Brand new little guy :) have some questions

[dayos80]

Heres Rico http://imgur.com/zoNexXB

Hi everyone, i just got my brand new Columbian Tegu 2 days ago, i have a few questions to ask about diet and handling and such. So they had him in a decent sized tank at the store, but were only feeding him crickets so i picked up 100, and tried to feed him last night and he refused to touch them. So i broke out the old Yolk trick and still wouldnt, so i mixed lean ground beef with crickets and mealworms and egg yolk, low and behold he ate a massive chunk.

I am wondering if i can mix, Lean ground beef or ground turkey with crickets and mealworms and calcium w/ D3 powder so i can use these crickets, or should i just keep trying to feed him crickets.

also temps in his tank are 80-87F on the hot side depending if its day or night, 70-80 on the cold side, around 50-70% humidity and a basking spot of about 105F.

He was hatched about 1 or 2 months ago.

ANY other diet options are thanked,
Jake

[txrepgirl]

Hi Jake. Welcome to our Tegu forum family and congrats on your new Tegu. He is very cute. I would higher the basking temps to 115F. Do you have a UVA/UVB light for him ? You don't have to mix the feeder insects with the meat if you don't want to. When he is hungry enough he will eat them. I recommend feeding him in a dark bin. If he is stressed out it might take a minute or so for him to calm down and want to eat. Argentine and Coumbian Tegus have about the same husbandry/diet. Some Columbians don't like to eat fruits or veggies and some do. Here is some info for you to check out if you like.

Caresheet:

http://www.thetegu.com/showthread.ph...Tegu-Caresheet

Those two tricks helped me a lot with our five Tegus.

[dayos80]

Thank you so much tx! He is actually quite friendly and very rarely gets scared and runs off. He is quite calm the only issue at the moment is just getting him to eat. I am assuming he is just stressed and is waiting. Also yes i do have a 10 UVB next to his basking spot and the temperature was raised over night . I have him on ground turkey coated in egg yolk and dusted with Calcium w/ D3

[txrepgirl]

You are very welcome . If you want to you can check out the Care Sheet in the link below. You can try to give him some fruits and veggies, too. I usually steam my veggies a bit first ( the hard ones like Carrots ). I also give them the fruits and veggies at room temps. I forgot to mention that some Tegus also don't want to eat anything or not as much when they are shedding.

http://www.thetegu.com/showthread.ph...Tegu-Caresheet

[dayos80]

he is shedding right now actually, i noticed about 2 days ago, so he probably started around 4 days ago. He is doing very very well an growing very fast!

[txrepgirl]

I'm glad to hear that he is doing well . Thank you for the update.

[laurarfl]

These guys do like the cool side a bit warmer than the larger tegus. I keep the cool side at 78 in the summer and about 70 in the winter. That may help perk him up, too. As long as he gets calcium with the ground meat, it is ok to feed. As he grows, feeding him F/T rodents will provide a natural source of balanced minerals and vitamins as well.