Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi.
one of my two tegus eats like a hog, but the other one only takes a bite or two and then walks off. i feed them seperately, so it's not like the other one is scaring him off. granted, i've only had him for two days, but it worries me because the other one has always eaten like a pig, even in the car ride home from buying him. i've tried crickets, grasshoppers, snails, caterpillars, mealworms, cheese, fish, beef, chicken, pinkies and egg. he's eaten a couple pieces of beef, egg and snail, but not very much at all. all the food i present him is dead. i was wondering if anyone knows a particular method to coax a tegu into eating more. i'm sure it'll get better once he settles in, but i'd love to speed along that process. any advice, opinions and experiences are appreciated.

After reading that you've only had him/her for two, my main advice is to relax. Each tegu is an individual and as such adjusts to new surroundings at their own pace. Sub-species, age, past husbandry and various other reasons have to do with how quickly they adjust to their new environment.

There's a few things that you could check though to make sure that everything is okay in the setup. Check your temperatures first of all. If it's not warm enough, you're not going to get much of an activity. Check your basking spot temperature, check check the temp around the basking spot, and check the temp on the far cool side.

There's more information you could post too and I'm sure that you'll get more posts. What kind of tegu is it? What size enclosure? What kind of substrate? How old is the tegu? Where did you get it? Do you know what the previous owner/breeder was feeding it? What are your temps in all the areas that I listed above? Do you have a hide box and if so what is the temperature in that general area? How long is your light cycle? Are you using any supplements? Are you using UVB lighting? How much have you handled the tegu since you got it? Answers to all these questions will help to give a better image of your husbandry and clue everyone else in to what might be going on.

Hope that helped.

Lindsay

Try cat food if hes still small.

You have to be careful of the cat food, it contains a lot of taurine. Taurine is an amino acid that contains sulfur and you don't want a lot of sulfur in your tegus diet.

i neglected to put in that information because i just put it all in my last post, and i forgot to do it again. both tegus are from agam international. they're both a bout a month to two months old. their basking zones are in the high 90s, their hides are in the low 80s. they're argentine b&ws. i emailed agam international to find out what they were eating before he sold them to me, he should respond today. they take to handling very well, neither put up a fight coming out of the cage and they love to lay on your chest and roam around the floor. i do that once or twice a day. i also offer them a little food twice a day (when i take them out of the cages). well, i hope that helps. thanks.

Try rasing the basking temps to 110-120 this is what I and most people have found that works. High Ninties is two low .I put a thermomener out side in my outdoor incloser. I put it in the direct sun . It was 75 degress yeterday . The themometer got 140 degress in 15 min. I hope this will give you an Idea on basking temps . Take care and good luck .Russ

i erred. high 90's was the surface temperature of the rock (i took this using a temp gun). by leaving a conventional thermometer on the basking spot i was able to get an accurate reading of what the actual ambient temperature in that spot was... 107.8 to 113.6 after taking it a couple times. also, since the tegus are larger than the thermometer, they are actually up closer to the light, which means the temperatures coming down on the are a few degrees higher. the tegu is indeed just picky. i found out that he balks at anything save steak and live crickets. however, by offering merely a few live crickets, a strong feeding response is evoked, after which he will still accept a few more bits of dead food. i hope to gradually reduce the number of live food items and increase the number of dead food items, eventually leading to the ready acceptance or dead food without the need for any stimulation via living prey items.