Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All,

Wanted to post an Amigo update, thank you all for your advice on the shaking problem, after the first time this happened it hasnt happened again thanks to a lowering of the basking light, daily "sunshine" walks on the leash (which he is getting used to now!) and I upped his diet to fuzzy mice, which he loves!
When we bought him on Aug 16 he was 16-17 inches long, and when I measured him yesterday he was a whopping 19" He had a full healthy shed a few weeks ago, and looks to be shedding again this week!!! So far so good, will post new pics soon.

Leyla x

Glad to hear he's doing so good and growing like the proverbial weed! Keep up the good work!

Billy

>>Hi All,
>>
>>Wanted to post an Amigo update, thank you all for your advice on the shaking problem, after the first time this happened it hasnt happened again thanks to a lowering of the basking light, daily "sunshine" walks on the leash (which he is getting used to now!) and I upped his diet to fuzzy mice, which he loves!
>>When we bought him on Aug 16 he was 16-17 inches long, and when I measured him yesterday he was a whopping 19" He had a full healthy shed a few weeks ago, and looks to be shedding again this week!!! So far so good, will post new pics soon.
>>
>>Leyla x

with the "shaking" it was actually trembling from not getting UVB. now i know people say they dont need UVB, but i got Taz from Agama and he started trembling without UVB also. i put in a 5.0 ReptiSun UVB tube and within a day it stopped totally. now seeing how yours did the same thing and being from Agama. it pretty much makes my theory true
and that is that at Agama they are raised outside, and there bodies are used to getting TONS of UVB. then someone buys one and doesn't use UVB. and so the tegu goes from tons of UVB to none. so they start to "tremble". so once it gets too cold for walks outside, just put a UVB tube about 12" away from where he hangs out the most. after about 6 months on UVB, i took it away and Taz did fine, and not a thing changed. so its like a gradual thing with UVB. i guess there bodies dont react well when they get a lot for so long, and then just dont get any.
i hope i explained this right. and my rambling helped some
later

hey Matt,

I couldnt agree more, I had a feeling that it had something to do with agama int. keeping them outside, and nothing compares to natural sunlight, we all know that!! Amigo is doing real well, and at first I don't think he knew enough to go under the uvb light, seeing as he had never before had to, just a nap in the sun in Bert's terraria probably took care of everything, I am definitly glad to have a resource in this forum to help me figure it out though, collaboration rocks!!

Ley x

i was just wondering what you've been feeding and how often. i got a tegu from bert at daytona, also. mine was probably only about 15 inches long though. also, do you breed your own mice or do you buy them (live or frozen)? i have a hard time getting pinkies and fuzzies consistently from the local pet shops (they run out fast and don't always produce enough). i've been trying to convince my girlfriend that it would be worth breeding mice to feed our two baby tegus and ball python pair, but she used to breed mice and absolutely hates the way the breeding projects always start to smell.

Maybe our babies are siblings!!!

From day 1 amigo ate superworms, and didnt care much for crickets. He would typically eat around 20-30 dusted superworms a day, then he shed and all of a sudden we were feeding him the same amount per feeding, only twice a day!! So I kicked it up a notch and started with the raw ground meats, which he also wasnt too happy with, so I eventually broke down and bought the fuzzy mice, and he now eats those, sometimes he will eat one a day, sometimes he skips a day, all depends on how big the particular mouse happens to be. I am thinking about trying to incorporate the SDZ diet next, as I would like to see him eat something other than meats.

Hope this helps!!

Ley x

Glad my Tegu has no food gripes, he'll jump 2 feet up to get a piece of Kiwi, and tries to fit two live crickets in his mouth at once...