Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I read earlier that your tegu was "quite the little terror" and is now a sweetheart. Can you describe how he was when you got him? I brought my blue home last Sunday (about 20" - haven't measured), so he's been here a little over a week. Even before I got him, he was the most active of the 3 there, very inquisitive and everything. I figured he would be a handfull. He's not mean, but gets huffy puffy when I try to handle him. He doesn't whip me, but he wiggles his tail and I just know he's not comfortable, although he will let me touch him. How should I go about him getting used to me? I don't want to stress him out by trying to handle him too soon. I want to give him enough time to make his new home "home", and then I will work with him more. How long should I wait? I don't want to wait too long because I can tell he hasn't been handled much before, and the longer I wait the tougher it will be. I know they don't enjoy being picked up, but I want to be able to touch him and pick him up if I have to without him getting defensive. I've been trying to get him used to me being around him for about 30 min. to an hour a day, and touching him occasionally. I am feeding him in his enclosure, but I want to feed him elsewhere so he doesn't always think I have food. He doesn't like being picked up, so this is my dillema. At what point should I starting picking him up (even though he probably won't cooperate) and bringing him to another location to eat? Like I said, it's only been a week, and I know these things take time. Thanks for any advice.

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-reptilian9

IMHO, Tegus will tame at any age. I've had Tegus here that were handled alot as youngsters and became very tame. I've also had Tegus here that got handled very little while growing up. As young adults, they adjusted to being handled and tamed down nicely with a minimum of handling. The Blue Tegu female that I sent Russ this summer was not handled much at all. I haven't heard Russ complain at all about her lack of tameness.

Give your Tegu a couple of weeks to settle in and acclimate. After that, as long as he's eating, basking, and acting as if he's healthy, you can handle him several times daily. You can also start removing him to a separate container for feeding. Tegus are pretty darn hardy animals and don't seem to stress as easily as some of the other popular pet lizards. Enjoy your Tegu!!

Thanks Jiffypop - my tegu is definitely healthy and has been eating/basking all the time since the day I brought him home. I hope you're right and he doesn't turn out to be the exception - all animals have their own personality. I guess I'll wait another week and then start trying to pick him up. Mine has actually snapped at me when handling, but he's not that mean, I think he was warning me. I've had monitors that are much less tolerant than he already is.
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-reptilian9

Alrighty, since I totally love to gush about my little boy, I'll go over what I did with him when I got him home and you pick out the tidbits that you want to apply to your little darling.

To put it bluntly, Blake was an unholy terror when I brought him home. When I got him out of his box to put him in his tank, he managed to thrash around a bunch and get loose in my bedroom. After chasing him around my room for about 20 min. I finally got him into a sort of corner. I thought I had him, but then he shot up my pant leg. This made me pretty nervous because he was pretty snappish. He hadn't actually bit me, but there was a lot of huffing and puffing and tail whipping. But I finally got him settled into his cage.

I actually let him just chill in his cage for 7 days before I even tried to handle him. I would just lay down in front of his tank and watch him when he was out or do my studying in front of his tank so he just got used to my presence (I was in college at the time that I got him).

After the 7 days, I started handling him. I didn't handle him very much at first. For the first two weeks I would take him out of his tank for 15 min. I took him into the bathroom because it was a nice enclosed space that where he couldn't get out and couldn't get into any nooks and crannies. I would just let him explore the ground while I sat there watching him. He learned that I wasn't going to harm him, and because the linoleum floor was a little cool to the touch, he learned that I was also a source of heat. So he wasn't as frightened to come up to me and crawl on me.

Every two weeks I upped the amount of time that I took him out by 5 min. After a little more than a month, he had no problem with me getting him out of his tank and he learned that the bathroom was the place for him to do his business. Because my school schedule was pretty regular, I was able to get him on a very regular routine, which helped a lot.

I just really tried not to rush him and to not expect too much out of him. Initially when I would get him out of his cage, it would take me about 45 min. to get him out. I just went about it slow. If he was getting really aggitated, then I would give him space to calm down. I wouldn't pick him up until he was okay with me petting his head. Then I would pick him up with a minimal amount of fuss.

The strongest suggestion I have is that if you think your tegu could possibly crawl into an area that you don't want them to, DON'T ALLOW THEM NEAR IT! Blake managed to get himself into the dashboard of my old car and we had to tear EVERYTHING out! Another time, his leash got stuck on a bush and he managed to back out of it and dart off into the engine of car. I then had to go knocking on doors to find out who's car it was and tell them that my lizard was in their engine. Most recently his leash got stuck on a rose bush and he got out of it and took off under my parents' house while we were visiting them. I got him out fine, but I was covered head to toe in dirt and cobwebs.

And after all that he's still a little angel. He allows me to dress him up in costumes for Halloween. He was a part of my wedding procession. And he LOVES going for trips to the pet store, where he's usually on his best behavior and people LOVE him. I don't know what I would do without him!!

Well, I think that I've blathered on enough. Hope this helped!!

Lindsay

Thanks for the response. Wow, that's quite a drastic change from being snappy to allowing you to dress him up. I think that's awesome. I'm taking it slow now, like you did, and I know what you mean by it taking 45 minutes to get him out. I have to be slow - as soon as I start touching him, he gets huffy, but after about 5 minutes, he lets me pet him and calms down, but occassionally puffs up again, so I have to be careful. I think I'm on the right track, but one thing I worry about that could be a problem in the future is his desire to eat EVERYTHING. I'm trying to get him to realize that my hand is not food, and he's learning, but I'd better not walk barefoot around him because he goes straight for my feet! I do not hand feed him. Even after a meal (and he rarely misses a meal), he'll sniff around me and start trying to eat the buttons on my pants! After he bites, he gives up, but he has tried to eat paper plates, my toes, my pants, buttons... He eats so much and I'm keeping him as full as I can. He'll eat 5 pinkies at once, and some SDZ, and he's not even 2 feet. The upside to this is he'll eat fruits too. Anyone else have a tegu this hungry? I hope once he's calmed down I can trust him around people without him trying to eat them.
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-reptilian9

I hear ya on the eating. I swear that my blue must have an empty leg or something! She's two months old and is rapidly approaching the point where she's eating the same size portions that Blake is. It's amazing!

I have a funny story about feet and Blake. I had him out loose in my "office" (room in our apartment that has the computers in it) and I was sitting on the floor reading. I was kind of wiggling my toes as I was reading. I happened to look up and I saw him just stock still staring at me. I thought that was weird, but I went back to reading. All of a sudden he comes tearing for my feet and just bites my big toe like he's attacking an intruder! Well, my socks just happened to be black and white and were speckled in almost the same manner as his markings. He thought it was another tegu in his domain!! I thought that was pretty funny. He seemed a little sheepish after biting the invader and tasting material and not flesh. He's just so cute!

Lindsay