Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,

My husband and I have been keeping various reptiles for over 10 years now. Our biggest passion thus far has been the green iguana -- we currently have a 10-year-old female and a 9-year-old male.

We currently live in an appartment, but are planning on buying a house next summer (2004). Once that happens, we will hopefully be able to dedicate a room or two where we can let our big lizards roam without us worrying about them breaking everything or hurting themselves, which is a major concern while we are stuck in this little appartment and there is no way of "ig-proofing" it.

Anyway, we figure the iguanas will probably live for another 2-3 years at best, since they were not properly taken care of when they were younger and they are reaching their longevity limit. We always figured that once these guys passed, that we would always have other iguanas.

However, a friend of mine forwarded me a link of a breeder of Argentine B&W tegus (www.agamainternational.com) and I fell in love with them. I really love all giant lizards, but am not a fanatic of monitors and iguanas are so common. I've always really liked how tegus look, but had always heard they were nasty tempered. But after reading the info on that site, I'm seriously considering one, after the iguanas are gone.

I've read that the argentines tend to be easier to tame than the columbians. Personally, I also think the B&W are just beautiful! I'm also seeing reference to blue tegus on this forum. Are they the same as B&W? Or are they a different color phase?

What would you all recommend as good ressources to find out more about the captive husbandry of these goregeous lizards?

Thanks for your feedback!

Julie and Justin

Hi there! Welcome to the wonderful world of tegus!
You will find awesome info on this forum that should provide all the info on different species. With being a first timetegu owner, I would advise against a colombian and go with either an argentine or a paraguayan. With both, make sure they are Captive Bred (CB or Raised). WE have 2 arg. reds, 2 paraguayan B&Ws, a blue, and recently a baby gold (colombian).
Tegus are awesome if you do your research on their behaviors.
Ours are all tame, well waiting to work with the baby gold.
I have found no differences in personalites between the B&W's, reds or blues. And after speaking with numerous owners, breeders, etc. I tend to believe this concensus as well.

Most babies (if you get a baby) will naturally be skittish andwill tame as it matures. As babies, they are naturally this way as a protective instinct against predators. The more time you spend with them, generally the more tame they become.
We've have beardeds, various species of uros, water dragons, etc. Tegus are my favorite by far. They each have their own personality characteristics and ours do roam.

As with any reptile, there are tegus that are more difficult to tame and this is just a reality. There are typcially people selling juvies or adults that are tame on various reptile classified websites for descent prices, so that could be an option as well. Actually most of ours were previously owned and cared for and we have been extremely fortunate.

Good luck!!! Oh, you can view ours on the photo gallery here under my username: attentiveear. There should be pics of all of ours on there, or at least pics showing at least one of each color phases we have.

Greg

n/p

Ron and Stella St. Pierre's Website, www.bluetegu.com, has some good info on husbandry. (I hope I got that address right!)