Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, I got a hatchling rufescens three days ago, it's VERY red, it looks in excelent shape and healthy.

I have no live mice to try to feed it on, I'v tried to attract it with some raw beef heart chunks, some boiled egg, some dog canned food, the same items that my adult female Merianae is fond of.

Nothing to do, there's no way to pull it out of the hide box,it won't come to the basking point under the spotlight, it ignores any kind of food...

Who can please give me a hint to convince it to feed? How long should I wait before recurring to extreme practices like force-feeding?

I have it since three days, how longtime do you think it takes to acclimate and settle down?

thanks in advance

Babies get stressed really easily, they are not used to being held captive, and when they are born they think they are free. It takes a while for your animal to acclimate. I would start feeding the baby crickets, pinkies, and king meal worms (powder lightly with some calcium, too much will deter the tegu from eating it). Make sure to feed your feeders well too. I would not suggest feeding it dead objects because you need to teach the animal to do this over time (took me like two months). I would not handle your animal at all in this time either, and feed it in the cage until it begins to feed regularly, then out of it eventually. Make sure you temps are right on both sides (around 120 basking spot, and 75-80 on the cool side), this will make your animal come out more often as well. Make sure you have a full spectrum UV light on the basking spot too. The heat lamp and UV light should eventually get your tegu to start moving around and start exploring. Remember that these are reptiles, they use up like ten percent of their time moving and using energy and mostly they conserve it because they are cold blooded.

Good luck,
Mike

When I got my black and white he did not eat for almost 5 days he did finaly however eat like there was no tomarrow. I would just be patient. also do you have them housed together? I was told and it proved true that the little one will be intimidated by the big one and may not eat. now there is not much in size diff. between my two but I have to take the bigger one out and feed them seperate. good luck.
-----
Beau W.