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Thread: my young black and white tegu wont eat

  1. #1

    Default my young black and white tegu wont eat

    Hello all I got a black and white A. Tegu about 3 months ago and we have tryed to feed him all kinds of feeders and food. I breed and raise panther chameleons and parsonii chameleons so I know all about picky eatting reptiles but this boy is just not getting the fact he has to eat to live.
    His set up right now is a 40 gal. Breeder tank with a 160 watt power of the sun bulb for his basking and uvb. I dust his food with repashy calcium plus 3 x a week ... But he is not eating. I use cyperes bark for his bedding his basking spot is right under the bulb and I have a big peace of slate he can lay on when he is basking the temp is 105 to 110 depending on the time of day I am not sure what.the ideal temp is for basking. He has lots of hides and he is on my chameleons auto mist system and gets half his cage misted 3 times a day for 3 min. And it has a few hour before lights out to dry out a little. I have tryed to feed him crickets,Dubia,peppered roaches,pinky mice live and fresh killed,egg boiled and cooked,fish of all kinds,turkey,ham,beef,cb Florida giant katydids I breed and raise my self,hornworms,superworms,silkworms,reptiworms,gre en banana roaches and cb stick bugs I breed my self. And after all that he eats maybe 2 crickets a day if that and non of the other feeders or food . Do any of you have any tips or tricks you can tell me my guess on age is he is 4 to 5 months old. What all should he be eatting at this age?
    Thanks for any help.
    Edit. I forgot to say he has a huge water bowl he can fit his whole body in and it has fresh water everyday .

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    San Antonio,TX
    Posts
    9,505

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    Hi texas ranger. Welcome to our Tegu forum family. Wow, you have your hands full with that boy lol. Everything you do sounds good . Do you feed him inside of his enclosure or in a bin or bath tub ? Have you seen him poop ? How does the poop look like ? Is it runny or very very soft and has a very sour odor to it ? How does his stomach look like ( bloated or skinny ) ? Do you feed him around the other pets ? I would take him into another room where it's quiet and there are no other pets. Put him into a dark colored bin or the bath tub and try to feed him in there. You might have to step back a bit so you don't scare him. You might have to wait a little while. But when he feels safe he might start eating something. How do you feed him the meats ? Is it cold right out of the fridge or do you warm it up ( not cook it ) for a few seconds ? To be honest with you I would just feed the the prekilled rodents ( unless they are pinkies ). Live rodents might stress him out. There is also a chance that he can get bit. I'm sorry about all these questions. I just asked about the poop to see if he might have parasites or maybe impacted ( if you feed him inside the enclosure ).
    Rich is not how much you have, or where you are going, or what you are.Rich is who you have beside you.

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  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by txrepgirl View Post
    Hi texas ranger. Welcome to our Tegu forum family. Wow, you have your hands full with that boy lol. Everything you do sounds good . Do you feed him inside of his enclosure or in a bin or bath tub ? Have you seen him poop ? How does the poop look like ? Is it runny or very very soft and has a very sour odor to it ? How does his stomach look like ( bloated or skinny ) ? Do you feed him around the other pets ? I would take him into another room where it's quiet and there are no other pets. Put him into a dark colored bin or the bath tub and try to feed him in there. You might have to step back a bit so you don't scare him. You might have to wait a little while. But when he feels safe he might start eating something. How do you feed him the meats ? Is it cold right out of the fridge or do you warm it up ( not cook it ) for a few seconds ? To be honest with you I would just feed the the prekilled rodents ( unless they are pinkies ). Live rodents might stress him out. There is also a chance that he can get bit. I'm sorry about all these questions. I just asked about the poop to see if he might have parasites or maybe impacted ( if you feed him inside the enclosure ).
    I have tryed in his enclosure here the past 2 weeks he freaks out and rubs the whole time he is in a tub or anywere other then his set up. I feed him just warm meat not cold or hot and not cooked. His urate it white but that is all he is letting out because he is not eatting anything. When I first got him I do my own fecal test and he was clean and clear and he is cb. So that was a big plus to me that he was going to be a good one. He is in his own area of the house no other animals can see him and he can't see them I am just so confused on what to do. Everyone talks about how hard chameleons are and man they are a breeze compared to this boy. Does his temps seem ok? I can't find anywere were it tells me the right basking temp..

    O and thank you for the welcome I wish I could have signed up here sooner it looks like there is a lot of cool herpers here if you all want to see what kind of chameleons I have just to check them out my face book is sublime exotics.

  4. #4

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    O and his belly is very skinny:( ...

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Posts
    95

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    I had a hard time with mine in the beginning and I cut my feedings to a few times a week and not much until he started eating. Luckily, he had a fat tail base. Now he is eating so much that I have no idea where he's putting it. =D Other than towards growth, that is. Just keep trying and hope he eats. Have you tried egg? Most seem to like them scrambled or hard boiled or if you have a good non-stick pan so you can use barely any oil, pan fried over easy. Mine only ever lapped up yolk out of a soft boiled egg and doesn't touch hard boiled, but that is unusual from what I gather. Raw eggs generally are avoided because of problems with the whites binding with calcium or something along those lines but you can try raw slightly heated eggs whipped or just the yolk separated from the rest as long as it causes him start eating, there's not really any problem.

    Good luck.

  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hokurai View Post
    I had a hard time with mine in the beginning and I cut my feedings to a few times a week and not much until he started eating. Luckily, he had a fat tail base. Now he is eating so much that I have no idea where he's putting it. =D Other than towards growth, that is. Just keep trying and hope he eats. Have you tried egg? Most seem to like them scrambled or hard boiled or if you have a good non-stick pan so you can use barely any oil, pan fried over easy. Mine only ever lapped up yolk out of a soft boiled egg and doesn't touch hard boiled, but that is unusual from what I gather. Raw eggs generally are avoided because of problems with the whites binding with calcium or something along those lines but you can try raw slightly heated eggs whipped or just the yolk separated from the rest as long as it causes him start eating, there's not really any problem.

    Good luck.
    Ok thank you for the tip I will try some of the egg ideas... I have only ever offered him hard boiled eggs but maybe one of the other ways will get him eatting. He has a real skinny base of the tail too. If he dosnt start eatting in a few weeks I think I am going to have to try and force feed him which I don't won't to do but if this boy dosnt want to eat I might have no choice.

  7. #7

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    I had some issues getting mine to eat rodents at first, but I found that dipping it in raw egg helped quite a bit. I also leave the yolks a little gooey when I feed him hard boiled eggs.

  8. #8

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    I have tryed all kinds of eggs this morning he dosnt seem to like the eggs he went up to them and was tasting them but just runs and goes to his hides :(. Some one told me my temps were to cool in the basking area. What is a good basking temp area?

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    San Antonio,TX
    Posts
    9,505

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    Your welcome . I'm glad you are a part of our family. Better late then never. If you want to you can try to give him some chicken baby food and just let him lick it up. This way he will at least get some protein. Here is a care sheet you can check out. If he likes it then you can mix it up with some ground turkey the next time.

    http://www.thetegu.com/showthread.ph...Tegu-Caresheet
    Rich is not how much you have, or where you are going, or what you are.Rich is who you have beside you.

    Our videos :

    http://www.youtube.com/user/txrepgirl

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Wichita, KS
    Posts
    71

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    You could also try a small can of Innova brand Cat & Kitten food. It is a high-quality food that has the most protein in canned foods. My tegu went after it like it was candy the first time he ate it.

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