Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well i picked up some mice today. Fairly good size, but small enough for him to eat, i'm pretty sure. well since i dont know exactly how do u tell how big of a rodent your tegu can eat?? Anyways, I offered them to him live, but didnt just let them roam in the cage, i held them by their tails, and he just looked at them and shut his eyes. Right now i have him setting on my desk w/ a 100watt bulb heat lamp right on him, not touching him of course. Any advice??

The general rule that I have heard is not to feed mice bigger than half the size of their head; if you get bigger ones then they *should* shake them up and take bites out of them (messy), but they may also try to force them down and end up impacted or something.

A better course of action is to feed frozen thawed mice; live mice may fight your tegu when captured and give serious bites if they catch them on a delicate part of the body.

Half the size of their head longways?? And does the head section end at the ear??

Sounds like you might have to assist feed to perk your guy up. Get some ground meat, pry open the mouth, plop a small bolus of food in there, and see if he'll swallow it on his own or if he tries to spit it out. Watch those teeth, the gums hide a lot.

well i was putting him back in his cage a little while ago and right before i put him down he just started quivering like he was cold or somethin(but he wasnt cold) and i went ahead and put him down he kept quivering for a few seconds or so and then stopped and went back to "normal" normal as in laying around doin nothin w/ his eyes closed, and occasionaly wobbling to a different spot.

Muscle tremors. That's a sign of improper calcium metabolism. Some people think it indicates metabolic bone disease, but that isn't so all the time. He NEEDS UV, he should likely also receive a multi-vitamin injection, specifically with D3 and selenium if possible, some calcium supplement, and possibly also calcitonin, depending on how serious the condition seems. IE - as several people have said, he should seriously be taken to a vet.

I've cleared up tremors with UV and vitamin injections. Contrary to what some people may claim, young tegus need UV, and older tegus should still get it. Claiming that with proper supplementation you won't need UV is like saying you can live off of Kraft dinner and ramen noodles as long as you take your Centrum.

As for what will provide enough UV, I find if you get just simple full spectrum fluorescent grow lights from the hardware store, they do fine for tegus. The D3-Calcium metabolism-UV pathways are poorly understood, and there does not seem to be any evidence that stronger UV is better.

But please, get the poor guy to a vet, get some calcium and vitamins into him, and get him some UV.

I have a Reptisun 5.0 UVB light on him right now, and i am going to tell my mom he needs to see a vet. I am also going to let a friend of mine that knows a whole lot more about this stuff than me take care of him until he gets healthy again.