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Goose and Snoop - Tegus

post #1 of 15
4/5/09 at 10:08am
Thread Starter 
My DH has had his heart set on getting a tegu, and this week an opportunity to adopt a pair presented itself. Introducing Snoop and Goose, Argentine black and white Tegus!




Goose has the darker head.


Close up of Goose


Close up of Snoop.


Tongue shot!

They are both very sweet and tame! They were well taken care of by their previous owner, but she is moving to a state that does not allow tegus to be kept. For this week they are sleeping in a temporary cage in our bedroom (with heat and UVB) until their new 8x3x3 enclosure is ready. DH is veeeery excited to have them!
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post #2 of 15
4/5/09 at 10:32am
I have never heard of Tegus. Are they hard to care for?
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post #3 of 15
4/5/09 at 10:57am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mbjerkness View Post
I have never heard of Tegus. Are they hard to care for?
They are quite a bit more care-intensive than, say, snakes are. They are large terrestrial lizards, so they need large enclosures - minimum of 6'x3' for a single adult. (They don't need the cage height that, say, an iguana would need though. They prefer to burrow rather than climb.) They need hot basking spots and UVB lights.

They are omnivores, so they need meat (like rodents, feeder insects, or even ground turkey from the grocery store) and fruits, and they like treats such as eggs, cheese, and cooked potatoes. Many people also give their tegus nutritional supplements.

They can sometimes be aggressive if they are not handled frequently from the time they are babies. I have heard that Columbian tegus have a reputation for being more aggressive than the Argentines. And of course, a big aggressive lizard is not very fun to interact with - a good bite or tail whip WILL leave a mark! These particular guys are very sweet though.
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post #4 of 15
4/5/09 at 11:54am
I am glad to hear yours are sweet. Very Interesting creatures
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post #5 of 15
4/5/09 at 6:23pm
Stunning BWA tegs.

I miss my iggy.

Hope you will post more pics of these guys. How old are they? They look to be in great health.
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post #6 of 15
4/5/09 at 6:41pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks. They are 3 years old. I will try to post some more pics next weekend when we have their new enclosure set up.
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post #7 of 15
4/6/09 at 6:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by NinaCaliente View Post
Thanks. They are 3 years old. I will try to post some more pics next weekend when we have their new enclosure set up.
Looking forward to it

What kind of enclosure are you doing?

With my iggy, we converted a closet into an enclosure..... was great... I'll have to look and see if I have pics.
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post #8 of 15
4/6/09 at 9:54am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Snake_Lady View Post
Looking forward to it

What kind of enclosure are you doing?

With my iggy, we converted a closet into an enclosure..... was great... I'll have to look and see if I have pics.
Wow, I'd love to see it! I bet your iguana did love that. We ordered a cage. It will be a basic 8x3x3 with sliding glass doors. I am nervous about it being wide enough for them. They will get free roam time for part of every day, so I am hoping it will work fine. It will look similar to this, except ours will be white and lights will be installed inside rather than sitting on top.


We have a little baby water dragon that will eventually need a bigger, taller cage with a pool. I am doing some research to figure out how much $ I'll need to save up for that! I wish we could build our own cages, but I am not exactly an expert builder, and DH says he does not feel confident enough in his carpentry skills to trust our animals with.
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post #9 of 15
4/6/09 at 10:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by NinaCaliente View Post
Wow, I'd love to see it! I bet your iguana did love that. We ordered a cage. It will be 8x3x3. I am nervous about it being wide enough for them. They will get free roam time for part of every day, so I am hoping it will work fine.

We have a little baby water dragon that will eventually need a bigger, taller cage with a pool. I am doing some research to figure out how much $ I'll need to save up for that! I wish we could build our own cages, but I am not exactly an expert builder, and DH says he does not feel confident enough in his carpentry skills to trust our animals with.
I will dig up some pics It wasn't anything fancy, we put a platform at the bottom, a basking shelf, with a ramp going from the bottom to the basking shelf. The top had a wire shelf in it, which is where we set up the heat lamp, and 4ft UVA/B bulbs. If I had ended up keeping her, I would have put more effort into the "decor" part of it instead of just the basics... I love natural looking enclosures.

It sounds like your cage will be good, especially if they free roam for part of the time too.

I've never had a water dragon, but alot of people around here use those flexariums for their wd's. These: http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/flexarium.php I don't think they are too terribly expensive. DOHHHHHHHH, I just saw on the site "not available in the USA"....hmmmm, wonder if there's something else that's similiar there. Just thought I'd throw that out there for your research
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post #10 of 15
4/6/09 at 10:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by NinaCaliente View Post
Ooohhhhh, very nice.

Curious, where is the bulb fixture for the UV bulbs? Is it inside the actual enclosure? Which brings the other question, have you ever tried the MV bulbs or do you use the fluorescent ones?
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post #11 of 15
4/6/09 at 10:29am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snake_Lady View Post
Ooohhhhh, very nice.

Curious, where is the bulb fixture for the UV bulbs? Is it inside the actual enclosure? Which brings the other question, have you ever tried the MV bulbs or do you use the fluorescent ones?
Haha, well I am doing research on bulbs as we speak! It sounds like the MV bulbs are better than the fluorescents? Our WD has a fluorescent right now. I have been doing some reading on the differences, but I have to admit I am a bit confused.

The fixtures will all be installed inside the cage. With a 3 foot cage height, I was concerned that the UVB wouldn't penetrate low enough if the fixtures were installed on the outside without having to build a relatively tall basking platform inside the cage. (Can you tell I am not very confident in my skills at building ANYTHING stable? )
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post #12 of 15
4/6/09 at 10:38am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snake_Lady View Post
I've never had a water dragon, but alot of people around here use those flexariums for their wd's. These: http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/flexarium.php I don't think they are too terribly expensive. DOHHHHHHHH, I just saw on the site "not available in the USA"....hmmmm, wonder if there's something else that's similiar there. Just thought I'd throw that out there for your research
I have seen those around here (or something very similar). I just don't know how we would keep a decent level of humidity up in a cage like that. (In the winter our house gets soooo dry.) Especially when you have to run lights, it seems like all the moisture just gets sucked right out of the air. With my snakes I have totally abandoned lights, and we've gone to plastic caging with heat pads and some radiant heat panels, and the humidity is so much easier to maintain now. These lizards certainly present some challenges!
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post #13 of 15
4/6/09 at 11:06am
I love their names!!!

We built our WD's cage. We did have the flexarium but it we had to make adjustments for the bottom by adding a sold base.

This is what we have now.

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post #14 of 15
4/6/09 at 11:28am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by snosrap5 View Post
I love their names!!!

We built our WD's cage. We did have the flexarium but it we had to make adjustments for the bottom by adding a sold base.

This is what we have now.
Very nice! He is very cute with his little head poking out of the greenery, too. Did you figure out how to build it yourself, or did you base your design off someone else's plans? It doesn't SEEM like it should be difficult to build a cage, but it is daunting to me.

We have our little guy in an exoterra with a screen top right now, and it is a huge pain keeping the humidity up. We are misting several times a day. I was just now reading about WD enclosures, and read about people just putting humidifiers inside the actual enclosure once you put together the large adult sized cage. I think I will definitely look into doing that when we get there!
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post #15 of 15
4/12/09 at 7:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mbjerkness View Post
I am glad to hear yours are sweet. Very Interesting creatures
That made me laugh! I was trying to think of what to say other than "YIKES"!

I'm not too comfortable with reptiles but they are very beautiful creatures.. I can't remember what it was, but someone I knew a long time ago had some kind of HUGE and MEAN lizard.. would love to be able to meet one of the many friendly ones one day!
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