tegu pool?

[Bartman]

My tegu is roughly one foot in length..a tiny bit bigger and i was jsut wondering if he needs an area where he can sit in water. I have a rather large drinking bowl for him and he has never walked through the waterdish so i doubt he even likes water, but do you guys think i should give him the option anyway?

thanks
-bartman-

[matrix1829]

no you do not need a pool for your tegu. you can give him a bath ever one or two weeks, he might like that. good luck
matrix

[Bartman]

and while im asking questions...I was reading a caresheet and it said to give it ground turkey if you want. My questions is should it be cooked or raw? Should anything i feed it be raw, like chicken and things liek that?

[matrix1829]

I don't know for a tegu but for my water monitor I give it raw.

[Bartman]

well that wasnt much help..but thx anyways i guess

[V.hb]

Brown it, just to be safe, no need to cook it thoroughly.

If you want to give him a good meal the turkey diet works well.

Get a pound of ground turkey, mix in 2 eggs with a centrum multi-vitamin. It's the ground turkey diet. I forget the exact recipe, email the san-diego zoo, they have a diet they use for their varanids, teiids etc. Good luck, hope this helped.

[matrix1829]

This carnivore should be offered some fruit & eggs and will
eat appropriate sized rodents (mice, hamsters, rats).
Offer a variety of calcium coated crickets, worms and bugs.
Also feeds on arthropods and other invertebrates.
Always offer variety for proper nutrition. Eats beef heart.
hope this helps you more. got this on the net.
matrix

[V.hb]

never feed beef heart!! its gotta be the worst source of food for your monitor or tegu..

[matrix1829]

then why do all the tegu sites say that it is good for them????????

[V.hb]

maybe because its cheap. i highly highly doubt any tegu owner would recommend beef heart.

[matrix1829]

maybe you are rite but I was just trying to help bartman by going on the web and finding some info for him!

[Bartman]

whoa whoa relax everyone..didnt meen to start an argument but anyways thanks for the info..i had my questions answered so im good now lol..thanks again

[V.hb]

iam not arguing. why would you think that?? beef heart isnt very good for your reptiles. If you wish to feed it to them, by all means its your choice. Iam just giving some advice.

[Bartman]

no i was telling matrix not to argue. Ive seen you post lots of info on varanids and i will go with your suggestion rather than the internet caresheet suggestion. I wil not feed it beef heart but will go with the turkey diet. The problem is my tegu never eats mealworms. At the beginning he would eat them no problem and eventually he just go sick of them i guess. No he only eats pinkies. Ive tried silk worms and he didnt eat them either.

[V.hb]

try crickets? full rodents?
tegus do need to be offered a variety, like certain leafy greens, and fruits occasionally.


Most tegus ive worked with were very good eaters, are you sure all your temps are right? Most of mine would scarf down bowls of superworms no problem. What I do for all my reptiles is get a bowl of worms and throw some kale, chard, dandalion leaves etc into the bowl with the worms, so when they go for the greens they get worms, and vice versa.

[Bartman]

he wont eat leafy greens or fruits..ive given him egg and chicken an pinkies. He is still very tiny. With out his tail he is maybe 5 inches long. Ive also heard to add, dog food, snails, greens, chicken and tuna in the same dish. Havnt tried that yet but im gonna try soon.

[V.hb]

I wouldn't do dog-food either, it has stuff in it lizards really aren't meant to digest.

If you want to try tuna, substitute "smelts" you can buy them at pretty well any grocery store. it's a full fish, head eyes everything. They're about 4-5 inches long and come in pretty big bags. You get about 75 for 4$?


What kind of setup do you have, and whats the basking spot like?

[chuck911jeep]

mice, rats, fish, sea food,boiled eggs and Banana, yes they loves banana.And why you don't give him the choice to take a bath if he want. Some like bathing and some don't. Put a large bowl and let him be the judge.

[Bartman]

ok im gonna try some banana now. My parents buy large fish with everything that they eat. Could i take a piece of it and give it to the tegu?

[V.hb]

Yes you can no problem. I recommend smelts as well just because they are a full meal! but thats a start, let us know how it goes

[Bartman]

ill be sure to do that.

I just need to test something and i figured why start a new thread. I wanna see if i can upload pics from this site. This is the tegu by the way :)

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid80/pb058337aef71f86e717ee6126d6e5448/fb069132.jpg

[matrix1829]

really nice animal!!!!!!!!! congrats

[Tim and Julie B]

Hi Bartman. I provide my Tegus with a large water dish at all times and at night I have seen them soaking. In the wild they are found near water sources. Only have shoulder deep water though for a small Tegu or monitor. I do give them a bath every couple of weeks. It is neat to see them swim. My white throat loves smelts. I will have to try the Tegus.

[Scales Zoo]

Fresh fish is better than frozen fish, because freezing fish negates the vitamin B complex.

I had read that some beef heart (very high in vitamin B) can be supplemented with the frozen fish to add vitamin B.

What are the reasons to avoid beef heart. I have read other organ meat can cause cataracts (liver and kindeys) but I would like to know why beef heart is bad.

Ryan

[Steeve B]

First let me say why bathing Tegus is not recommended, simply because they are fragile, when soaking there genitals absorb water and prolapse, a problem that doesn’t affect there cousin Dracaena witch evolved to be aquatic.

As for organ meat Liver Hart yes they are rich in vitamins and have caused Avitaminosis in 100,000s of captive reptiles, as reptile kidneys are quite sensitive to overload, also organ meat are laxative therefore need roughage to counter the effect, Hart and liver have the highest cholesterol levels and cholesterol cause cataracts in varanids.

I didn’t whant to get involved in this thread in fear of not knowing how to explain without having to write a manual, hope this will be clear to all as my energy level is low tonight. Thanks
Rgds

[Scales Zoo]

Thanks Steve, that answered my question.

I think small quantities of beef heart, fed in combination with other food, may be benificial.

I would not feed a meal of heart or liver, but some heart with fish and or rodents, I think is good to some degree (for the caimen, the niloticus, and the salvator).

Ryan

[Steeve B]

A little will do no harm maybe? I only use it for Tegus cook and mashed with potatoes and milk. I don’t give organ meat to my monitors anymore, I hade 4 case of cataracts got my lesson. 3 Salvadorii and 1 Doreanus all females. I use to feed lots of red meat any red meat is useless. Cheers

[Bartman]

Do you have a tegu? Could anyone who ownes one tell me they give for there feedings, like for a week lets say?

[chuck911jeep]

my little ones eat almost everyday and my bigger ones eat once or twice a week but they spend much less energy.

[Siretsap]

I always cook the meat I give them. Especially chicken. Salmonel isn't something you want to give your reptiles. Same thing with chicks, when you feed them to your snakes, you always plys with risks of contaminating your collection.

[Bartman]

chuckjeep, what exactly do you offer your animals everyday? The thing is the only things my tegu has eaten is chicken and pinky mice. He used to take mealworms but i think he got sick of them. He wont eat silks or pretty much and worm. I tried pieces of fish and he didnt seem to notice it was even there. im gona try the smelts or are anchovies okay? thanks

[chuck911jeep]

all my black and white(merianae) eat mices, rats, eggs, banana, mash potatoes, roaches... feed him when he's hungry.When he stop acting like a vampire, stop feed him. Don't know if its right but, i do that!

[Bartman]

k thanks a lot! Ill try banana..and mash potatos