Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Everyone,

I'm just getting into tegus and I recently acquired a red tegu. I have some experience with them in the store I work at so I'm not a beginner, but I have a few questions for you tegu experts. I have my Tegu on cypres mulch,"Keepers Choice," and My guy seems to be doing alot of burrowing. I never see him up, and I know that the reds need to eat every day in order to stay healthy and in good shape, but since I never see mine up I don't know what to do for feeding him. He's relatively tame, but he gets really upset when I unbury him so my question is how should in go about feeding him when he's under his bedding all the time? Should I unburry him every mouring so he can see that theres food out? I'd hate to remove the bedding, but could this possibly be nessesary? Also I have yet to see him eat his fruits when he is up, what should I do about this? I've tryed adding pinkie mice along with the fruit so this way he might get the smell of rodent on his meal, but he just ate the pinkies and walked away from the friut.
Thanks for all of your help,
-Paul

DO NOT remove the bedding. he feels secure under it. when you dig him up he gets stressed. young reds typicall are a little difficult to start on fruit. it kinda comes with age. if you feed anything other than whole prey (turkey, or monitor diet) mix fruit in with it. also. depending on his size you can let him go without for a day sometimes. if he doesnt come out one day dont force him. just feed every other day until he is comfortable enough in his home.

When he gets used to his home he may charge you when you reach in. this is NOT a bad thing, it just shows that he accepts that as his home. and he is defending his territory.

He is about a year old. I'm at school during the day, do you think he comes up when i'm not home? If so I might just leave some food in there for him?

its a good chance he does. make sure you dont leave any live food in with him. just put in some PK mice. at 1 year he should be able to swallow them like a pill lol. you could also try live earthworms, not much of a threat from them.

but dont leave fruit unless you are fond of ants lol