Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Today i purchased a argentine B/W, i'm a newbie with tegus. when i held him at the show he seemed very calm, but when i got home and put him in his enclosure he tried to run up the wall, he tail whipped once, and would jolt to the other side of the enclosure. Is there any reason to this? what can i do to help this and calm him? He's only a few months old, and about 12-14 inches long.

When placed in a new enclosure it's normal for the tegu to act a little out of sorts. You didn't give much info so I will make a few suggestions based on the info you did give.

Put a hide in the enclosure. Something like a half hollow log or even a small cardboard box cut ib half with an entrance on both sides. This should be large enough for the tegu to get into but not be too large.

A tegu will stress if the enclosure if too large for him. If you put a hatchling tegu into 8 foot by 8 foot room it can be pretty scarey when he is used to a 20 gallon aquarium.

Try the hide in the enclosure, if this doesn't help and you have a large enclosure, try putting in a divider to make his area small until he grows a little or you can try to move the partition back more and more over time until he gets used to it.

I hope this helps.
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Rick
theTegu.com

New Tegu Community: theTegu.com - Webcam: Tux.theTegu.com

First of all thanks thetegu. He has now calmed down, I have a hide box, and right now all I'm keeping him in is a 36"X18"x24" plastic tub. I think he may have calmed down though. Another thing I noticed him doing is he will make a noise like he's sneezing.(every once in a while) What is this and how do I help it? I am using cypress mulch for my bedding. What about feeding? I bought some tegu bites, but i dont think he's figured out what they are. And yesterday and today I've put some giant mealworms in a little dish for him, but he won't eat them enless I put them on the rock where he bask at, then he chomps them down. I'm affraid if I let the meal worms loose in the enclosure they will just burrow down. So today I'm gonna go buy some crickets, will they burrow down too? Thanks a lot for helping get started on the right track!!!

I personally would also be sceptical about letting the worms/crix loose in the cage; both will burrow down into the mulch, and while tegus will often detect them and dig them up, you want to avoid having feeders loose in there if possible. Keep the worms in the dish, and maybe tilt it slightly so that he can see theyre there.

I would start looking at making pinkies a part of his diet; if theyre half the size of his head then he should be able to take them, and they are nutritionally far more sound than a lot of foods. Crickets and superworms will still make good staples at this stage however - most people tend to give up on the crickets only when their animal gets too large to catch them effectively Gradually increase the size of the mice as he gets big enough to take them; chicks also make a popular choice of food.

Keep an eye on the sneezing. Is your substrate dusty? A daily misting to keep things slightly moist should help cut down some of the dust, and will hopefully resuce the sneezing. If it worsens or your animal shows any signs of trouble breathing or wheezing/discharge from nose or mouth get it to a vet; respiratory illness is serious, particularly if its got to stage when your animal is quite visibly sick.

With regards to skittishness - if youre coming at him from above then it may frighten him as he cant see accurately whats coming down to him; he may think its a predator trying to surprise him. Try to touch him from the sides rather than the top.

Good luck Im sure it will be fine.

I agree completely with Johelian, the only thing that's a little different for me is that if I put in 3, 12 or 28 crickets in with my current tegu.. none last long enough to dig into the substrate.
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Rick
theTegu.com

New Tegu Community: theTegu.com - Webcam: Tux.theTegu.com

I had about 2 ever escape into the substrate, and one of those had wings. Never again! The noise drove me mad until I eventually uprooted it and the T took care of it