Hello and welcome Johnny! =) I agree, by the picture it looks like a girl. If you feel at the sides of the vent on the underside of the tail, if it is male, you will feel 2 small bumps - I have read that they feel like BB's. My tegu is about 14 inches, and that is my only on-hand experience, but I have done a lot of reading. Please feel free to ignore the comments from the 2 that are arguing. I have to laugh as I read it, because really they both have correct points.

As with any reptile - variety in food is key. They can and will get bored with only one kind of food. Whole prey is very good for them, because of the extra calcium from the skeleton. As lilwyhunter said, a member is having problems with bones - I can see that being an issue. Someone has a link here for an awesome site that has ground meat with the organs and bones. I am sorry I can not remember what it is called =( But I am planning to order from there - variety is the best. I have read that some people use extra-lean ground beef because it is actually leaner than turkey. I do not know this, as I have not looked into it personally. My best advice to you, ALWAYS prove it out to yourself - never take one person's view as truth.

Many people say that the smaller cage size is fine - as long as they get free-roam time. Like teguskink said - most only get a few hours/day. But, most tegus even in the wild do not spend most of their time moving - they spend many, many hours sleeping. So, a lot would depend on your baby. If she is awake and moving a large part of the day, and you can not let her out and provide her with a proper basking area outside of her cage - you do want to have the larger 8 foot cage. I agree with lilwyhunter, we need dimensions of the tank and her measurement, or a picture of her in the tank - but I am sure it is way to small for her and you will want to get a larger enclosure for her asap.

A very large percentage of the tegus diet in the wild, really is more insects - from my reading, they are more opportunistic eaters - they eat whatever comes across their path that they can eat. I have seen many that do look fat and pudgy - mostly reds. I raise roaches for my water dragon and beardies, so Ssra will get a lot of dubia roaches too - pinkies/fuzzies, and a variety of meat. You can raise them on turkey only - but you may have to adjust the amount she eats so that she does not get fat; a lot will depend on how active your baby is. Right now, Ssra being 14 inches, gets dubia for 2 days, then his turkey with greens and grapes for two days. He is going to get bored with the same food very quickly - so I think I will really have to keep my eye out for variety....speaking of, I need to order some hornworms... =)

I think it is Dana that has written a few threads about food, substrates, behaviour. They are filled with great information - I would recommend looking up his posts =)

She is very beautiful and I can not wait for Ssra to get that big =) Again, welcome and I hope that your future questions will be answered with less drama =)