Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How often should I be feeding my juvi tegu? Is every other day ok? or should it be every day? He doesnt seem to be growing very fast so i wonder if i am not feeding him enough
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1.0 green iguana-Deitrich
1.1 Common Boa-Un-Named, Ursula
1.0 Ball Python-Anabell (go figure!)
1.0 Red Tegu-Uteg
1.0 Albino Cal King-Pig
0.1 Mexican Black King-Morticia
1.1 Bearded Dragons-Unnamed, Hanabil
1.0 Albino San Diego Gopher-Unnamed
0.1 Hermans tort-Esio
1.1 JCP-Milton, Medusa
1.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn-Unnamed
0.1 Snow Corn-Unnamed
1.0 Hypo Okeetee Corn-Unnamed
0.1 Motley Okeetee-Unnamed
1.0 Western Hoggie-Wyrm
0.0.1 Rose Hair Taruntla-Unnamed
2.0 Leopard Geckos-Reptar, Pogo
4.1 cats-Tucker,Poe,Abhib,Emerald, Felicity
0.1 Bullmastiff-Asha

Generally when you ask questions like this it helps if you provide more information.

When you say juvi what is the actual age?
How big he/she?
What species of Tegu?

All that aside if it is any of the Argentinean's you would want to feed daily. Crickets dusted with Miner All I Calcium and start pinkies as soon as a pinkie is half the size of your Tegu's head. Fruit is important for both of the Argentines but it is even more critical if you have a Red and you wish to avoid skin problems. Again Calcium and UVB light are critical to avoid MBD due to a Tegus rapid growth rate.

Sorry about the lack of info.

He is about 3 months old, he is a red tegu. Enclosure he is in right now is a 30gallon breeder. At the moment he is eating, pinkie mice, superworms, high quality cat food mixed with fruit (the only way he will eat it) and i am trying to get some wax worms. He pretty much refuses to eat crickets. They just climb into his water dish and die, is it ok for him to not have crickets if i supplement his cat food and worms?
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1.0 green iguana-Deitrich
1.1 Common Boa-Un-Named, Ursula
1.0 Ball Python-Anabell (go figure!)
1.0 Red Tegu-Uteg
1.0 Albino Cal King-Pig
0.1 Mexican Black King-Morticia
1.1 Bearded Dragons-Unnamed, Hanabil
1.0 Albino San Diego Gopher-Unnamed
0.1 Hermans tort-Esio
1.1 JCP-Milton, Medusa
1.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn-Unnamed
0.1 Snow Corn-Unnamed
1.0 Hypo Okeetee Corn-Unnamed
0.1 Motley Okeetee-Unnamed
1.0 Western Hoggie-Wyrm
0.0.1 Rose Hair Taruntla-Unnamed
2.0 Leopard Geckos-Reptar, Pogo
4.1 cats-Tucker,Poe,Abhib,Emerald, Felicity
0.1 Bullmastiff-Asha

If you have to feed cat food the only cat food you should feed is Wysong Turkey, Duck, or Chicken Au Jus™. Link below. Dust all insects with Miner All I Calcium and keep getting as much fruit with high concentration of C in them. Try kiwi, strawberry, red pepper, mango and if you can find it, guava. It has 4x`s The Vit C than does Kiwi. You really should feed him daily and get ready to buy or build him a new home soon. I got my B&W at 6 months and 18" and started him in a 40lb breeder and he out grew it in 2-3 months his growth rate was about 1" a week.

Wysong

wow! Thats really fast, i hope uteg grows that fast. He is only about 10inches right now.

My friend is a carpenter and he is working on building him a new enclosure right now, if he outgrows his 30b before his new enclousre is finished i have a 75gallon, and a 100gallon reptarium i can use.

I thought i saw someone mention feeding ground turkey? is this ok to feed to them as well?

Do you know any websites with a good list of suitable tegu foods?
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1.0 green iguana-Deitrich
1.1 Common Boa-Un-Named, Ursula
1.0 Ball Python-Anabell (go figure!)
1.0 Red Tegu-Uteg
1.0 Albino Cal King-Pig
0.1 Mexican Black King-Morticia
1.1 Bearded Dragons-Unnamed, Hanabil
1.0 Albino San Diego Gopher-Unnamed
0.1 Hermans tort-Esio
1.1 JCP-Milton, Medusa
1.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn-Unnamed
0.1 Snow Corn-Unnamed
1.0 Hypo Okeetee Corn-Unnamed
0.1 Motley Okeetee-Unnamed
1.0 Western Hoggie-Wyrm
0.0.1 Rose Hair Taruntla-Unnamed
2.0 Leopard Geckos-Reptar, Pogo
4.1 cats-Tucker,Poe,Abhib,Emerald, Felicity
0.1 Bullmastiff-Asha

n/p

My argentine b/w eats ground turkey, grapes and eggs for staples. The breeders I got him from feed theirs the same and they have a lovely bunch of animals. I know people here have some seriously strong feelings about live food but I've seen many o' reptile raised without it and thrive.

Evry day as much as they want to eat! Your guy does not eat crickets , kingworms that are gut loaded and dusted would be just fine.( do this mainly with my gold tegu) Dont feed to many pinkies ,There is not much bone mass in them = not much calcium= MBD. You might want to try some silkworms ,there very nutrishes.As for growth rate Santiago grew 6" in one mounth for me, and avereged 4" a mounth the first year. He went from 9 1/2" to 47 1/8" and 11lbs in one year. He is now 4'3 1/8" 21" Snt to vent and 18 lbs.he is missing a few inches of tail .If you would like a growth rate chart on him you can email me at russpettit@yahoo.com. take care russ

Please can I ask why only this kind of cat food should be fed? We dont have it here in the UK so Id like to know what to look out for when I find an equivalent

I would not use cat food as a staple food. Rodents(hopper size or bigger ) fruit, or insectes is all they need.Stella could give you a scintific anwser of whynot feed cat food. Good luck Russ

OK Johelian. What you should do is some searching in the archives. There is a wealth of information there. Discussion and exchange of information is great and that’s why we are all here but is is best to look for the answer before you ask the question. Below you will find some answers to your questions that I cut out of old posts after 5 minutes of searching.

cat food is very high in fat content and is not good for your tegu or any other reptile. There's an awful lot of salts in the cat food, not enough calcium. The D3 content it's way too high to feed dog/cat food can and probably will lead to health problems.

If you knew what I know about the pet food industry and the standards to which they are held, you would know there is no such thing as "high quality" cat food.n/p

Canned foods also have added vitamins and minerals. The problem is that they are TOO digestable. Tegus need some roughage to prevent diarrhea.

A diet with cat food included can lead to renal failure,kidney stones due to high A content, metabolic bone disease, and several other complications.

Now, why do people think adding canned dog, cat, or so-named monitors diets, are a good choice? This I cannot answer, but a little thought would help. Its cheaper, you have to ask yourself why? there are many reasons that these companies can produce and a canned food thats cheaper, and in my mind, none of the reasons are good. I could say that these foods are made up of hormone raised this and that, or whats left over from other food processes, but I will just say, think about it. I could also say, I'am sure these companies do the best they can to make a great product, well, lets think about that too. And be cheap. Lets think about how come it doesn't rot in the can. The companies often say its proven or tested, I have to say, who tested it and what was the test, as far as I know, none of this was ever disigned by monitor keepers, except the turkey diet.

Look, when I asked it was because the subject had arisen - I didnt start a thread on it, but as the subject had been broached, I thought I would ask as I wanted to know why you had suggested those two.

I have no intention of feeding my tegu solely on cat food - why should I? Why WOULD I? Why would you assume from what I wrote that I would? Also, why would you suggest any form of catfood to the original author of this thread if what you say is true?

All I wanted to know was why you would recommend that particular kind; I didnt make any claim that I was going to start using it as a staple food or anything, or try and cover a vast area thats already common knowledge; all I wanted to know was whats so special about that particular brand so, if need be and some scenario happened to arise that I would need to use it, I would know what to look for. Forgive me if I didnt make myself clear, but this is all I wanted to know; please dont be so quick to judge. :/

I'm a certified vet assistant and in school we learned that there ARE high quality brands of cat and dog food, both canned and dry. Science Diet is one of the tops brands as well as Purina, and even 9 Lives. There are even higher quality than that if you go through your vet. But as mentioned before in other posts, cat and dog food should not be a staple diet, which you've expressed you are not doing. I have fed my tegu canned cat food, Friskies which is Purina brand, and he loves it. It is not good for them however because of the high fat content and additives and things. Also it gave him pretty bad diarrhea which in turn can dehydrate them. SO, my short end of it is: There ARE high quality cat and dog foods; dont feed them to a tegu regularly; maybe as a treat.
-Beth, sorry to sound like a know it all, but thats the truth.

I wasn't assuming anything nor did I judge you. Yes I may have confused you with the person who started the post but I still recommend you look before you leap. Look at the ingredients on the food that was recommended on the link that I posted and you will find the answer. Also on the the same site you will find Wysong will ship their product anywhere in the world including the UK. Again it's just my method and doesn't mean it is right or the best but, whenever I see something recommended here or anywhere else I try to further research the info given. Then I can ask better questions. Sorry you seem to be offended

If you read the ingredient label on the Wysong dog food cans it reads only the meat. For example, the rabbit ingredients are rabbit, the venison reads venison, duck reads duck. No added vitamins, minerals, grains, preservatives, etc. I use it occasionally (maybe once every 3 months or so for a single meal) because I think the Tegus and Monitors enjoy the variety.

I've used Wysong before and my tegu loves it. Like Jiffypop says, it contains nothing but 100% meat. Great food for tegus if you ask me. I've fed her rabbit, venison, duck, chicken, and beef. She likes 'em all.

There are some really good brands of cat food out there. Right now I wouldn't used eukanuba or science diet because both those companies have had mad cow disease scares in there products. I know because I work in a pet store and they re-called a lot of the food because it might not have been fit to eat. It is hard to find, but there is a company called "Chicken Soup" Which really is all natural and has a very low salt content compared to other canned cat food. I feed half a can once weekly to my blue tegus, and they don't get upset stomachs at all. Not to confuss anyone, I give them rodents as a main source of food, along with goliath worms. That's just my experience. I'm sure others would say otherwise.
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