Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In regards to the posts of attitude changes from taking your tegu outside my belief it is just stress from a different enviroment. my experence with monitors leads me to believe this. I had a savana monitor that i got as a hatchling and in several weeks he remained pretty vicious, he would tail slap, bite defacate, and flee at any chance while holding him. at the time of living with my parents we had a deck and the fence around the deck had very little openings too small for him to get through so i thought it would be good for him to run around the deck. once i took him out he accually would calm down connsideribly and would accually sit on my lap and spread his legs out and bask for a good while. i did this every day and he only got better. I would wake him up take him outside he would bask for anywhere from 15min to 30min depending on how hot it was and would crawloff to take a poop, and would slowly walk around and check everything out, it got to the point where i would take him out to the yard and he never once fled from me or showed any agression in any way. he got very tame inside as well but still got a little puffy when i would grab for him. I eventually moved next door and rented a small house off my dad (they couldnt take all the reptiles i had in there house any more) and gave him one of the rooms. he got back to his mean self again although not nearly as mean as he was when younger, but would immediatly calm down when i would take him outside. he never realy got used to his room but enjoyed walking around the rest of the house and would on several occasions crawl on my chest while laying on my couch and fall asleep. btw while at anytime inside or out if anyone would come up to him besides me he would puff up and open his mouth ready to bite. another monitor i had was a water monitor i got as a hatchling and kept him in a 75 gal although he never bit me he was very flightly,after a while he setteled down. i soon later moved on with my girlfriend and he was very good around her, he soon outgrew his tank so i gave him a room.during the first week he was very aggressive which was a little expected so i gave a few weeks to settle in. he would calm down when i brought him back into the room where i always handled him and let him run around but he never got used to being in that room and i would chase him around and get several large welts from his tail daily. eventully he must have gotton stressed from that room and me tring to grab him because he became agressive even when bringing him to the other room and would always try to bite so i sadly gave him to someone who i new would take very good care of him. and now i have a tegu and he is awsomehe is very tame and seem to enjoy being handled hes still small but ill let him walk around the floor but once he tries to hide under something i go to grab him and he never runs. i sometimes put him in the room where i had my water and for some reason as soon as i put him down he runs like hell and will not let me pick him up but once i get him back into his room hes fine. so i think the best thing to do is to get your
lizzard used to different enviroments while there young, and it wont be as big of a change to them as living indoors the first few years of their life and then bringing them outdoors to an enviroment they had never experenced. btw i recently tried taking my tegu outside (only holding him) and he seem no different than inside and ill be moveing into a house soon and it has a nice deck like at my parents house so hopefully ill be able to start letting him run around outside.

I take my WD's outside for sun all the time in a big cage, and they calm down as well butonly after the first session. They began to look forward to it.
I'm shocked at the tegu's reaction, but I seriously will not do this again for a while and only if they are on a leash that is totally escape proof (if that's possible). I wish i had a vet that I trusted. The only herp vet is the one I used last year and I really hate the man. In fact I think everyone does...I'm going to make some calls today and see if I can find another vet.
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NiCoLe RuSSeLL

"Cross a line enough times and after a while it ceases to exist"

Dang that's too bad you and your tegu had such a negative experience bringing him outside Nicole. How is his tail now? Did it bleed a lot? Things could be worse there are a lot of tegus that lost a tail I'm sure he'll be ok. I'll bet it didn't hurt him to bad as their tails seem to be designed to break off and regrow. How did it happen that it broke? The important thing is you where able to catch him eventually.

Man what a horrible experience for both me and Rocco (male name female tegu). The tail did not seem to bleed hardly at all...but I now know what the inside of a tegu's tail looks like and for whatever reason I can't get it out of my head
I am leary about covering it. She buries herself alot in moist substrate...if I cover it with gauze, the gauze will be damp too and a damp covering will breed bacteria from what I can tell. I am changing the water as soon as it soils though....

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NiCoLe RuSSeLL

"Cross a line enough times and after a while it ceases to exist"

My tegu seems like a totally different lizard lately, ever since I've been taking him out side. He's so much more active, alive, and alert for the last week. Today it was just too hot outside for me so I took him back in right after he went the bathroom. Not long after we came back in I had to go change my shorts for pants because he kept trying to climb up my leg when I was sitting at the computer! When he got up to my lap he even sat there for a min or two a couple of times. In all he must have crawled up my leg about 6 times today. He has been running all around my living room. He doesn't seem at all interested in his cage except to bask then he comes right back out. I know he's not looking for food because I already feed him as much as he'll eat. He has been eating the same about the same per day (about 5 large mice worth). I guess I don't know if it's from taking him outside but that's when he started getting all this energy. I have a mercury vapor light that gives very good levels of UVA and UVB so I don't think that's it. I know there is very low levels of deadly UVC outside maybe that makes a difference. I’ve have to see if he keeps this up, I sure hope so!

I have several reds, they all live outside year round. My 2 most recent ones were raised indoors for a year then moved outdoors and adapted instantly. I gave them a foot of mulch to dig in, a sheet of plywood to burrow under and some cinderblocks to crawl through. They loved it from day one. I also take my 15lbs male out with me on errands. He loves riding in the car and looking out the window. He also loves riding in shopping carts at home depot. Sometimes he stands up with his front feet on the edge of the cart as we go through the store. He is not usually happy being held for more than a few minutes at a time. He has a leash and I let him decide where he wants to go (within limits).
Link

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Bennett
www.beardiedragon.com

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I have taken most of my pets to home depot, the people who work there love it, they never know what to expect. I have brought 9ft carpet pythons, 7 ft dumeral boas, bearded dragons, skinks, a wolf/malmute... my friend brings her skunks and her birds.
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Bennett
www.beardiedragon.com