What do you feed your tegus?

[RainbowParty]

This seems like a pretty slow forum. How about listing off various types of feeders people give to their tegus? So far on the site people have talked about the obvious crix and worms, mice and rats.. but there's more and more talk about fish and crawfish and crab and even scorpions now. I say we should try to list off all the different foods we feed our tegus, so that we can all add more variety to their diets.

[D3K3]

Well i use to feed my tegu alot of rats and mice but i have stoped that to one every few weeks. I have fed mine a variety of:
Fish, ground turkey, eggs, mice/rats, chicken, squash, spring mix salad, mangos, papya, grapes, bannana, kiwi, tomatoes, black berries, blue berries, melon, rasberries, strawberries, squash, potatoe, zuccini.
He seems to like all of this only if its blended up to mush. I gave my tegu a small piece of hot dog once. I would like to feed snails but i dont know what kind people talk about.

[Bathory]

I thought about earth worms. I've read, that they are very easy to breed, and nutritious - full of protein. However I have concerns about where to get the basic stock from. They can be infested with bacterias and parasites. Maybe from shop, as a fishing bait?

[RainbowParty]

Fishing bait could be sketchy.. most worms in tackle shops are bought off of worm pickers who pay farmers and stuff to let them pick worms out of their fields. My dad is a farmer, and he used to get a free 2-4 every time the worm pickers came by.

[andy_rotten]

i feed my 11 month old couple with:
(in disorder)pinkies once a week, meatballs,chicken, quail eggs,banana,cherries,locusts,butterflies,crickets, nightcrawlers,snails (with and without shell) that i get pesticide free,melon,raspberries,strawberries,dandelion,trou t,pineapple,pear,clover,
alfaalfa,persimmon (kaki),mango,kiwi.... i'm sure i forgot something, but that's about what i use to feed them. i'm introducing now veggies ad fruit,so i mix all with some stuff they like and it seems they like it.

[RainbowParty]

Does your tegu eat all that on it's own, or do you have to mix it with something? Koopa only eats fruits and veggies when I mix it in his turkey.

[Teiidae]

Only one of my Tegu's "the elder", will eat fruit by itself and only strawberries so far, however something's always in the mix for both :wink:

[tegulevi]

crimson loves strawberrys. almost as much as his rats. he will eat half a banana in one bite its pretty funny to see

[D3K3]

Ya my tegu eats every fruit stright up but when it comes to vegies they have to be ground up in to a mixture.

[andy_rotten]

my couple eats fruits and veg only if mixed, but i think it's because they're still young..

[Johelian]

My tegu will eat fruit (strawberries, apple, banana etc) and veg (raddichio, frisee etc - a beardie mix) on their own after a couple of days without any protein; since hes old and a bit overweight, its primarily what he gets. He also gets locusts, morioworms, mice, chicks, eggs and african land snails (a rather sparse treat, which I buy from pet stores). Trying to steer away from the turkey, which I was really just giving him to get the veggies into him; now that he knows he has to eat them or go without, he isnt kicking up a fuss. Theres not much to minced turkey breast anyway, to be honest.

[Tegublackandgold]

My columbain only eats meat ive tried eveything to get him to eat fruit or veggies he wont go for any of it

[Tegublackandgold]

And i feed mine live mice is that bad

[Teiidae]

My Colombians just ate meat and rodents as well - My Gold would eat turkey with fruit smashed in it though - feeding prekilled mice will help with the feeding response, and avoid bites from live prey...

[Tegublackandgold]

the only thing is that he doesnt seem to like the dead mice
he loves his live prey and ill try the fruit trick with turkey

[Grimlock]

Grim gets ground turkey w/fruit, or fruit and crickets every day except weekends when he has rodents. He...er actually I should probably be saying she, isn't picky at all and tries everything. She eats fruit on its own which is great, especially loves grapes and mango but likes every kind of fruit I've tried so far, even apples which surprised me given their texture. Kiwi is the only thing she has ignored so far. I used to give scrambled egg but am stopping until I can find fertilized eggs, so she doesn't get that biotin deficiancy thing. I've also given her high quality (canidae) dry dog food that I soaked until it was mushy, she loved it but I won't give that very often.
I decided not to bother with the scorpions...
I've been letting her out of her cage to eat so she isn't aggressive about it...to my hands...but bare or white socked feet will get her all excited...she even grabbed my pants leg and gave it a shake once :lol:

[bubblz]

My columbian,.. Spaz eats the usual hoppers, ground turkey, mealworms, and crickets. But she also likes peaches, pineapples, oranges, bananas, mixed vegetables, brine shrimp, river shrimp, krill, grasshoppers, chicken, crab, beetles and silkworm cocoons (for some reason she would only eat half and go to the next one). One day she smelled the smoked sausages I was cooking and started pacing and scratching to get out, I gave her some and she started huffin, puffin and chased me down to get some more 8O . That's the only time I have ever seen a really strong feeding response from her :lol:.

[jb]

My Columbian eats prekilled small mice, turkey burger, eggs (rarely offered). He will take mangos and bananas if they are very ripe and he hasn't had a rodent in a day or two. He gets Zophobas worms "supers" also. He's not interested in crickets anymore. I supplement with Minerall.

[stlmetalhead]

My columbian eats mice, small chicks, eggs(cooked and raw), turkey, chicken, venison(deer meat, i've found it to be very good it's really lean almost no fat content and lots of protein), grapes, bannanas, strawberries, blueberries, rasberries, and once in a while some avacado.

[Johelian]

I would be a bit wary of avocado; its believed to have caused anaphylactic shock in birds, which would immediately make me unwilling to offer it to lizards. It may be that the toxins are contained in the plant and seed pit rather than the flesh, but its something to consider I think. :D

[agallegos37]

Hey what's your guys' opinion on fish? How would that be for food?

[tegulevi]

I have been told that certain kinds of fish are better. Like you dont want to feed many bottomfeeding fish like catfish. a cleaner species would be good though like trout or something

[Nozo]

i feed my 3 mounth old arg cat food babyfood(good way 2 get them 2 eat vegs)turkey chicken crikets

[Kilioa]

tegu monitor diet, ground beef, pinkies fuzzies rat pups rats hamsters . . carrots, string beans cucumber lettuce (not iceberg), mangos, peaches, bannannas (like crack heads like crack) plums, grapes, apples (less acidic), crickets, superworms, hornworms (ate a huge grasshopper once) . . . etc (no problems with any of these loves stew (cut up some rat pups (1 pup=small - 3 ratpups = adult) and mix fruits vegies with a little tegu diet for weight and sprinkle some vitamins for good measure . . . . . i call it fetus stew for whatever reason

[Daggit_Columbian]

And i feed mine live mice is that bad
I feed my guy live stuff, like crawdads and snakes and stuff. He loves them. If it were ever to become a problem i wouldn't do it though. nev er been bitten or harmed by his prey, he gets 'em too quick to become injured :roll: BTW he is a columbian too :D

[tupinambis]

Grimlock - the biotin deficiency thing in eggs is a bit of a misnomer, I'm not exactly sure how the "fertilized" egg bit got started but I haven't been able to find anything that supports that. What is known, however, is that in uncooked hens eggs, the egg white contains a fair amount of avidin. Avidin is a protein compound that has very high affinity (strongly binds) for biotin and cannot be absorbed by the intestine, hence leading to the biotin deficiency by preventing biotin uptake. Biotin is present in fair quantities in the egg yolk, however. Cooking the egg supposedly denatures (so that it is no longer functional) the avidin but not the biotin. So you could either cook the eggs, or avoid giving the egg white. It usually takes a long time of constant raw egg ingestion to create a biotin deficiency. Interestingly, it has been shown in other organisms that those with a higher vegetable content in their diet have higher biotin absorption rates than those with higher meat content in their diets. This might be the basis of a lot of the skin problems in Tupinambis rufescens (as opposed to vit.C as many believe) because biotin deficiencies frequently present themselves as dermatological disorders.