Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I now have my first tegu (purchased from Agama). It came in the mail today and I thought at first it was dead it was so still (and not blinking)…but after it warmed up in its cage it came to and immediately dragged itself into the water dish, submerged and came back up and explored the rest of the enclosure.

After that I left it alone for several hours and its been buried, somewhere, under the cypress mulch ever since.

Should I start feeding tomorrow? Should I wait until I see it out to try and feed it? Do I give it a few days?

It has both a UV light and a basking light – as well as an undertank heat pad. Where the spot and the pad both meet gets to just over 100 degrees. The ambient air in the hot end is in the mid 90s and the unheated half drops down from there. At night I leave the heat pad on and turn the spot and UV lights off.

As an add on to the above questions - for those of you who feed your tegus outside the cage, is that something I should try right away...or should I wait untill the tegu is more used to me?

UPDATE: I've emailed with Bert (at Agama) back and forth a bit and he informed me that the little tegu I got was, like all his other tegus, hinernating. He suggested I let the little one continue.

What's everyone else's opinions on that? He did wake up for a few minutes, when I first got him...but then burried himself promptly. Should I cut out the heat and let hibernation continue? A selfish part of me wants to keep the heat on and hope he wakes up...but if that would be harmful, if letting the hibernation continue is most benificial to the tegu, then I'll let him sleep away.

Absolutely let him hibernate. Tegus know what they're doing, and there are strong instincts at work. Resist the urge to keep digging him up, and just let him be. Always keep a crock of fresh water available in the cage.

Also, don't be surprised if you don't see your tegu again until late spring! But when he finally comes out of hibernation (ON HIS OWN) he's going to eat and grow like crazy!

Bill

Nice to hear you purchased from Agama. Good choice. I would have done when I bought my first tegu if I would have done a little more research, anyways I would listen to Bert. He knows his stuff. Email him too if you have questions that is one of the great perks of purchasing from him. Is it a male or female? Hopefully a male they get way bigger. Good luck!
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1.0 Argentine B&W Tegu
0.1 French Bulldog

Thanks for the input.

I definitely trust Bert's word on the matter, I just wanted to generate some extra chatter from folks on the board.

I'm letting the little guy (or gal) sleep. The heat is off, I'm leaving fresh water in the cage, and misting occaisionally (it's very dry in my house...and though winter is the dry season of the Tegu's habitat, I figure the substrait should at least be moist). I'm keeping the cage in view though, since its hibernation was interupted by shipping, just in case it decides to wake up at any time.