Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have an argentine B&W tegu who is a few months over a year old. For the past few months, he won't stop digging the corners of this enclosure down to the glass, so all I hear is scratching and squeaking. He wakes up and digs until he falls asleep. He's also always trying to jump out the top so I've had to put duct tape and rocks on it to keep him in. Everything in the enclosure is perfect and he gets fed every other day. It's driving me crazy and I'm loosing sleep because of it since I can't move him out of my room. I don't know if I can take this much longer. Why is he doing this? How can I get him to stop? ANYTHING!!!

Anything? My address is... ohh.. and I will pay shipping!

How much are you feeding him every other day? At over a year it should be a good eater. Maybe it's not getting enough. Perhaps it just wants to get out. My current tegu, Tux, will come to the side of his enclosure and scratch on it or he will go to the top and lift and drop, lift and drop.. he does this because being as smart as he is, he knows he has trained me to take him out when he motions me in this way.

and if "ANYTHING", means "anything!", I will indeed pay the shipping!

Hope this helps...

Rick
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Rick
theTegu.com

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

This is what tegus do .I would just watch it dig. .Russ

Mine is doing exactly the same - he even jumped out onto me a few days ago, so I think hes making it clear that he wants out. If I take him out and let him wander/carry him for a bit he seems quietyly satisfied, and if I put him back hes quiet for a while and then gets up to old tricks again. His temps and humidity are the same as always, and he eats like a pig.

To be honest, I suspect that perhaps boredom has something to do with it, so Im trying putting his ball in there for a while, mucking about in the viv cleaning etc so that he has me to watch and follow, and putting in any other items that he wont completely destroy so that he has something to do. If anyone has a better solution than this though I would love to hear it Perhaps its something like spring blues? He stopped trying to hibernate about a week after I got him.

Though digging is a normal "hobby" for Tegus, it can also be a sign of insufficient housing or environment if they are digging excessively. How big is your Tegu? How big is his enclosure and what are the temps? They need room to roam and good hiding places. Proper temps and lots of mulch to dig in and bury themselves in. Without these things they may not feel safe and want to get away. Just a thought
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Peace!
KofSeattle
Reptile-Like
Here lizard lizard.........

He's a little over two and a half feet, his tank is 48"L x 24"W x 18"H. The temps are close to 100 degrees on the warm side, and 85 degrees on the cooler side. He had a big growth spurt lately and grew into this tank a lot faster then I thought he would so I've been racing to save up money for a new enclosure. He eats 4-5 almost full grown mice every other day. Now that it was brought up, I guess it is the tank size that could be the biggest problem. I was thinking about buying an acrylic tank that measures 72"L x 18"W x 17"H, would that be good? Also, thank you everyone for answering so quickly! This is a huge help for both my Tegu and I.

n/p just signed under wrong name

The 72" long is good, but the 18" deep and 17" tall is too small. You really need at least 24-36" wide so your tegu can turn around easily, and I would suggest at least 24" high so you can get a good depth of substrata for him to dig in. Unfortunately, they grow a lot faster than you'd think they would. Just realize that the size I suggest above is for your tegu the size it is NOW! So, by the time you get one built, you might just as well go for a 8' by 4' by 4'. That size may seem large, but your tegu will use every bit of it, and that size maximizes use of each sheet of plywood.

Good luck!
Leslie

Thanks very much! I'll be building him a new enclosure as soon as possible.

Great! Post pics when you get it done; we all want to see!

Leslie