Tegu (regardless of which type you choose)

Here is some pictures of Santiago . He is just over 2 years old (june 24-28), 4' 2 " 16 lbs Snt to vent is 20 ".russ

as you can see I used a mineral can to give you scale.Also the slate tile is 12"-12" . i KNOW sANTIAGO IS LARGE ALL REAdy ( caps got locked) And im guessing by the time he is 5 years old he will be 4'6" . Stella Told me that the Snt to vent of here larger tegus are around 2' long . Russ

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