Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
My tegu has been calm and passive for the past week. All of a sudden, he tries to get away from me and starting to puff when i pick him up, luckily he hasnt whipped or bit me. Is he going crazy? Or is he getting used to me. I handle him about 1 hr a day at least. When i got him, he was skinny, now hes nice and fat. Hes still a baby (still a little green), about 14" total.
Any thoughts will help.
Thanks

I wouldn't worry about it, personally. Just keep working with him. But an hour a day *might* be a bit too much, you could be stressing him.

Thats typical behavior for baby tegus and agressiveness is a good sign at that age. As it matures it will (in most cases) lose its skittishness and become a lazy eating machine
RSCBR

What I was initially thinking as I read the beginning of your post was that the animal was under-fed were it was being kept and was in a semi-weakened state when you got it, therefore it had no energy to puff up or tail whip you or anything. Then as I read the rest of your post you said the Tegu as skinny, this just re-affirms my theory.

I wouldn't worry about it though, Mig(my tegu) was very docile in my local reptile store and was a little on the skinny side and only puffed up a little bit when he was handled, after i got him home and got some good food in him, he started to puff up alot and whip me, but with some gentle handling for abot 15 minutes each day he has stopped whipping me, although he still puffs up, but i personally think it's cute lol. Once he is out of his enclosure however he is fine, he "hisses" for lack of a better word at 3:38AM a little bit but that's about it, just keep working with him, you might want to shorten your handling sessions a little bit though, but then again the tegu could be fine...

Good Luck!
-----
0.0.1 Argentine Black and White Tegu
0.0.1 Baby Aru Green Tree Python
2.1 Bearded Dragon
0.0.4 Hatchling Bearded Dragons
1.1 Honduran Milksnake
1.0 Florida Brooksi Kingsnake
1.0 Blood Red Cornsnake
1.0 Jungle Carpet Python
0.1 Desert Kingsnake
1.0 Western Hognose Snake
1.0 Bull Mastiff

This little bastard is crazy. I just brought him outside today, and put him in the grass. Once i tried to pick him up, he lunged at me with his mouth open! I had to throw a rag over him to pick him up in order to not get bit. Have you guys experienced this yet? He was so calm until i got him nice and fat.
Thanks