twitching

[cjr94]

I bought my Columbian tegu about 2 weeks ago from a reptile show and he has ben doing fine until today when i went to take him out of his cage. His legs, lower back, and base of his tail were twitchin and so i just left him in the cage and kept an eye on him then he started to open his mouth and his tounge would hang out and it seemed like he couldn't get it back in his mouth. this happend twice today and it worried me :(. If anyone cant help that would be great, thanks.

[HernandosMom]

Welcome cjr94.

I'm sorry your tegu is having this problem. Another member wrote recently with this issue, so please excuse me if I paste my questions and suggestions from another thread:

We may be able to help figure this out with you if you provide information about his set-up. What kinds of lighting, heating, UVB does he get. Do you have a UVB bulb and what kind? How far is it mounted from the tegu? How old is it (the bulb) and how long have you had the tegu? Does your tegu get any natural, unfiltered sunshine? Please describe what he eats. Do you use a calcium and vitamin D3 supplement?

I don't know enough yet to make suggestions or tell you what may be the matter. But a frequent problem with tegus is that they don't get enough calcium and vitamin D3 to metabolize calcium. In captivity, D3 is usually supplied by vitamin supplements and by UVB light rays, which helps many animals produce D3 in their bodies. Without sufficient calcium in the bones and muscles, reptiles develop serious problems. Their bones can get fragile and break easily like an old person. A frequent indicator that an animals muscles are lacking the proper balance of calcium and other elements is a tremor, usually first noticed in the limbs. I don't know if this is what your guy has.

You can search the Health forum on this site for topics such as MDB (metabolic bone disease), shaking, twtching, etc. to see where some people have posted videos or descriptions of their tegus with this problem.

We are not veterinarians on this site, mostly just pet owners with varying degrees of experience and knowledge. I would suggest you get your tegu to a vet who works with reptiles ASAP, since diagnosis and treatment may require more than what we can offer.

There is a sticky on the Health forum to help you find a lizard doctor in your area.

Please write back with more information.

[laurarfl]

And I do recommend the vet since it seems that both people who posted with this issue recently lost their tegus. I'm not saying that will happen to yours, but if it is a MBD type of issue, then the injectable or oral calcium from the vet is much more readily absorbed by the tegu's body than the calcium dust we buy. In the meantime, it sounds as if he needs calcium and some direct sunlight or a good UVB bulb like a mercury vapor bulb.

Also, has he been exposed to any chemicals lately, pesticides or cleaners?

[cjr94]

yesterday i bought a zilla light, it says that it produces full spectrum and uva and it does give off heat. i do have the vitamins (calcium and d3) that i give him daily. i dont take him outside very much because i dont really have a setup out there. The bulb sits on the top of the cage so i guess its about a foot above the tegu. i feed him chicken with the vitamins everyday and about once a week i throw in a cricket. ive been having it for about two weeks, and it seemed fine until yesterday. i have it in a 20 gallon for now because he's still really small, and i use cypress mulch for bedding. i hope this helps guys, thanks.

[the enigma]

i had this issue when I first got my B&W. It was not as serious as yours though. I gave him alot of calcium powder and PLENTY of crickets. He'd go through 500 a week. Until I found out about roaches....

It sounds like the vet would be the best bet though. Just to be safe.

[venom34]

I've had this problem before with a blk/wh tegu so I bought a shallow rubbermade container that I would place him in and put the UVB fixture directly on top so he has to stay and absorb the rays. I also put calcium powder on his every meal. That worked for me but I am no vet and I would take it to see one because its better to be safe than sorry.

[cjr94]

so should i give him some crickets?

[the enigma]

Yes definately up his cricket in take.

[cjr94]

ok thanks ill try that and i think in supposed to be taking him to the vet tomorrow so ill see whats really up with him. thanks.

[HernandosMom]

yesterday i bought a zilla light, it says that it produces full spectrum and uva and it does give off heat.

If the package doesn't say specifically, "UVB" then you don't have UVB. The lizard should have 10.0 power UVB. Also, IMHO, zilla lights suck. I'm sorry to say that, but that has been my experience. We wasted a lot of money on them and they do not stand behind their products.

[Pikey]

take the zilla light back, they are garbage & can be deadly (they produce such low level UVB it's borderline UVC which and harm them on the DNA level)...... get it a zoo-med/fluker/exo-terra Mercury Vapor Bulb or tube light.
(i recamend a MVB for babies and tubes/MVB's when they get bigger.)

[laurarfl]

Ditto on the Zilla. Full spectrum is not the same as UVB. If it is like this: http://www.zilla-rules.com/products/daylight-fullspectrum-fluorescent-bulbs.htm, then it is not putting out UVB. The packages are very misleading. There are heat bulbs that say they put out UVA and long tubes that are full spectrum that say they simulate natural sunlight. But they are talking about a spectrum of visible light and not speaking about UVB.

[txrepgirl]

OMG. I'm so sorry to hear about your Tegu having this problem. To be honest with you I would take him to the vet as soon as you can. I had ( well still have ) two Tegus that had some MBD ( metabolic bone desease ) problem. Ones was shaking just for a few hours and it never happened again. The other one had it for a while and I had to put him on liquid calcium. But I never seen them with the tounge hanging out. I would get him checked to make sure it's not another reason why he is doing this ( liver or kidney ) falure. I could be wrong. But better save then sorry. I recommend the power sun ( link below ). Please keep us posted. Thank you and good luck with everything.

http://www.petmountain.com/product//11442-107801/zoo-med-powersun-uv.html