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I have had a male argenntine red tegu for about 3 years and I would like to get a blue tegu to put in w/ him. Of course I would wait until the blue is full grown to put them together, but would they get along, providing the blue is a female. If they mate, will this have any negative effects on either of them, such as the blue becoming gravid.

for the most part Tegus are very social, and don't mind being housed with other tegus. though some just dont like it, Taz my big male tolerates other tegus or lizards when he is out wandering around. he did eat one of my tegus once, at the time he was about 4' and the other tegu was around 3'. the smaller one got mad and whipped Taz in the head, and well Taz took care of business after that. he still hangs around all my other lizards. he just doesnt like being hit in the face
just watch how they react to each other.

Red males get huge! Yours is 3 yrs and a monster I am sure. Blues are a smaller species and a blue female will be a dwarf compared to him. "IF" he did try to mate, she probably couldn't stop him and it could possibly cause some serious damage. Somebody else posted something like this a long time ago. There very well may be keepers who have female blues with males of the larger species who have had no problems, but why chance it? For the most part, tegus seem to get along just fine with cagemates. I plan on getting another in the future myself, with the one exception being a female blue!
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-Bill

1.0.0 Albino California Kingsnake
0.1.0 Colombian Red Tail Boa
0.1.0 Leucistic Patternless Leopard Gecko
0.0.1 Red Flame Crested Gecko
0.1.0 Orange Crested Gecko
0.0.1 Argentine Black and White Tegu

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BoidsNTegus@insightbb.com

Russ has a large male Arg. BW with a female blue and says he has no problems with them. Taz(my tegu) and Santiago(Russ's) are same size. when i am changing water bowls and spot cleaning my little tegus cage, i put them in with Taz. the male is 31" and the female is 35". i have had no problems so far, so dont be so quick to say it shouldnt be done. given a big enough cage, large basking spot, plenty of food i think there should be no problems with it.

Matthew is correct on this. my blue is actully the more dominent animal. Santiago is A really mellow tegu(this is good because of his size).Now Ron has bread Reds and blues together( it was a Accedent).I think it has to do with the animals personallty. So if you do this watch them all day long and keep a broom handy.My blue did bite santiago a couple of times in the beginning. Now she will clime on him if she wants him to move. Every once in a while I have seen Santiago decides he wants to bask ,under the hotter basking light ,and he just lays on top of her . She very quiklly moves. As for food , I feed her first then move her to the 4-2-2 hide boxand block her in. Santiago will play with his rats , also she will take them from him if Im not presnt(I have played tug of war with her with my tongs and a rat).hope this helps Russ

Guys, that's why I added the part about somebody out there that probably keeps the two with great success. But say the guy's male red is a little randy, then there is the possibility that the male could harm the female, correct? Its a free country, people can do whatever they want, but do you guys think it is worth the risk? Why not go ahead and get a red or a BW female to add to the male red? Or a male blue? I wasn't being too quick to judge anything, just pointing out the possibility of bringing harm to one or both tegus. There was a post a long time ago about somebody having first hand experience with this situation where their female blue was harmed by the larger species' male. I was just trying to look out, not jump to conclusions or judge anybody. Personally, I will never take any uneccessary risks with my animals that I can prevent.
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-Bill

1.0.0 Albino California Kingsnake
0.1.0 Colombian Red Tail Boa
0.1.0 Leucistic Patternless Leopard Gecko
0.0.1 Red Flame Crested Gecko
0.1.0 Orange Crested Gecko
0.0.1 Argentine Black and White Tegu

My Home Page

BoidsNTegus@insightbb.com

you are intitled to your opinion and we are to ours. we speak from experience, do you? at the store i work at we have a few very large female Argentine BW Tegus, with a 30" female blue tegu. i have never had any problems and they have been together for about 2yrs. there is a risk of ever having 2 lizards in the same cage, regardless of size.

I don't speak from experience, I only regurgitated something I read long ago that made sense to me. You say you keep many bw with a blue female, but the bw tegus are females also, so there is no risk for a mating violence issue. Obviously Russ has no problems, but does that mean this guy will not? Like I said, I don't know from experience, and this is just an opinion. I agree there is always a risk with housing animals together, but why extend that risk unneccesarily? By the way, I appreciate an intelligent debate, this is not meant to be an "argument", I hope you guys feel the same way.
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-Bill

1.0.0 Albino California Kingsnake
0.1.0 Colombian Red Tail Boa
0.1.0 Leucistic Patternless Leopard Gecko
0.0.1 Red Flame Crested Gecko
0.1.0 Orange Crested Gecko
0.0.1 Argentine Black and White Tegu

My Home Page

BoidsNTegus@insightbb.com

Who wins the tug of war??? You are way braver than me. Any time I feed Rufus I always count my fingers afterward. He has a very strong feeding response and even lively live mice don't last more than a couple seconds.

Mike B

I always win. I use a 12" tongs on the rat , and either my hand on my blue or a broom . I would put my hand behind her head so she could not bite if she wanted to. Neither of my larger tegusd bite. Come to think about it , my little gold does not bite either. Thanks Russ