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Argentina0426
08-24-2005, 11:50 PM
About 2 weeks ago I moved my golden tegu to a larger enclosure. Up until that point, my golden was relatively tame, allowing me to pet him and being fed outside his enclosure. A few days after the move, he began to become very aggressive getting worse and worst as the more days went by. Now when I take him out of his enclosure to feed (which by the way is extremely difficult), he does not eat from his usual bowl, and just sits there and stares at me. If I make a move, he bolts like lighting (never seen him run so fast before). When I try to get him back to his enclosure, he gets extremely aggressive and for the first time since I got him, lunges at me trying to bite me. I have never worn gloves when handling him until now...at over two feet, I dont want stichs. Recently, he escaped while I was trying to feed him, and got under a small space. I used a stick and a blanket to distract him from my hand, and he goes for the stick biting down over and over and not letting go for something like 40 minutes! I'm guessing all this aggression has something to do with stress from moving to a new enclosure but never imagined it would be such a turnaround in behavior. Please let me know what you guys think and any suggestions would be appreciate.

Rick
08-25-2005, 05:49 AM
Colombian tegus can change from mild to wild like the flick of a switch. If it was calm and mellow I would just give it some time and see if it comes out of it. If not try moving it back. Sometimes larger enclosures cause stress.

Rick

drfish
08-27-2005, 02:15 PM
Thats exactly what I was like when I moved house, lol.

James_James
08-27-2005, 02:49 PM
Sometimes bigger is not always better. It is best to slowly upgrade the size of the cage, with the teguas growth rate. A huge cage can boost up his security and confidence. Which might lead to higher levels of aggression.