Hello my name is Daniel i am new to Tegu's and different caresheet contradict themselves so using previous experience dealing with Savannah monitors to help out to an extent.
Now i know Savannah monitors are completely different from the New World Species of Tegu's. Now i originally wanted an Argentine but as some of im sure have seen how sad the pet section is on Craigslist and so i saw a Gold tegu on there stating he was a year old and he was in a 10g cage with only a waterbowl, which by the way was a ferret litterbox, so he was asking 100 and ended up getting him for 40 due to the fact that everyone in the petshop was scared to even put their hand in the tank. i put my hand in with fingers balled like a fist and he came right up to me licked me and i was able to touch his face and pick him up. the petshop owners were amazed. i think they were just idiots cause every other snake and reptile in there had URI's for sure. but after his vet checkup he was very healthy. and im sure they only dumped crickets in there so now i raise my own rats and mice and chickens(as i live on a 100acre ranch south of houston) so he loves pinkys and occasionally a small baby chick(inhumane i know but so much healthier than mice or rats) i feed chickens to alot of my larger boas and snakes. anyway back to the conversation. i put him(temporarily) in a 20g long tank with 2 bricks of eco-earth with a large water bowl a few rocks and branches to climb on. now i use a infared temp gun to make sure that it does not go over 101f-102f in the hotspot.
so a few weeks later i was at an expo and ended trading one of my tarapoto thumbnail dart frogs for a baby colombian black/white(which i cant tell the difference between the gold or the black/white) so i introduced them in the 20g and went out and bought a 40g breeder and put 5 bricks of eco-earth and created 2 basking areas 1st one is a 70w basking bulb about 8" above the reptile hammock which they love, and the 2nd one is a 100w mercury vapor bulp with a reostat to maintain the temp and its about 12" above the substrate
Now saying all that they stay burrowed almost 80% of the day. the smaller one comes out about 5mins before the timer turns on the lights at 8am and then the 2nd one(larger one) get up about 30 mins after. now i have been feeding variety from crickets, dubia roaches from my culture, scrambled eggs mixed with raw ground turkey, feeder fish, and assorted fruits. i also feed pinky mice to the larger one(not the smaller one, as he only 8" with tail and the larger one is just over 24" with tail) they never fight or anything.actually they have bonded it looks like.so the smaller one will go back under even before i can get any food into the enclosure. mainly i mean the eggs with raw meat due to the fact i cannot put that in the night before like the frozen pinkies or insects.
Thanks and any advice on the sleeping underground all the time(also i have a large under the tank heater where they burrow) so is this why they are doing that.
and also is this a good enclosure i have set up b/c i plan on making a very large wooden enclosure like i have for my sav monitors and bearded dragons.
the 1st pic is my current setup for my tegus and the 2nd pic is the larger one of the two
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