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a 16 inch tegu bite

Don't worry, after a while your skin will harden up and your tegu's teeth will bounce right off! Well, maybe not. My experience with biting....

After having been bitten about 50 times now by my Tegu (he's now about 18" he is learning not to bite, and I am learning how he acts just before he bites so I can do something about it. He still tries to take a nibble or five at my hands sometimes, and what I have been doing is whapping him on the beak and shouting "NO!" when he does it. I am doing this because he and I have enough trust where he lets me pick him up, carry him around, and pet him pretty much all day long without a fuss (it only took 9 weeks to get to this point ). I probably wouldn't recommmend this if you and your tegu don't have enough trust, it will just make him hate you.

So, hope your hand is alright, it didn't look too bad. As always with owning reptiles its not an issue of "if" you get bit but when and how often you'll get bit.

JonV

For her size, Nienna has never drawn blood on me, once she bit and then did a head shake (She's not a morning Tegu).

The Blue Raja used to be crabby as all heck in the mornings, but after consistent morning pettings he is getting better. Keep that in mind.

just playing with you there buddy. I believe snout would be the correct term. But as far as the bitting thing goes idunno my tegu has never attempted to bite me. Now he is 30 inches and i imagine it might sting a bit. Today though tell me if you can answer this. My tegu was sitting my head as i was laying down on my side(my head not completely on the floor) Then he out of no where jumps toward my face on thanks to my cat like reflexes i was able to put an arm between him and I. I didnt look like he was doing it in defence though. any ideas? Oh and another thing, idunno why i bring this up, but i found out for sure today that Slash i really a boy!!! His hemi penis is about this long. ----- Pretty cool huh. Dont mind me im kinda a wierdo. -nick

Oh geez, turns out my Tegu is really a parrot...that's why I thought it was strange he had a beak.... just kidding. You know what I mean though, it's a colloquialism.

I wish I could figure out why some tegus never ever bite their owners, and some, like mine, consistently think I am food. Is there some people=food gene that could be bred out of Tegus aimed to be pets? I wonder...

As for your story, I really don't have any ideas on why your tegu would have launched at your face like that. My theory would be this...

I think that some, but probably not all, Tegus have genetically built in traits that can never be trained out. For example, if your tegu is hungry and you move something really fast in front of him he will track it or perhaps dash after it. It's just their automatic response that has ensured the survival of their species. So, with your case of him launching at your face, I would wonder if you maybe moved some part of your face fast enough that your tegus automatic food tracking response kicked in? That would be my guess.