Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My tegu,Tika, has suddenly stopped eating. I am not sure if he is hibernating or not because I still see him basking and he has not lost a lot of weight. But he hasnt eaten for almost 3 weeks and food doesnt seem to interest him at all. I've tried fuzzies, ground turkey, egg, you name it I tried it. Even dog food. He wont touch a thing. He doesnt teleport to his food as usual, he doesnt even care that I put the dish in his cage. Is this the beginning of hibernation? He's never done it before, and the temps dont usually get below 70 in his cage, around 75 in general. The last time he ate I gave him 2 fuzzies and he ate them no problem. Any suggestions are welcome, I am a phone call away from a vet visit.
Thanks a lot,
-Beth, and Tika

Im by no means a veterinarian. But I am pretty familiar with tegus and how they are supposed to look. I frequent a local petstore by my house who regularly has many tegus and go to numerous reptile conventions when they are out here. Since I love tegus I always check them out when I have the chance. In my oppinion by looking at your picture of your tegu it looks to me that its lower jaw is either deformed, or has some type of mouth rot. Im not positive if they can get mouth rot but I think most reptiles can. The upper and lower jaws of a tegu are supposed to come to a v shape and the tip of their jaw. In the picture yours has a smaller lower jaw which is red. It shouldnt be red but the same color as its skin. Just trying to help you. I would reccomend taking to the vet asap especially if its not eating. Hopefully they will be able to help you out more. Here is a closeup of my tegus mouth. Its a argentine b&W not a columbian or gold like yours.

THe lower jaw looks crooked and off to the side also you shouldnt be able to see the inside of the jaw when their mouth is closed it sits flushly

get him to a vet asap!!!!!!!!!! his jaw looks like he has mbd.

Gold tegus do NOT hibernate . 70f night time cage temperature is to COLD for a gold tegu and when it gets that cold they begin to break down and get sick . See a vet .

If you want it to be healthy stop feeding it all that junk (all that junk is what gives them the jaw deformities this animal already has ) and make sure it doesn't get cold .

Gold tegus are the most tropical tegu there is . The ones in the pet trade come from Suriname and Guyanas where it does not EVER get cold so these animals never hibernate .They don't understand what cold weather is (they stop feeding and die if they don't get enough heat )
-----
Stella St.Pierre
www.bluetegu.com - Ron St.Pierre

First of all I guess I should have put that my tegu DID have MBD a long time ago, when I got him. That's why his jaw is deformed. That isnt why he's not eating, I'm sure of that. He is not a gold tegu he is a Colombian B&W (or so Petco told me) I've had him for over 3 years and this is the first time he has not eaten. St.Pierre: What do you mean by junk? I didnt mean that I normally feed him dog food and crap like that, he normally eats f/t fuzzies and ground turkey and yes I do supplement him. And yes he does have correct lighting. Sorry to come off sounding rude but I take very good care of my reptiles so thats why I'm wondering whats going on. Thanks for the replies anyway.
-Beth

All tegus stop feeding when they get cold . 70F is cold for a tropical tegu , even the more cold tolerant tegus stop feeding when nighttime temperature drop to 70f
The only tegus that hibernate are the ones from Argentina (black and white and red ) and even they stop feeding when it gets 70f - your tegu is not an Argentine and your tegu doesn't hibernate .

Eggs , cat food , dog food , ground turkey , lean meats and any people for are junk food to a tegu . Tegus who are fed these things have problems ... these are not complete diets and the more of these you feed to any tegu the more chances your animal has of having serious dietary problems .

Ground turkey is one of the worst things you can feed a tegu unless you weigh it out and mix it exactly like the SanDiego Zoo diet (for every 10lbs of raw ground turkey add 90 grams of bone meal and 2 Centrum vitamins ) feeding it any other way eventually leads to health problems ... you just supplement with any type of calcium and you have problems ... like going off feed and refusing all types of food .

You need to raise your temperatures and you need to change your diet . A 3 year old tegu of this type should be eating adult mice and nothing else .(not pinkies , not fuzzies , not dog food , not turkey , not eggs etc like you have listed above )
You really should take this tegu to a vet and have it checked out.
-----
Stella St.Pierre
www.bluetegu.com - Ron St.Pierre

Just wondering if he had his deformities prior to you getting him.

I have always been told to give tegus these things, except dog food and egg only as a treat. He's never had any problems before at all, he can eat just fine with his jaw deformed. Also, he's not big enough to eat mice. I would not really consider him a rescue, I got him from Petco (I know I know) and they hadn't been supplementing him or anything so when I got him he had the beginning signs of MBD. I took him to a vet and got some meds for him and he's been nice and "firm" bone-wise ever since. I'm just wondering why the sudden change because it really hasnt been getting colder here at night, if anything its been really warm. Thanks again,
-Beth

You can feed them all these things and they will eat it .
The differnce in feeding them just mice and insects (and fruit for reds etc)is the difference in their living 10-18 years when well cared for and living less than 5 years on average when they eat these uneeded treats on a regular basis .

It's like giving a newborn baby cow's milk vs. formula or breastmilk ... so if you want your babies to be healthy and live the longest feed them the best and that is insects and rodents .

And if your tegu is really three years old it should be large enough to easily eat an adult mouse no matter what species it is . It's not unsuall for captive bred babies to grow to almost 3 feet in a years time ... one not being power fed should be at least 18" at one year of age even if they hibernate the entire winter .

Any tegu at three years of age that is not large enough to eat and adult mouse isn't large enough because of what it is being fed and how much heat it is getting .

Treats are bad and stunt growth , cause bone deformities etc . All these treats have one thing in common - lack of available calcium in the proper ratio to phosphorus and d3 for the animal to be able to use it for proper growth and body functions . Only a nutritionist or serious health nut would be able to balance a diet conisting of these things ... the only easy way to do it is feed insects dusted with a calcium designed for reptiles and feed whole rodents .
-----
Stella St.Pierre
www.bluetegu.com - Ron St.Pierre

Nearly all rodents? Considering studies of wild tegus show that rodents actually seem to make up a very small part of their diet, doesn't this seem to be a bad idea?

As a keeper of tegus I'd like to see these "wild studies" on blues. Where online are these posted? I don't disagree that in all likely hood, blues probably eat a quite varied diet in the wild. In fact I agree whole heartedly. They're obviously opportunists. But I'd just like to see these "studies" and know exactly who did them and by what means. I'm sure if they have any merit they were published somewhere in some form and not just some internet rumor. A google search for this information comes up with nothing relevant. Also, dogs don't eat much dog food in the wild. Nor do cats eat cat food in the wild. I think that, in general, we as keepers of animals do our best to provide a satisfactory diet for our animals. It unfortunately doesn't always equate to the exact diet of what they would have in nature.

I didn't mean to sound accusatory in any way in my previous post. I just think that if there are scientific wild studies of blue tegus, they should be available to the community as a whole. I've heard rumors of these, but never seen any actual documentation. I think that myself and many others would enjoy having access to this information.

And just FYI, I feed my dog a holistic diet made of human grade food. But as good as it is (compared to the normal shelf grade crap available to most people) it's still not what he would eat in the wild.

There are no studies done on wild Blue tegus Since they dont know really what kind of tegu they are, or were they really come from.I know that Ron& Stella got them in on a shipment from Colombia, that does not mean they were collected from Colombia.Take care Russ

Umm, well, to start with, like Russ has said, from what I know, researchers don't see any difference between blues and argentine black & whites, they consider them the same species, so there's no specific studies on the blues.

The reason you won't find it on google, or probably online at all, is the same reason researchers don't use google - it is painfully inadequate. Kinda like going to RadioShack to ask their salesperson the best way to design a new kind of computer. You need to use something like Zoological Records or Ovid Biosis, which you have to pay a subscription fee for. These people keep better track of science literature. Or you need a library card at your local college or university library, as they often subscribe to these service.

These studies mainly look at the gut contents of wild caught tegus and list their contents by frequency, percentage of volume, and percentage of mass.

Try looking up
Colli, G.R., A.K. Péres, Jr., and H.J. da Cunha, 1998. A new species of Tupinambis (Squamata: Teiidae) from central Brazil, with an analysis of morphological and genetic variation in the genus. Herpetologica 54: 477-492.

Milstead, W.W., 1961. Notes on the Teiid lizards in southern Brazil. Copeia 1961: 493-495.

Vitt, L.J. and C.M. de Carvalho, 1995. Niche partitioning in a tropical wet season: lizards in the Lavrado area of northern Brazil. Copeia 1995: 305-329.

Vitt, L.J., and P.A. Zani, 1996. Organization of a taxonomically diverse lizard assemblage in Amazonian Ecuador. Canadian Journal of Zoology 74: 1313-1335.

There are several others, but they are in portuguese and spanish, so if you're using google, you're even less likely to find them.

Well, since most of us don't have access to these special subscription services, and you seemingly do, why don't you help out the community and copy the text from the articles and post them up on a public forum like this one?

Unfortunately, I don't have the means to do it. But more importantly, it's a little something called copyright infringement. Seriously, though, it's easy enough to go to your local college/university library and have a look for yourself, I've already provided the references.

I said that they are not shure what kind of tegu they are, and they dont know where they come from. I have herd that Some reaserchers think they are more related to Southeren tegus(Red,Argentine and Yellow tegus)Than the northern spiecies( 4striped, gold, and colombian blk&wht) . But there has been no official listing of what kind of tegu they are. They could be there own speicies ,or they could be a hybrid, or a tropical verion of one of the Southeren tegus. This is what i have learend talking to other people on this . I am not a expert on tegus. Im just a hobbiest.Take care Russ

You can choose to feed your tegus anyway you want (oh wait I thought you didn't even keep any as pets )but I will continue to feed mine rodents .

My tegus that eat rodents don't have metabolic bone disease , they don't have renal problems , they don't blood sugar problems , they don't have elevated white blood cell counts , they don't have low red blood cell counts , they don't have parsite problems , they have never retaind an egg ... instead they reproduce regularly and they live so darn long they eat me out of house and home and die of old age .

Really I could care less what a tegu does and doesn't eat in the wild because I know from trying to replicate it that they quickly die in captivity of all the things I listed above.

I don't think that the people who read these boards care what a tegu does in the wild . I think they care a lot more about how long their pets are going to live a healthy life and that they don't have to run to a vet every year and spend hundreds of dollars finding a cure for what their treats have done to their babies .
-----
Stella St.Pierre
www.bluetegu.com - Ron St.Pierre

Exactly how big is your tegu? Although I have a different species than you I have been feeding mine mice mainly hoppers since it was 6months old. I agree with St Pierre if yours is 3 years it should easily be able to eat a mouse. My tegu is 2 feet long already at one year I have it in a 60 gallon and I plan on upgrading fairly soon to a 6 foot enclosure. Have you gotten it to feed yet or taken it to the vet? Possibly putting a small live mouse in the tank it will stimulate its hunting and feeding response. Good luck though with everything I could only image how sad I would be if I lost my tegu.

He's just over 2 feet in total length and I don't think his mouth is big enough to hold a mouse. And yes I do know this is not the right size for a 3 year old tegu. He is still growing steadily but it is very slow. No he still hasn't eaten. I tried getting ahold of my vet and no one has answered yet. I'm supposed to be moving him into a 6' enclosure in the next few days but not until he starts to eat. What if he doesn't go after an adult mouse that is alive? Then I guess I have another pet. I just feel like I've tried everything possible and its really frustrating. This is a little bit better of a picture as to his coloring, taken a year or so ago. Thanks again,
-Beth

I would buy a small hopper for him but make sure you watch cause you dont want the hunter to become the prey. It can happen if you dont monitor the feeding. All I can say about the vet is you need to ASAP take him to the vet I think you said it had been like 3 weeks since he ate last week, its now probably 4 I would take him to the vet right away if you want him to live. Possibly they can give him a small dose of Vitamin B to help stimulate his appetite. If that vet doesnt return your call then go to another one but you better fast( I can not stress this enough if it hasnt ate for this long obviously something else is wrong with him). Hopefully he makes it through this. Good luck.

Beth please take this tegu to a vet . If your regular vet isn't available and you can not find another reptile vet look for one who is familiar with working with birds .

In the mean time raise you temperature a little and offer him a small bowl of gator aid to drink .

He really needs blood work done .
-----
Stella St.Pierre
www.bluetegu.com - Ron St.Pierre