Another question

[ReptiTheTeguFreak]

I have the chance to rescue a female red yearling I found an add on a site it's near by she's in a tank as big as her can barley move no uvb I can't just leave her even if I'm gonna have to pay for her and vet her it's worth it to me can she be housed with my male red? Will they fight if they have babies will she be able to handle mating I'll keep them separate till she's healthy but I wanna know what I'm in for and no matter what I'm not leaving her with those people and a er she's in my arms I'm gonna beg them to never buy another reptile again

[Montegu]

i wouldnt mix any tegus even of the same species together...they dont get along very well (most of the time) in a tank...

[ReptiTheTeguFreak]

Really darn I was researching it quite a bit and found a ton of articles about how well they do together as long as there is not 2 males and a female like colonies of all females and one male or two males but I don't believe everything I read thanks for the info I'll build another enclosure

[Montegu]

here is a recent thread on here explaining your exact question http://www.thetegu.com/showthread.php?12210-So

[Montegu]

if you dont wanna read the wole thing heres some good reasons from a brilliant member tupinambis...


First, I don't want to upset you Ripkabird, but my experiences would completely disagree with pretty much everything you have said (other than don't mix them, I'm behind you 100% on that). I can't count how many "Argentine" tegus I've stitched back together, closing holes where limbs have been ripped off, or just having to put down because the wounds were too extensive. Your beloved "Argentines" absolutely have no problems tearing into each other, it isn't pretty. However, they seem to lose a lot of that aggression towards each other when they are "tamed" - however I still advise people to be very careful even when mixing the same species of tegu, you really don't know what will happen. And being a big tegu doesn't mean much either - in my one study group, I at first tried to house males together during hibernation, worked ok until they came out of hibernation. At the time, Cartman was literally twice the size of Kenny - and Kenny kicked the living hell out of poor Cartman. I immediately separated all same sex groups to avoid further issues.

I know everyone is into this hybridization craze, and leaving aside my typical lecture on destroying the unique genetics and the ramifications of such a hybrid getting back into the wild, there is another reason to keep different species separate. Disease. Yes, I'm certain most are aware you want to be careful with spreading disease around your reptile collections, but it is even more poignant in a case like this. Most Colombian and Argentine populations are quite separate, however they are still somewhat closely related. There's a possibility one could be carrying a disease that its species has a tolerance to but that the other species has never encountered and could be very susceptible to. I'm not talking spreading mites around your pets, I'm talking about what small pox did to the Americas when the Europeans brought it over (most people are unaware of the fact that before the Europeans came, the population of indigenous peoples in the Americas was in the hundreds of millions. The Aztec capital city in Mexico had a greater population before the arrival of Cortez than both London and Paris combined at the time). People take a HUGE risk when mixing species, particularly when so closely related. I don't think it's worth the risk.

[ReptiTheTeguFreak]

There the same species male and female during free roam today they laid on top of each h other then ran around d before putting them back in separate homes I'll keep them separate for now just incase I'm scared haha! I don't want either of them to get hurt thanks for your help the there both tame she is more laid back then Aragon which I love cause she cuddles Aragon just wants to explore all day

[Montegu]

thats awesome that they are tame. i only have 1 teggy but if i got another i think id leave them apart just incase. i mean the way i look at it is i have some really good friends but i made the mistake of being roommates with one that i was friends with for 8 years and after a year we were no longer friends so i dont wanna force other animals together haha

[ReptiTheTeguFreak]

Yea I agree gonna introduce them and mate if possible so that should be fun still have my incubator from my a ages so I think I'll give her a whirl and see where it goes

[txrepgirl]

Congrats on your new Tegu. I always go by better safe than sorry. The only ones that I could house together for a while ( before they hit maturity ) were the brother and sister ( the All American and the other ones blue/red hybrids ). They cuddled up together all the time. But we had our two b/w male Tegus, both are very tame, roam around. The smaller one ( Zeus ) bit the bigger one ( Leonidas ) in the leg. This never had happened before. It scared me. Thank God Leonidas just walked away.

[bubblz]

Congrats on the new tegu.
For future reference even though you said you would keep them seperate from here out, there should be no contact with new reptiles and your established ones. You already know that she may not have been kept in the best conditions and there's no telling what she may be carrying or could have been exposed to, that can be passed on to your tegu with or without contact.