sav vs tegu feeding behavior

nepoez · 11-07-13, 12:45 PM

Some background. I have had my sav for 8 months and my tegu for exactly 1 month now. The tegu grew from 5 inches to 2 feet in a month. My sav took longer than that.

I've noticed some interesting differences b/t how they feed. The sav pretty much as one simple strategy. Kill(if needed) and swallow the food whole no matter the size.

The tegu on the other hand will swallow if the item is small, but any item that could seem challenging, he would employ a different technique that the sav never uses. Firstly it seems the tegu has a much sharper set of teeth. He would bite onto a small part of the dead animal, fling it left and right very violently a few times, it's a very fast fling exerting lots of force on the skin of the food item. He would do this repeatedly until the skin of the dead animal breaks and guts show. Then he would eat what ever is coming out, and repeat the process over and over again until the animal is just skin and bones. This process can take up to 25 minutes. If the tegu is still hungry after, then he'll swallow the remaining animal from head first.

Just thought I'd share this interesting observation!

formica · 11-07-13, 01:17 PM

5'' to 2' in a month! wow, that is some serious growth, is that normal for a tegu?

My Sav tends to try and swallow everything in one go, but when something is a bit big he's got a few techniques for dealing with it

First he shakes it about violently, as you described with your tegu, works great on egg shells, but not much else, he seemed to learn pretty quickly that it only worked to break down egg shells so doesnt do it for other things anymore

another technique is holding the item in his mouth, and scrapping it along a log or piece of bark, sometimes this breaks the item into 2 pieces, often it doesnt, but he's quite persistent

lastly, he uses his feet - now, tbh, i'm not entirely sure if he actually was using his feet, but i've seen him a few times with his feet on a piece of food, and he seems to tear a bit off, before finishing off what he's standing on - he may just be standing on it and completely oblivious, time will tell if its something he's learning to do and perfect, or just an occasionally useful blunder with his feet

i've not tried feeding him anything particularly large, might see how he gets on with a whole large rat at some point....i expect that he will make a huge amount of mess haha....hopefully he wont try and swallow it hole

thinkbig317 · 11-07-13, 01:23 PM

My sav swallows EVERYTHING whole as well no matter what.

nepoez · 11-07-13, 02:30 PM

Yeah 2 feet in a month is fast! But gotta remember the tegu's tail is almost 2x longer than the body, whereas the sav's tail and body is about 1 to 1.

Yes the sav seems to use his claws to claw the prey if it's alive, trying to rip it. The tegu doesn't use his front feet for eating at all it seems. Also the sav doesn't bother chewing much, the tegu seems to chew a lot more.

side note: tegu uses his back feet to scratch his head or get rid of shed skin or anything irritating him. Sav only uses the environment to scrape things off.

murrindindi · 11-07-13, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nepoez

Yeah 2 feet in a month is fast! But gotta remember the tegu's tail is almost 2x longer than the body, whereas the sav's tail and body is about 1 to 1.

Yes the sav seems to use his claws to claw the prey if it's alive, trying to rip it. The tegu doesn't use his front feet for eating at all it seems. Also the sav doesn't bother chewing much, the tegu seems to chew a lot more.

side note: tegu uses his back feet to scratch his head or get rid of shed skin or anything irritating him. Sav only uses the environment to scrape things off.

Hi, how are you measuring the Tegu, no way would it have grown by 19 inches in one month, that would mean from hatchling to a 4 feet+ adult would only take between 2 and 3 months!?

nepoez · 11-08-13, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by murrindindi

Hi, how are you measuring the Tegu, no way would it have grown by 19 inches in one month, that would mean from hatchling to a 4 feet+ adult would only take between 2 and 3 months!?

haha I measured it by seeing it walk to the top of the wood plank and it's stretched out straight laying there, it's head is at the tip of the top of the wood plank, and I marked where the tail end was, and measured it with a tape measure. This is nowhere near adult size though, the tegu should reach 4 feet at adulthood. where again, the tail is 2x the body, so the body would be like 1.3 feet. Right now his body is like 8 inches, most of his length is tail.

Grendel · 11-10-13, 05:00 AM

This story is BS.

Grendel · 11-10-13, 05:04 AM

p.s. my tegu grew FAST... went for 6 inches to 10 inches and thick tailed in a month, he's also a very good hunter, e.g. digging for warms that the eye can't see. My sav doesn't seem as good at digging for food:

This is your other post that is more believable.

nepoez · 11-11-13, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grendel

This story is BS.

Yah you are BS, gtfo of here dip ****.

murrindindi · 11-11-13, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nepoez

Yah you are BS, gtfo of here dip ****.

Hi, if you`re going to grossly exaggerate the progress expect to be criticised, because it just causes confusion and we surely don`t need any more of that. They do NOT grow even remotely close to 19 inches in 4 weeks (not even one third of that)!?

No need for the insults either sport, the more experienced among us have been trying to help you help your animals over the last few months...

V87 · 11-11-13, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nepoez

Yah you are BS, gtfo of here dip ****.

Tbh I'm guessing the fact that u got completely over defensive to that comment I'm going to agree with the op's post and say I think u are lying or exaggerating the growth rate of your tegu .....

smy_749 · 11-11-13, 02:40 PM

Its simply not possible. No guessing necessary

formica · 11-11-13, 02:43 PM

i'm begining to think that aggressive temperaments are a common trait amongst monitor owners

you lot could ask some more questions...rather than that publicly calling someone a liar.

...there are precedents for extra rapid growth in nature, gigantism, hormone imbalances, metabolism imbalances, etc... perhaps we can figure out whats going on before being so judgmental

V87 · 11-11-13, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smy_749

Its simply not possible. No guessing necessary

Sarcasm is lost over txt

V87 · 11-11-13, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by formica

i'm begining to think that aggressive temperaments are a common trait amongst monitor owners

you lot could ask some more questions...rather than that publicly calling someone a liar.

...there are precedents for extra rapid growth in nature, gigantism, hormone imbalances, metabolism imbalances, etc... perhaps we can figure out whats going on before being so judgmental

Yet u ignore the op comment to Grendel ??

I'm no expert but u can keep a tegu on horse manure and pump feed it and have it in molten lava and it will not grow 19 inchs in 1 month ... Gigantism or not ..

I would not say I'm aggressive just a realist and being on forum for a long period of time gives me a lil bit of an insight into such exaggeration methinks ....
I would loved to b proved wrong and that the tegu did actually grow that much but I find it highly improbable ... More chance of me winning the lottery ... Maybe people are just saying what others are thinking ... Freedom of speech and all that

Peace