Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My tegu hasnt deficated sine i've had her; I got her just over two weeks ago, and have been feeding her every other day. the temp at the basking spot is 95-100 and its high 70s at the other end. Ive tried saoking her in warm water, but she passes the white stuff. should i be worried that im not seeing any crap?

btw ive been feeding her 4-5 mice at a time, or an egg or 2, or whatever kind of fruit i have in the house. she even ate a parakeet lol. shes just over 3 feet.

I'd hold off on the egg, as they are a bit controversial for tegus. Too much is said to cause vitamin deficiency, and if it is cooked, it is a dry food at a time when she is not going poo anyway.

If you've only had her for two weeks, it's hard to say what has been going on before you got her. Was she fed regularly and what was she fed? What kind of substrate was she on, and was she fed outside of her cage? If it were my tegu, I would keep feeding her every other day and I would offer her a little more fruit until she has regular poos. Citrus is in season now, but it's too acidic. Tomatoes are also acidic. Try pear or apple(mine doesn't like the peel), grapes, blueberries, melon. These fruits have fiber and are juicy as well. She may be a bit dehydrated, or she may be a bit stopped up.

Then give her one mouse coated with mineral oil. You don't want the oil to be dripping off the mouse, but you want it to be oily. Offer it to her first while she's hungry. If she refuses, you may have to brain it or expose some blood so it's more appealing and covers up the oiliness. Another method is to mix a teaspoon of mineral oil with a tablespoon of can cat food. I don't advocate feeding cat food to tegus, but it has its purposes in a pinch. Mineral oil can be found in the pharmacy section or the baby section of the store. It's baby oil without any perfumes or additives, so it's safe to ingest. It's a great laxative! Don't use baby oil, make sure it is plain mineral oil.

Keep up with the warm water soaks and make sure she has plenty of clean water in her enclosure. Let her walk around a bit so she has exercise to get things moving along, too. You should feed her outside of her cage to avoid food aggression and more importantly, to keep her from accidentally eating her substrate. In a worst case scenario, she may have accidentally eaten something and is impacted. If this is the case, she will start vomiting, may refuse to eat, and must be taken to the vet immediately. Some animals have also been known to have hair impaction from eating an improper diet.

Basking temps can go up to 92, she needs a UV light, and I'm surprised that she isn't sleeping right now.

Thanks so much for your response! I bought my tegu(shady) two years at an expo, and I had traded her for a retic back in august. and then two weeks ago i managed to get her back lol. I missed her! Last winter she did sleep for a month, but this year she seems to be sleeping, but whenever i walk in the room she wakes up. when i leave she goes back to sleep and curls up.
Im going to try the more fruit and mineral oil mouse trick, but i was wondering if becase its wintertime, could that have anything to do with a slowed down digestive track? Yesterday when i soaked her she passed the white stuff but no brown stuff. is that a good sign?
thanks
frank

The white is urates and is a solid form of urine. It's waste from the bloodstream processed by the kidneys. The brown is undigested food from the digestive tract/intestines. So while everything passes out through the vent, they are coming from two different places. So...you can have an impaction in the digestive system and still pass urates.

My tegus are on mulch and they burrow completely underneath so that I can't see them when they're sleeping unless a tail is sticking out. They usually won't hibernate (brumate) while they are eating because undigested food can rot in the gut. Their instinct is to stop eating a few days or a week before going into their burrow.