Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I recently got an arg b&w who is about a year old. Ive had him just over a week now, and Im getting a bit worried. He spends literally all his time buried under the substrate, only emerging if encouraged out (and I mean literally all the time - I didnt come home last night but I left his food in his dish - when I returned it was untouched, weird because hes eating well, and he was still in the same place). When hes encouraged out hes very irritable and has tried to whip me, though onces hes actually out he seems ok.

Is he trying to hibernate? Im a bit worried, as hes being treated at the vets at the moment as he has something of a wheeze (which I presume he had when I bought him, as I noticed it the day after my purchase) and so I cant just leave him under the orchid bark. Should I leave him be or not? Im worried also that he will be unhandlable by the time he emerges :?

Any advice would be great.

Also - hes eating giant mealworms/morioworms as part of his diet. How many of these should he get a day?

What are your temps and humidity? Cool should be 80-85f and basking 110-120f w/ about 50-80% humidity. Are you dusting the food with calcium? My B/W is just about a year and is feeding on fuzzies or hoppers, 50-80 full grown crickets dusted with Miner-All I calcium every evening along with 10-12 large seedless green grapes through out the day. Finally how recently did you get him, he may just be adjusting to his new surroundings????

What are your temps and humidity? Cool should be 80-85f and basking 110-120f w/ about 50-80% humidity.
Temps are right but I will have to check the humidity.

Are you dusting the food with calcium? My B/W is just about a year and is feeding on fuzzies or hoppers, 50-80 full grown crickets dusted with Miner-All I calcium every evening along with 10-12 large seedless green grapes through out the day.
Yes food is being dusted. Hes eating around 2-3 small mice or giant mealworms/crickets every other day - the vet has suggested I cut down to this regime as hes slightly overweight. He wont eat fruit.

Finally how recently did you get him, he may just be adjusting to his new surroundings????
I have had him just over a week.

What now concerns me is that he is having to cope witha c ourse of medicine AND getting over the stress of a new home. The vet thinks that his hiding may be to do with hibernation - however, he suggests that I try and keep him from staying under too long, as the lower temps may affect his recovery. I feel terribly for the poor guy, as hes had to cope with so much over the last few days. Hopefully, last injection will be on Sunday and he will be given the all-clear. As it is, he eats fine when he emerges; he just doesnt want to come out by himself, and Im starting to feel bad encouraging him out.

sounds like brumation, also my tegu is very moody as well, one day he will be very gentle, and the next day he will lunge at my hand until handled where he trys to bite for a couple of seconds, and then go's back to his normal self. I still havent made up my mind about how many im going to add to my collection, but the first two are very neat. I dont have any tempermental monitors, but i guess that is what makes tegus so neat.