Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My boyfriend and I have been thinking about getting a red tegu for a long time. We did have a Common Tegu but it bothered me how aggressive it was so we gave it away. It would always bite and the more time we spent around it, the meaner it got. From what I've heard Common Tegus aren't very easily tamed while Reds and some of the larger ones are. Not being able to hold it on a regular basis is not a big deal as long as the times I need to it doesn't take a chunk out of my finger. I currently have a bearded dragon, panther chameleon, and two giant day geckos. The Panther will tolerate handling but only occasional. How big of a cage do I need for a grown adult? The cage szies I've seen I have no idea where to purchase one that large for a good price. I had the same dilemma with our Panther which requires a very large cage for its size. We ended up buying a reptarium which is very cheap for the size and gave the chameleon the ventilation it needs. I realize Tegus do not need a screen cage but I've never seen glass tanks that big for sale except the nice custom made wood tanks at reptile shows. Any ideas? Also... what is a typical sale price for a juvenile red tegu? I've seen two for around $100 and I think that was relatively cheap.

check this out...
http://www.bluetegu.com/red.html
if you buy one, i would suggest buying one from ron at the above link. there is a lot of info here too.
ian

I read this page quite some time ago. Since it is one of very few pages on tegus I don't feel like it really gives me enough information to be comfortable with buying one and knowing all I need to know. I have learned from owning chameleons that one page or book is never enough information I have not seen a single book on tegus anywhere so I'm forced to ask around. I want to try not to have something shipped to me. We had our panther chameleon shipped but it was a much more expensive animal and there are no chameleon breeders within 250 miles of where we live. Overnight shipping for our little guy was about $38 and was in a very small box because he was 3 inches long. I try to buy from local breeders whenever possible.

Hi Kiwi
I recently built a 4'x2'x2' cage out of melamine and the 4'x8' (they cut it for me) sheet cost i think around $20. I spent a total of $36 including the price of the drywall screws and the other misc. wood blocks for bracing the front of the cage. The acrylic was $40 and the plastic bypass door track was $15 or $20. This was the first cage I built myself and the custom cages I bought before were over $300. After the bulbs(uv,uva),fixtures(uv,spot lamp),digital thermos (dual probe) the cost was roughly $170. That aint bad eh? All I really needed tool wize was a drill, and 2.5" hole saw bit. The only thing I would change about it is using 1/4" glass instead of 1/8" acrylic.

Well... i dont know where you live, but i am located in the Dallas Ft.Worth region, and we have the monthly reptile show here... you might be able to come up and find one. i ordered my tegu and shipping was only 20, but...

bookwise, i would recommend-

Monitors, Tegus, and Related Lizards: Everything About Selection, Care, Nutrition, Diseases, Breeding, and Behavior (Complete Pet Owner's Manual)
by Richard D. Bartlett, Laura Barghusen (Illustrator), Patricia Pope Bartlett (Contributor)

you can get it at amazon.com for about 7$.
you will not find a book about tegus in particular (at least i dont think so!)

there is a lot to know about owning a tegu. if you have specific questions, and are reasonably friendly, we will be happy to answer them. before you do, however, try searching the forums, because a lot of the common questions have already been asked and answered.

in case you havnt seen it already...
http://www.constrictors.com/show.html
ian

I live in Houston actually. Dallas is at least a four hour drive (if you're going 70 the entire way) from far West Houston. It's not exactly a drive I make even to a good reptile show. We have shows here occasionally. I believe there's one in November for the Bayou City Breeders or something like that. I guess I made it seem like I lived out in the middle of nowhere when I said there weren't breeders. There are tons of breeders here but not a single one I could find in Texas bred Panther Chameleons and the closest Chameleon breeder of any sort was in Arlington which is just as far as Dallas.

If anyone has actual cage plans that would be very helpful. I don't trust my boyfriend trying to make his first attempt at building something from scratch. Also, would you consider Home Depot or Lowes a better place to find supplies? Last time we looked at Lowes and the only melamine they had was a roll of it that wasn't wide enough to really do anything with. In fact it took them about 5 minutes to realize what I was talking about when I asked if they had it.

i live in arlington! anyways, id go to home depot. it seems to be cheaper...
ian

You're right, you'll probably find that a red, blue or Argentine B&W will be less inclined to bite then a Columbian (but not always). For one of these larger tegus you'll want a cage that's at least 6' by 3' or 8' by 4'. I went to home depot and they had a policy were they'll do 1 or 2 cuts on an 8' by 4' sheet. We managed to design a cage that we didn't have to cut hardly any of the boards ourselves; we just screwed the pieces together. It's about 8' by 3 1/2 feet with 2' by 2' doors and a single piece of 4' glass in the middle.

Every one is different, but if you spend the time you can acclimate them (some even say tame them) to where they welcome your handling. Ours loves to be picked up and enjoys crawling up on top of our head and riding around.

I agree with you about buying from a local breeder. Where are you located. There's bound to be someone on this forum that can refer you to a source in your area.

As far as caging - you need BIG. And buying one is often problematic. If you are able, building one is not that difficult. Take a look down this forum and you will see lots of advice and examples of what others have done.

Here's what our Argentine Red (Maggie) and our Columbian Blue (Bogota) currently call home.