Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: opinions, tips, anything

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Ohio
    Posts
    5

    Default opinions, tips, anything

    I don't get on here much other than to read occasional posts and check out cage ideas. However, seeing as I am a first time owner of an argi red I just want to go over everything and get some opinions and maybe some tips. I only assume I have a female because she is just shy of 3 feet tip of nose to tip of tail, and I would think the male jowels would have appeared by now, or no? I really have no idea on her age because I got her from a pet store in July of 2012 at which point she was only around a foot and a half. Any guesses on age? if that even helps at all. The store was only feeding her crickets mainly but a fuzzy here and there. When I brought her home she had a good sized bowl of berries and some ground turkey she tore into. She now eat three times the quantity of food she did then. Though she absolutely loves blueberries with a Passion she refuses to eat anything else other than mice, ground turkey, and MAYBE a small bite of chicken liver if I offer it. I put fish, strawberries, mango, kiwi, grapes, or any type of melon in front of her and she looks at me like what the hell is this?? Are there any ways to get them to eat a wider variety of foods? Or should I expect her to aquire a taste for different foods later on?
    She just came out of her dormant funk about a month ago and is showing a new and truly incredible reptilian personality. She is growing at an alarming rate and is shedding consistently every month and a half. I had her adult cage built 3 months ago. It is an 8x3x3 instead of the 6x3x2 I have seen quite a few of. The bad news is that my doorway is only 2 feet 10 inches wide and my girl is currently residing in a 4.5x2x1.5 90gallon breeder tank. The good news is that she only sleeps and basks in there. She wakes up around the time I get home from work and I slide the lid open for her to free roam the whole basement until she becons me to put her back in the tank under the lamp (I need to jimmy rig a ramp). I was always worried I'd never be able to find her again if I let her roam around on her own but she has proven to be a very noisy traveler, especially with all the boxes and other junk down there she seems to love nothing more than to get into everything. She seems rather content in her behavior though and is FINALLY not such a violent beast when I handle her asside from routine. Any comments, suggestions, answers PLEASE. She has to be my most prized possession I want to do everything right. The larger enclosure is my priority for her at the moment even though she does not seem to mind her current conditions at all. Thanks for any responses. Wow this is a lot..

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Dreamland
    Posts
    217

    Default

    So you need about 2.5 inches...

    Try taking the DOOR and/or door JAMB off. You can also have the guy who made it cut it in half and put water tight hinges on it. Undo the hinges, take it in, then put it back together.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Central FL
    Posts
    4,349

    Default

    They get spoiled and can get to be picky eaters. You can try mixing fruits and veggies in with raw egg yolk or ground meat. Or just offer her a balanced meal and whatever she doesn't eat is fine, but don't offer more. Eventually if she's hungry enough she'll eat all the good stuff, too. Be sure to supplement boneless foods with plenty of calcium and Vit D if she is not under a UVB light while free-roaming. Also watch for low humidity if she free roaming a lot. Since tegus seem to prone to obesity, worrying about them eating enough as adults never seems to be a problem. :P

    I like ripka's idea of putting hinges on the cage. I've seen that done before.
    Laura R (FL)
    1.0.0 Colombian Tegu
    1.4.0 Argentine B&W Tegu
    1.2.0 Red Tegu
    1.2.0 B/WxRed Tegu
    1.0.0 Green Ameiva (yet another teiid)
    7 other lizards
    1 little gator
    3 FL box turtle
    1 Sulcata tortoise
    16 snakes
    5 fuzzy pets
    4 little frogs
    a bunch of creepy bugs
    and a partridge in a pear tree

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Ohio
    Posts
    5

    Default

    I am about to go to lowes right now to check on these water tight hinges. The cage is cut in half already but that leaves me with two pieces that are still 4x3x3 and too wide to fit. The cage is very well built but the guy I had do it was supposed to make it only 2.5' high. I have tried removing the sliding glass door but a wheel is malfunctioning at the bottom and it won't pull out from the bottom track. I very well may just start unscrewing boards until it fits and then reassemble it inside. It's a bummer though because I've already sealed it to water tight perfection.
    I do dust all turkey and occasionally even her berries with d3 calcium supplement and I also have a tripple fixture hood next to the basking spot with three 5.0 uvb bulbs. I maintain the humidity in her tank by sealing the lid with tin foil and i moisten her bedding once a day with a garden sprayer. Keeps the humidity right around 65-70% throughout the day but I will soak the cage more to raise it when she is in shed. I will have to try the egg additive idea though hopefully she takes to it, her diet bores even me lol
    Thanks for the tips!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Massachussettes
    Posts
    216

    Default

    my tegu also loves blueberries. like yours, she is extremely picky with other fruits (all meat and fish i havent had a prob with). what i do is throw some stawberries, blueberries, apples, grapes, and any other fruit i may have in a food chopper and then mix it with ground turkey, chicken gizzards/necks, and alittle salmon in a bowl. i then package meals away in freezer bags and make about 10-12 bags. i defrost them by leaving a bag in warm water for 5 min and then put the meal on her food bowl, then dust with calcium. she eats everything not even knowing she is eating the fruits she dont care for

    i also give her mice twice a week, and an occational hard boiled egg

    everytime i make a bowl of food, i try and switch some stuff up like add diff things and not use certain things. keep it a vareity. make sure to do some research on fruits that are good for gu's. carefull with bananna's. its ok for them to eat, just not all the time!
    youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/subiedude09

    Instagram: subiedude09

    B&W Argentine Tegu: Jazz

    Citrus Hypo Bearded Dragon: Rango

    Sandfire Bearded Dragon: Pyro

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    San Antonio,TX
    Posts
    9,505

    Default

    Do you mix all the different fruits together or do you give her just one kind at a time ? If you give her a few different ones try to give her just one kind first and see if she likes it. You also could put a few different fruits into a blender. Get a syringe ( at the pharmacy ) without a needle. Put the blended fruit into the syringe and than squeeze the puree into the mouth of the frozen/thawed rodent. This way she can't taste the fruits .
    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

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Ohio
    Posts
    5

    Default

    I use the same method of freezing individual meals month to month. I've tried dicing fruits and mixing them with her turkey but she looks at it and then at me as if I've ruined her meal ay which point she becomes rather moody. I may try this syringe idea though. I tried individual fruits a couple times hoping her hunger would make her get over it but she just became more and more frustrated with each attempt. I did however mix blueberries with grapes once and in her haste to demolish the berries she picked up a grape. However when she crushed it I think the juice didn't appeal to her and she spit it out. Some sort of vitamin c iv would be excellent lol but since she eats the mice whole I think I might be able to sneak some different stuff in with the syringe.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    San Antonio,TX
    Posts
    9,505

    Default

    If you are going to try the syringe trick please let me know how it turned out. Thank you and good luck.
    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

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •