Reptile & Amphibian Forums

She's about 2 ft long, I aquired her from this guy who couldn't take care of her anymore, and she has been drinking but she has yet to accept any food (he had her on catfood, chicken necks and gizzards), i've offered her cooked chicken breast, and veggies until I can run out and get some frozen mice (with the christmas rush, and traffic it's hell). She hasn't accepted anything and it's been about two weeks. I didn't expect to get her, he just couldn't keep her anymore and handed her over to me. She appears fat, she hasn't went to the bathroom except urinated. The guy had her on a heating pad and a 40gal tank. I have her in a huge metal dog cage for now, I don't have any extra lights to hook up to her cage so i'm using HIS heating pad for now. She will wake up when I go into her cage, and she walks around, and hisses, and puts up a little fight, but she's nothing like my tegu who can be extremely jumpy, hisses and put up a big fight. She sleeps ALL the time! My best bet would probably be to take her into the vet, but I wanted to get a few opinions from here to narrow it down and see what MIGHT be the problem.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

You need lights on the top of the cage to get the temperature up, no ifs ands or buts. Not to mention you need a UV source to prevent MBD. Until you do this, you're probably going to have a sickly lizard. I suggest you do some reading.
JonV

Perhaps I should have just let the ignorant man keep the animal or toss it outside, my apologies for not having everything set up for this animal!

WOW! GREAT help on this board.

I've got a tegu of my own who is a year old an PERFECTLY healthy and I have met all the requirements for her, this new one however I have NO idea what's going on with her and I came to ask for opinions, NOT to be told I need to do some reading.
BUT THANKS. I guess the only option I really have is to keep switching lights until I can go out and get a new one.

dont worry about that guy i give you respect for doing what you are doing. try to give him a basking light and try some crickets or something that moves and she mite just be trying to get use to her cage and dont worry their are nice people on this foroum that will try to help you and not be so mean

tony

I didn't mean to snap at you, and you'll note from my post that I did not attack you personally in any way. I suggested you do some reading, probably something which everyone can benefit from.

To everyone: read.

I respect what you are doing in trying to help the tegu, that is something this world needs to see more of, and I will be glad to help. I would suggest these websites:

http://www.agamainternational.com/merianae.shtml
http://cs.alfred.edu/~lansdoct/my_pet_tegu/

in addition to reading all previous posts and archived forums. There was a similar situation with someone else about a month back wherein nearly all details of care were specified. I think it should still be around?

For lighting note that you need some type of UVB. I have found the easiest way to do this is with a special type of bulb that fits in a dome fixture rather than getting a 3' fluorerscent, per se (although one could do this either way). I have found most supplies cheapest at reptiledirect.com.

For food: crickets, mealworms, pinky mice, fruit, veggies all dusted with a calcium supplement and I also use a vitamin supplement.

Always have a supply of fresh water in the cage.

Try to handle your tegu everyday if you want him/her to be tame. Start slow, and work your way up. First just talking to it, then petting, then picking it up, then square dancing, etc...

Hope that helps.
JonV

my tegu did the same thing at first------she might be trying to hibernate---try putting some mulch in cage so it can dig down and see if she hibernates--mine is out like a light until february--my male is totally active right now.-good luck----brian

Like a previous poster suggested, she may be trying to hibernate.

I THINK I read it on Agama International that Lighting (besides UVB) isn't required and that they can survive just fine on a heating pad alone (Considering it gets warm enough.)

And actually, heating pads make it easier to keep humidity than lights.

What about vitamin D necessary for calcium uptake? One would need to supplement it if not using UV, correct?
JonV

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The Blue Raja, Master of Silverware, forks speciality.