Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was wondering what the best way (in terms of least stress for the tegu and less scratches on my arm) to pick up my 3 ft. tegu.

the guy at the pet store showed me the way he picked him up, which was placing his hand on the top of the neck and shoulders (approaching from the rear of the tegu of course) and then using the other hand to grab the tegu about the base of the tail/hind legs.

i've been picking him up like this since i got him 5 days ago but instead of placing my hand on the base of the tail/hind legs i try to support him from underneath the tail/hind legs but i get scratched up pretty much everytime.

i want to avoid picking him up from the front and want him to feel secure and to stop squirming when i pick him up.

any advice would be great!
thanks,
tristan
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Tristan
1.1 Blood Pythons (Rambo and Medussa)
1.2 Egyptian Uromastyx (Dog, Cleo, Slo Mo)
0.1 Suriname Red Tail Boas (Stoney)
1.0 Argentine Black and White Tegu (Roy)

unfortunately they will almost always scratch you a little bit. they just dont feel secure up in the air, you are best to put him on your body, he will probly climb to your shoulders scratching your neck in the process. they only person my male doest scratch is my wife he loves her. he tries to get on top of my head, and that hurts like hell lol. sometimes if you support thier tail when holding them they seem more calm but that just a suggestion

I'll try putting him on my shoulder and see what happens.

I had a question about your water bowl. How big is it? Could you give me its exact dimensions? My male's 3 ft long and I want to get a water bowl that he could maybe soak in but not too big to the point where it takes up a lot of cage space. (my vision's a 6X3)

thanks!
tristan
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Tristan
1.1 Blood Pythons (Rambo and Medussa)
1.2 Egyptian Uromastyx (Dog, Cleo, Slo Mo)
0.1 Suriname Red Tail Boas (Stoney)
1.0 Argentine Black and White Tegu (Roy)

its a cat litter box from a dollar store. its probably 12" by 20" it works pretty good but its hard to change the water because its flimsy when you are tyring to carry it. good luck

thanks levi. do you think that a 12" X 20" would be okay for my tegu? he's 3 ft. long. i would like it to be big enough for him to wade in also i'm just not sure if he would be able to fit in it.
(unless he curls into it with his tail)

how big are your tegus again? can they fit in your water bowl to soak? thanks again.
tristan
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Tristan
1.1 Blood Pythons (Rambo and Medussa)
1.2 Egyptian Uromastyx (Dog, Cleo, Slo Mo)
0.1 Suriname Red Tail Boas (Stoney)
1.0 Argentine Black and White Tegu (Roy)

mine are both around 3ft. but they rarely soak in thier water. so i use the tub a lot. you can go bigger if you get a rubbermaid, but that takes up a lot of tank space

One warning about putting him on your shoulder. Keep aware of him, as mine will try to climb on my head.

My own fault...when he was a little sucker I would let him climb to my head. He's almost 48 inches long now, and believe me it is no longer fun to have him on my head!

I support him from underneath behind the front legs and with a hand around the base of his tail if I have to lift him, but with his caqge at table level, I just let him climb up onto my shoulder.

Good luck!
Leslie

may i suggest trimming your tegus nails. it is easy to do. if you don't cut them too short it doesn't hurt them. plus once they're short, your tegu will become easy to handle and become easier to tame. i do this with tegus and monitors all the time. even iguanas. i trimmed my current red tegu when he was less tahn 2 ft. now he's 33 inches and i still have not had to retrim his nails because he is so use to being handled now that i haven't had too.

thanks for the advice. i'll try trimming his nails but i'm not sure if he'll sit long enough to let me do so. he doesn't like being held for too long and starts to squirm for me to let him go.... which results in a lot of scratches on my arm.

any tips on getting him to sit still for me? if i have to cut his nails one at a time for a couple days/weeks, that's fine with me but i would like to do it in one session if possible.

thanks,
tristan

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Tristan
1.1 Blood Pythons (Rambo and Medussa)
1.2 Egyptian Uromastyx (Dog, Cleo, Slo Mo)
0.1 Suriname Red Tail Boas (Stoney)
1.0 Argentine Black and White Tegu (Roy)

i often use a heavy towel, i used to use a pillowcase but i was afraid it wasn,t thick enough. wrap it around him, especially his head, let his leg stck out and clip. don't clip to short or he'll wince and bleed. once he's done the difference between handling him will be remarkable. plus he seems to enjoy not being wrapped up so much that just being able to be away from the towel sitting in your arms is a pleasure.