Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello All,

I just put my Arg B&W Tegu outside for the first time and within about 3 minutes I had a brand new psycho lizard on my hands. I have never seen anything like it. My nice tame boy physically charged me with his mouth open. I am fairly sure if I had not had a lid from the tub I carried him up in in my hands, he would have bit me. Luckily I was able to block him with it and then snag him and put him back in the tub. Once he was back inside and in his cage, he turned back into the nice tame tegu that I know. I had heard about exposure to sunlight before, but I did not think it would be that quick. In addition, I have plans to build an outdoor enclosure for him and my red, but now I am not sure. Is this sun reaction a permanent thing or once they are out for a couple days do they stop or what??? I have a great place for the enclosure but now I am a little nervous about it. I would love to hear other people's experiences with this and see what they think. Sorry for the long post and have a great one.

Thanks,

Eric

Where do you live? How hot was it? Had an iguana the other day bask in the sun the other day a little too long, had a mild heat stroke. Beat him up pretty bad for a couple days but he recovered well. The only other thing could be is stressin out from something new. Give him time.

Mikal

I live in Colorado and it was only about 80 degrees and he was only out for maybe 15 minutes. I want to build an enclsure that they cna be put in on nice days and whatnot

I've read about people and taking their lizards (monitors included) outside and the "sunlight" causing change in behavior. Although I am no expert with reptiles, I do not believe sunlight is the cause of this behavior. Mine reacted the same way the first couple of times I took them outside. It's not necessarily because of sunlight, but they are in a largly different environment with a billion different smells and sights. If you think about it, when you first get a tegu, it takes a while to really settle in to its new enclosure. Then once you start getting it out of its cage, it also has to get used to that experience. Taking it outside is no different. I take my B&W and my Red outside all the time, without leashes. They don't act wild, or even try to run. I've been doing this for 2 years without problems, except for the first couple of times I took them out. Depending on the size of the lizard, you may want to get a lizard leash for him/her.