question about breeding 2 adult tegus. columbian

ive just recently managed to find an adult male tegu of 4 years old and hes brilliant, i have had my female tegu for about a year and a half. she has a custom built tank that is well over 8ft long 3 ft back and 2 ft high which is devided into 2 sections. it was 5-1/2 ft long but due to me having a male on the way i had to extend it.

so a week later i went to pick him up driving 2 hrs to peterborough. i picked him up for £120 and in a great shape, the seller just didnt have the time and patience to look after the big buy due to work commitments. so i decided to take him up on his offer and have him.

ive decided to breed these 2 and see what the future holds. ive already bought an automatic incubator which cost me £240. it does both humidity and temps automatically. ok so the design i bought wasnt exactly worth the price i paid. theres nothing really to these incubators but decided to go down this route so its done proffessionally. i also bought some vermiculite the day after so im all ready for incase the day comes. i like to be ready for these type of things.........

as soon as i got the guy home and placed them together he was a little nervous. also he,d just travelled 2 hours in a cat carrier. she came out of her hide and started sniffing him. she was so fussy and wouldnt leave him alone. i decided to leave them to get to know each other a bit better.

i came in the garage a few hours later and he was on top doing his buisness. i caught them in the act but he didnt seem bothered. he started clawing her and biting at her tail but i figured this is completly normal for tegus. she didnt like what he was doing and ran quite skittish. i then left them again for a few hours and came back. they were both snuggled up together fast asleep.

they seem good together, i ve only ever seen them do it that day i got him home....but that doesnt mean they havent . this was 6 days ago to this day, and ive noticed shese got a belly on her, not assin massive but plump perfectly round, i look at the male and when hes laid down he isnt but she is.
i hope this is a sign of her possible pregnancy. she isnt being unsettling and just sleeps like he does. theres no sign on any odd behaviour at all like dragging substrate and making a nest.so ill keep an eye open on her atttitude if i see shes walking up and down ill stick some hay in there and let her make her nest......another thing im wondering is why do people go through the process of incubators at all. when there isnt any in there wild parts of columbia and argetina. they lay naturally.
if your enclosure is dead on perfect temps with some sligh breeze from fans and pefect humidity levels then wont she just lay them her self and hatch them.i understand they would need seperating. thats 1 thing ive never really understood if they lay them surely they can hatch them on there own.

I can't help you with the breeding of tegus since I have no experience there.

As for incubators...I've hatched beardies naturally and with an incubator. I think the reason people use incubators is because there is a financial investment involved and the breeder has a vested interest in watching the eggs. If I have a clutch of lizards or snakes worth thousands of dollars, I'd feel more comfortable incubating where I can see them and make minute changes as needed in a microenvironment. If the eggs are buried in a nest, who knows if they are getting moldy or dehydrated? Plus in nature, the likelihood of offspring growing to adulthood is reduced, hence the large number of eggs to replace a pair of adults. It could be because of egg issues or predation on the young.

Most tegu breeders are not in South America and it is difficult to reproduce that environment in captivity. I think most of us reptile keepers get it right most of the time and the animals we keep and breed are those that can tolerate the differences. It's very difficult to get it just right 100% of the time and eggs are much less forgiving than adult animals.

I'm sure there are people who use incubators and people who use natural methods. It just depends on what you are comfortable with.

ive just checked on her again, i may be wrong about the whole bulkyness of her.....she did eat a mouse the other day so could well be that. i keep hoping ill get a batch of eggs from her so i keep hoping with fingers crossed i havent wasted money in trying to breed them both.like stated ive already bought everything to use so i just hope it doesnt go to waste. i havent seen any action since the first day so they may not want to at all who knows.im sure they,ll do there deed, it al depends n if the eggs are furtile or not.again fingers crossed. lol

Good luck!

You also have to realize that Colombians are nothing like Argentines when it comes to breeding. They lay 8 or so eggs and they incubate for over 150 days if i remember right. Bobby from Varnyard was explaining the differences to me, and why there isn't really anyone that breeds them. It's not like an Argentine that lays anywhere from 20 to 80 eggs with a 28-30 day incubation. It's a much longer process with no a whole lot of reward in comparison. Especially when Colombians sell for 50 bucks and Argentines for 150 bucks. I dont have the numbers exactly right, but I was thinking thats close.

More power to you if this is something you want to do.