Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I looked into the tegu cage today, and noticed something a little odd.

The way he likes to sit while unthreatened is with his legs out and belly on the ground, kinda sprawled out. Today, he started lifting his two front legs one after the other, and on the way down, they would shake. He did not look stressed or uncomfortable, but after about 10 seconds of this, I started to grow concerned. He stopped it soon after and nothing seems wrong at all. I'm just curious to hear any similar experiences.

Now I know we're all thinking calcium deficiency, but just to encourage other ideas, I heavily dust his crickets, he eats the occasional fuzzy mouse, and he's got a fair amount of UVB. I don't see that calcium could pose a problem at this point in time.

Again, I don't think it is a problem, more of a strange behavior. I'll keep my eye out for anything else, but until then, I'd like to know what you all think.

I could try to help you but I would need to know a bit more specific info about your husbandry. temps, humidity, size of tegu, size of cage, diet, is it arg. or colombian? Any detailed info can help. You said it has a fair amount of UVB...what kind and what is the distance from the top of cage to the floor? Also what do you use to dust the crickets? I know that tegus get tremors when they don't have enough calcium but you said this is not the problem so maybe it is something else.
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1.0.0 arg. b/w tegu
1.1.0 white's tree frog- popeye, jack
0.1.0 southern painted turtle- ms.tortle
0.1.0 crested gecko- crimson
1.0.0 pinto hedgehog- dante

The cage is rather large, I believe its about 48" x 14" x 18". The tegu itself, an argentine B& W, is probably just over a foot long.

I'm using a 15w 5.0 UV light. It's about 15" from the ground (I know, a few too far). When he's climbing on things, he's probably about 12" from it.

The temps get arond 110-120 in the absolute hottest point, and most of his basking area is in the low 100's. His cooler side stays around 80. He's frequently changing spots and rarely in his hide, so I think he's thermoregulating pretty well.

As far as humidity goes, I have yet to get a device to measure it. Irrisponsible, I know. I mist the cage two or three times a day. His last shed was very quick and clean, hopefully a good indication of his humidity.

I'm using a standard reptile cricket dust. I'll get back to you on the brand and ingredients later, although I haven't been giving him too many crickets lately, mostly fuzzy/hopper size mice.

My main concerns would be the humidity being off, and his consumption of greens and other non-meaty foods. I'm doing my best to get him eating non-moving food, and so far, he's taken a bite of some fruit and not much else.

Thanks.