Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had my red tegu Simon for about four years, he was a birthday present from an ex-boyfriend, I sadly have never been well educated on his care, and was unaware of how large he was going to get, he has outgrown his newest aquarium and needs a large home, what other options are there for him. Also until a few days ago I was feeding him only canned cat food, canned monitor food and the occasional mouse, I have since learned the varity of foods he is able to enjoy and have started giving him the vitamins he needs, could he develop any health problems from not being fed properly and not having the vitamin supplements he needed over a few years? any and all advice is appreciated!!!

your tegu would benefit from a diet of rodents,raw lean ground turkey and fruits (kiwi,strawberry,honeydew,oranges,bananas etc.-----stay away from the canned foods---hard to say if irreversible damage was done by previous diet---good luck---brian

housing---the most economical enclosure would be plywood--if you are good with tools in a couple of hours you can make a nice enclosure----an adult red tegu is going to need at least a 6x3x3 with a hide box at each end-brian

thanks for your help, i'm pretty handy with building things, do you know of anywhere to get some type of plans to build a cage? thanks wendy-ann

poached eggs, scrambled eggs. Eggs shell and all soft cooked mixed with pineapple or apple chunks. Mice live or frozen-thawed. Calcium in the form of egg shells and powdered. If you feed f/t mice. When they are still damp dip their rumps in calcium. Try a bag of frozen mixed veggies. Hope this helps.

As far as a cage...bigger is better. My year old red is in 9 1/2 feet by 3 by 3 feet.

Mike B.

yes that helps a bunch, i fed him pineapple, chicken and a handful of mixed veg sprinkled with rep cal calcium tonight and he loved it, how much and how often should he be fed?

Yes your diet can be corrected and doing so should help to prolong your tegus life . Feeding cat food on occasion won't hurt your tegu but feeding it as steady diet will . I have not tested the canned monitor food as it does come out more expensive for me to feed than rodents do.

I have a few older tegus that were fed primarly a cat food diet when they were with their original owners for the first few years of their life (before anyone really new how tegus should be cared for and fed ) These few animals all showed some signs of MBD disease and don't look like the tegus we have raised on good diets (their necks are shorter , slightly wavy tails etc)
It did take a long time to correct their problems though but some of these animals are quite old now .
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Stella St.Pierre
www.bluetegu.com