Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Heya,

1) How important is D3 to an argentine black and white? Im supplementing with a vit powder that uses it (nutrobal, used weekly with calcium used daily except when hes eating small mice) as I had a beardie before the tegu, but I was just looking at the pot and was suddenly curious as to whether the demand for this vit is the same in tegus as it is in beardeds.

2) How often should my tegu be eating? Hes 2' long and around a year old, and at the moment hes eating either 3 small mice, as many large crickets as he will eat in a sitting, or several super mealworms every other day. I was reading that most people here feed their similarly aged pets daily, but my reptile vet has advised me against this as he claims my tegu is too fat. He gets fruit on the off-days, which he eats. Hes always ravenous every other day. What do you suggest?

3) He no longer tries to hibernate. Is this bad? What are the repercussions of this? Will his growth be stunted as a result? (Ive only had him a month, so please dont blame his small stature at this age on me...I just want to know what I can do help boost his size and health now).

Many thanks.

1) All diurnal lizards need D3. I'm not familiar with Nutrobal, what I use is Minerall I w/D3. Of course if your tegu can get some unfiltered sunlight, that's even better.

2) Your feeding schedule sounds good to me. I think a lot of keepers overfeed their tegus til they look like sausages with legs. Keep in mind that your lizards activity level will also influence it's weight. If kept in a small cage with little physical exercise, the food it does eat will turn to fat, just like a couch potato human. I think the tegu feeding response is one of the reasons so many are overfed. "If it eats with such gusto it must be starving". Reptiles are opportunistic feeders and eat while the getting is good because it may be slim pickings the next day or week.

3) It's his choice if he wants to hibernate. They know better than we do if the time and conditions are right. Take a look at Stella St. Pierre's post below. It boils the whole process down to a very understandable form.
Don't worry about his size, he will catch up. Keep feeding like you are, keep him at optimum temps and let him do the rest. It's a good thing he's in the hands of someone who knows how to care for him now. You can fix what the previous owner did wrong.

Many thanks Nutrobal is a reputable calcium and mineral powder here in the UK, and can be used to correct lizards diets have been severely deficient as its quite potent (hence the weekly useage where other vit powders would be used more often). The same company make other reptile products, several of which are used again for reps whose health is other than perfect.

I was worried that I had screwed up his sleep system, as I had to keep him from hibernating when I first got him as he was ill and had to go to the vet for shots. Ron St. Pierres post is one of the most informative I have read so far, so I have printed it to keep as reference I do hope he grows up ok!

Thanks again.

Whoops! Not Ron, Stella! Sorry!