Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Out of the different types of tegus, which makes the best pet? Which tends to be the most docile? Thanks and let me know.

As far as being docile If somebody has a docile red they would probably say red if they have a arg b/w they would probably say that, the same going for a blue, but as far as the easiest to care for although im not speaking from experience (I have an arg. b/w) I would say the blue would probobly be the best. They dont get as large as the reds and b/ws and dont need fruit in their diet to give them good sheds as do the reds and b/ws. If you are capable of handling the diets and size of any of them then it would be which ever you would prefer. There tameness depends on how often you handle them, giving them a stress free enviorment, and a healthy diet, and a little luck.

In adition to the above post i would say if your looking for something that is prone to being naturally docile i would stay away from either a golden or a columbian tegu, from my experience these two types seem to be a tad more aggresive, but everything does depend on your handling techniques. It may just take longer to calm them down, and they can make a wonderful pet if you dont mind the time.
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Sea ya Nick & Slash.......

Another thing to keep in mind. I have an Arg BW, so I don't know from first hand experience, but take into consideration hibernation habits. I may be wrong, but I think it was Ron or Stella St. Pierre who told me some species are more prone to hibernation than others. It depends on if you want your tegu to hibernate or not also. I think the BW are most likely, then the reds, then the blues are least likely to hibernate. Don't quote me on that though.
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-Bill

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A captive bred tegu makes which you raised indoors makes the best pet . The tamest tegus seem to produce the tamest offspring (nervous animals tend to produce nervous babies so tegus that have been line bred over multiple generations will tend to be much tamer than one that is imported and raised as a hatchling ) . Some species will make better pets for some keepers than they will for others , mostly due to the keepers personality and experiance .

Argentine Red tegus - These usually do well for the type keeper who has had a good experiance keeping Iguanas or Tortoises . They have the most complicated dietary requirments of all the tegus since for them to do well you will have to feed them fruit consistantly once they are adults. Keepers who are used to caring for only snakes or monitor lizards will usually tend slack on their diet and end up having problems with them . This tegu is also picky about it's enviroment so if you are not the type person that is willing to really keep up on their maintenance you will probably enjoy one of the other tegus more. Both males and females make equally as good a pet but males are usually alot nicer colored making them more impressive .

Argentine black and white and Chacoan (same species but Chacoan have been line bred to have more white ) -These also need some fruit in their diet but they are not nearly as dependent on it as the red tegu is . If you tend to slack a little on the fruit in their diet it usually won't effect them much so this alone makes them much easier to care for . They are also not nearly as picky about their enviroment as a red tegu is . There isn't much visual difference in color between males and females (males do have bigger jowls and tend to get larger) Males of this species tend to make better pets than females do. Females that are tame tend to be very tame for most of the year but during their breeding season they can get territorial so I personally do not like to handle the girls at that time of year ( I guess you can somewhat compare the behavior to be similar to that of a male green iguana during breeding season although I don't consider it to be nearly as bad) I see this behaviour more in females of the regular Argentine strain than I do in the Chacoan strain and this might have to do with the fact that we have bred the Chacoan strain for more generations trying to perfect their color than we have the regular Argentine strain . Downside to this tegu is that they naturally hibernate longer than any other tegu so you might not see your animal much in the fall and winter months . If they are going to slow down and hibernate there is not much you can do to stop them as my adults usually disapear into their hides even when ambient temperatures are as high as 90F . Some will never hibernate (and they can live a very long time and never hibernate ) in the average home and some will hibernate every year so you have to be prepared to not seeing them some years .

Blue Tegus (including albinos ) These are the least picky tegu when it comes to diet and husbandry of all the tegus I have worked with. This is the perfect tegu for someone who is just use to keeping snakes or monitor lizards as their dietary rquirements are very similar . You can treat this tegu as you would a snake and only feed it the correct size rodent and it will do very well . Both males and females make equally as good a pet . Males tend to have a little better coloration than females but females of this species are still very attractive . Blues can vary greatly in color and all babies look alike so you can not tell exactly what color they will be as adult when they are hatchlings (except for albinos - the ones with a lot of dark purple as babies will have a lot of lavender as adult the ones that don't won't ) The good part about not knowing what color they will be as adults is that even what I would consider to be a poorly colored blue tegu usually is much better looking than an Argentine black and white =) I wish my Argentines looked as nice as some of my poorly colored blues do. Ease of general care and diet along with good personality make this my personal favorite tegu .

Tegus that are not captive bred and have not been captive bred over multiple generation will tend to be much wilder as adults even when raised from babies . One of the other drawbacks is you don't know how they were taken care of as babies for example how long did they sit in a cramped bin at the exporters and were they given clean food and water during that time (this can increase the chances of their having problems in the futrure greatly even though tegus in general are a lot more hardy than most species of lizards)
Colombian black and whites for the cheaper tegus this is probably the best one . Some will grow up to be very tame and some won't . I belive a lot of this has to do with their not being selectivly bred . This tegu is pretty easy to care for .

Gold tegus - the ones in the pet trade are usually imported out of Suriname or Guyana . I have tried raising babies of these on several occasions and have never gotten one to grow up to what I would consider be even the slightest bit tame . (I have had some odd colored ones so yes I did try very hard to raise them ) I personally view this tegu to be the one that gives tegus a bad name . The only tame ones I have seen are sick ones . Yes they are very cheap and yes there is a reason for it . If you buy one expect for them to be hard to handle once they get some size on them and do not expect them to be anything like most of the tegus you read about in this forum.

Paraguay red tegus - red tegus in general are not easy to care for and babies that have been dehydrated are that much harder to care for . These are usually only available as wild caught so be prepared for trips to the vet .
Paraguay black and whites - same are reds but should be a little easier to care for . Since these haven't been bred over multiple generations expect them to be a little more nervous than most of the Argentines you hear about on these forums.

Dwarf tegus - sometimes imported out of Chile . This lizard is a lot more active than the tegus you generally hear about on this forum . It doesn't do well if your humidity is high as it will usually break out in blisters if the cage is to wet (this lizard is not a true tegu and they behave more like an ameiva than a tegu ) It's favorite food is other lizards so feeding can sometimes be a problem. There is not much known about their care or their habitat.

Montior tegus - these thing really like to jump and are quite adept at doing so . I have seen many come flying out of their enclosures in importers facilities. They generally have a nervous personality and get much larger than the dwarf tegus so they don't really make good pets . I'm pretty sure that these are also lizard eaters in the wild not 100% sure as there is very little information available about these lizards in the wild.
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Stella St.Pierre
www.bluetegu.com

Hello, Stella,
You are the first person I've heard to designate between the Argentine and Paraguay red tegus. Are they the same critter, but from different areas, or is there some other herpetological difference? If the paraguians (sp?)are usually wild caught, how do you tell the difference? Is there any difference in care, or size?
Thanks,
Leslie?

All red tegus are the same species (Tupinambis rufescens)
The bloodlines that the Argentine red tegus are all bred from in this country where from tegus that were imported from Argentina years ago (Argentina hasn't exported red tegus in roughly 15 years or so)so the only babies available from these bloodline are all captive bred ones and most of those are babies that were bred from captive born animals (selectivly bred over multiple generations ) Adult males of this bloodline are all very brightly colored red , females can range from a brownish red to red to a almost purple red as the founding animals of these bloodlines were all from pretty much the same geographic area .

The Paraguay reds began appearing in the US mostly within the last 6 years . Most of these were imported as adults and sub adults and a few juveniles(wild caught adults and sub adults are not tame and are not easy to establish so many breeders including myself did not want to work with them - I don't like to get bitten =P) Since not many people wanted to purchase mean tegus the recently started shipping babies/juveniles and many of these have ended up in pet stores (thes baies are not selctivly bred just as Colombian tegus are not selectivly bred) . The adult I have seen must be collected over a wider geographic area as I see a much larger variation of color in these animals - not all males are red , I've seen them range from dull brown to red but color really isn't the problem with these lizards . The problem with these babies stems from the fact that red tegus are very sensitive animals and do not do well if their diet and enviroment isn't kept just right - they dehydrate very easily and the younger they are the faster they will dehydrate and this alone makes a wild caught one much harder to establish than a captive bred animal. On top of that when wild caught animals are stressed the parasites they have get out of check and can compound their problems , one trip to the vet is not enough to correct this problem.(a good example of this is baby savannah monitors - there are tens of thousands of these babies imported yearly yet very few of these mature into adults in captivity)

There are very few breeders that consistantly produce red tegus but they are out there if you look . Since not many are produced they almost never wind up in pet stores (these lizards lay half the eggs as Argentine black and whites do and require 2-3 times the maintenance so the few people who are breeding them have a lot more cost in their babies and are not so inclined to give them away to a pet store)If you want to be reasonably sure that you are getting a true captive bred one a pet store is not the place to look. Another good way to tell is that red tegus are very seasonal breeders and only lay eggs that hatch in the summer months the US winter is Paraguays summer so when you see a tiny hatchling in a pet store in our winter months there is little chance that it was captive born.

I guess you could easily compare red tegus to Condro Pythons and Brazilian Rainbow Boas when it comes to establishing them .
All are delicate and the people who have the best luck raising them are the ones that raising captive born babies . When it comes to delicate animals you really do get exactly what you are willing to pay for .
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Stella St.Pierre
www.bluetegu.com

is there a way to tell the difference between argentine and paraguay reds? thanks, justin