Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a juvenile ABWT just over 2 foot long head to tip of tail. I feed him the San Diego Zoo Diet... I serve him about a 1/2 cup daily and he usually seems to eat half of that amount. I've tried greens... but he never eats it. I know his temps are correct.

How much of the diet should he be eating?
If feeding him pinkies... how many daily?
Should I continually offer greens though he refuses?
Should I offer fruit regularly?

Thanks in advance,

Ryan

as a former SDZ believer. I advise that you switch off of that diet. Our vet was not pleased to say the least when he found out we used it. I know it sucks because SDZ is so much cheaper. but your tegu will probly eat better on mice. He is big enough to get off the pinkies now too. Diet can be the difference between a 8 year friend and a 15 year friend if you know what i mean. with the SDZ they become fat easily, because eating requires not excersize at all. Mice and bugs are the way to go

i use sdz, for his size he's eating about right. it would be okay if he even ate a little less. tegus don't eat much greens they usually eat fruit. one of the nice things about sdz is you can mix the fruit in with the ground turkey. i either cut up something like grapes or plums or else i get a jar of gerber baby food fruit and mix that with the mixture. it's important to take your tegu out regularly. i take mine out dailey and let them explore and exercise. in my opinion no cage is large enough for these animals. you wouldn't leave a cat or dog in a cage all the time. my red tegu does not like to defecate in the small room he lives in. he prefers to go on his outings when he is away from his vivarium. i occasionally feed him other foods for variety like thawed frozen mice, bonelss chicken, lean beef etc. when he was smaller he occasionally got crickets and meal worms. i have 2 colombians as well.

have you ever taken yours to a vet? If so what was thier opinion on SDZ. my vet was very pissed off. He id calm down and understood why we were feeding that but insisted that we change ASAP. I was a major believed in SDZ until then.

Whole foods are the best for them. Fruit, insects(kingworms),and rodents is all they need . Sdz Should not be a staple food Item. You have a red. your guy should should get lots of fruits . My tegu was 47 1/8" at one year, on whole foods only.Meats buy them self dont offer the same amount of calcium that a rodent . Take care russ

i've got to admit russ that when it comes to tegus you certainly are an authority over me. stll i have read bad things about the bones and hair of rodents and the outer skeletons of insects such as crickets. i haven't had trouble with tegus with them but i have had some problems with monitors. when i use sdz i add bone meal and calcium supplement with vitamin d3. i have considered adding cod liver oil or turkey or chicken livers as well. i sometimes feed my tegus chicken livers. they eat a little but aren't really crazy about it. i do feed my tegus some whole rodents and pinkies.

All I can tell you is that I use this diet now for about 2 monts and my tegu seems to be doing fine. Mine is at 2 feet at one year I did mix in some bananas and strawberries into the mixture. I would say its not a problem feeding it but you need to vary its diet. When I fed mine strictly mice (large ones) my tegu got a mild prolapse and had to take it to the vet and they gave it an enema. The vet pretty much told me you need to supplement its diet with something else cause it was all clogged up with hair. So I started feeding him pinky rats for a couple of months then I went back to mice and heard about the SDZ diet off of here. I pretty much feed it SDZ everyother time. So like every 2 days it either gets 2 mice or some SDZ cubes. It has been working pretty well, no signs of a prolapse, it has regular and frequent bowel movements and great feeding response to everything I feed it. I havent had experience with the SDZ diet for a long period of time however if it derived from the komodo dragon program at the world renowned San DIego(where I live!) then I highly doubt it could do a ton of harm however, I do not believe it should be a staple food you need to substitute it with rodents. I buy mine frozen from mousefactory.com they are great never had a problem in 2 years using them. When you buy them frozen and in bulk you save a ton of money they end up being like 30 cents apiece.

Did you get your tegu as a baby(7-10".?What sex is it?And did it hibernate last year? If it did not hibernate last year I would would say from the picture it is under size. And if it is a male its dwarfed.2' by one year is small.I bet it has to do with SDZ.Russ

Yeah I got it as a hatchling at one month of age the same size as the top pic you posted. That pic is like 3 months old. I have only been using the SDZ diet for about 2 omnths or so.... therefore its very unlikely that its dwarfed because of that. DOnt know what sex it is. I do not hibernate it. Its main diet is Rodents and has always been them. I supplement it with the SDZ diet. Everyone has their own oppinion and I chose to do what works for me everyone is different. Im no vet or expert so I dont know if its growth is normal, I dont powerfeed my tegu though cause in the past i have had problems with it having a mild prolapse. IT gets fed every 2 days.

WEll at that size it should be getting Insects every day still. Infact Santiago still loves his kingworms every couple of days.You might want to stop the Sdz. I think it is not healthy for them over a long pieriod of time . Good luck with your tegu Russ

I forgot that I originally I fed it crickets and pinkies once it got bigger then I fed it mice amd occasional crickets. It gets hardboiled eggs sometimes too. I still feed it crickets occasionally but last time I got some from the NARBC show 100 large I tried to feed them to him and he wasnt interested so possibly I can try those kingworms. Do kingworms have those claws that once ingested by your tegu they can tear up their insides like mealworms have? I try to take good care of my animals so I am open to suggestions... thanx

If you want a good insect to supplement with, try roaches. Much larger than crickets or mealworms, easier to keep and easier to breed. Higher shell to meat ratio as well. If you pick the right kind of roach they have almost no smell, no noise, they don't climb, breed fast, and need almost no attention other than food and water and occasional cleaning. SDZ is a fine supplement to your diet too. Just don't make it the main source. But rodents insects SDZ fruit/veggies = good diet IMHO.

I meant to say "higher meat to shell ratio" not "higher shell to meat ratio"

I would try to breed roaches. What kind do you rec.? What do you feed them? I have an extra 5 gall reptile tank that I could use as a roach breeder tank. THanx for the advice

I like the Blaptica Dubia roaches. Easy to breed and care for. I just keep mine in a medium sized rubbermaid tub with some eggcrate. Check out http://www.blaberus.com/
Lot's of good roach info there and a good place to buy from. I suggest starting off with 50 or so at least to get your colony started.

Theres nothing to worry about feeding kingworms. They would be dead before they even got to the stomach.

Still confused on the proper diet.

I thought the SDZ was as well balanced as it is cheap. I hear it's bad for them over a long period of time.

My Tegu shows no interest in frozen mice (warmed). I hear that it effects temperment and causes blockages. My tegu (ABW) also shows little interest in fruit, except for the baby food mixed into its SDZ.

Should I feed live mice? Money is not a problem. SDZ and mice?

Thanks in advance.

Ryan

SDZ is designed to be a rodent replacement...NOT a complete diet. IMO it's really best used as a supplement to a diet of rodents, insects, and fruit/veggies. And only if it's mixed properly. If your tegu refuses frozen/thawed rodents, I would be willing to bet that there's an underlying issue.

heres where it gets tricky... honestly everyone says something different. Personally from my first hand experience and the person I just bought my enclosure from our vets told us mice are one of the worst things to feed to them cause they can get clogged by the hair. Mine did it got a mild prolapse. I guess as an alternative you can feed the SDZ periodically like every other time to clean them out. Been using it for 2 months and it has regular bowel movements. THe problem with the SDZ diet is the fact that most people do not mix it correctly and the fact that it should not be the staple diet. MOst peiple on here say dont use it. Well I say use whatever works for you but mainly what works best for your tegu and maintains its upmost health. An alternative that I have been thinking about besides mice are rat fuzzies they are larger and have less hair than hopper mice also you could try pinky rats or large pinky rats if you can find them but most places dont always have them in. Heres what it says off of agama international in regards to wild b&w stomach contents "According to Achaval (1977), its food consists mainly of insects, snails, bird eggs, fruits, and vegetables. Dr. Cei (1986) writes that this lizard eats birds, small mammals, insects, mollusks, fish, amphibians, and fruit. Claudia Mercolli and Alberto Yanosky describe the food more extensively in the Journal of the British Herpetocultural Society (1994, vol. 4). They examined the stomach contents of 70 Argentine black and white tegus (bought from hide-hunters) in northeastern Argentina. They found that 66.8 % of the stomach contents consisted of vegetable matter; 12.9 % were invertebrates; and 20.3 % were vertebrates. This stands in contrast to what herpetoculturists tend to feed their tegus: almost 100% rodents and eggs. Dr. Fred Frye (1981) warns that the overuse of infertile bird eggs, such as readily available chicken eggs, can result in a lack of biotin." So mainly in wish to mimic the diet of the wild around 70 % of its its diet would be vegetable matter. Its tricky cause everyone says something different: Im not a vet, im sure your not, and most people who say stuff arent also but they probably have first hand experience for whats worked for them. People just give their advice you pick what to use.

Stomach contents of a wild tegu can change season to season. they eat what is available to them. i agree that a diet of mostly mice is not the way to go. but neithe is SDZ you need to try your best at mimmicking the wild diet of your tegu, which means variety is the key. i just found a frozen crawdad supplier. kyle@crawdads.net is his e-mail he will only ship 10 pounds at a time, which is like 600 crawdads that are between 1 and 1.5 iches in length. he also has live crawdads. these would be a great feeder as they are like 1% fat content. the are like 3.50 a pound and 50 for shipping.