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Thread: Do Tegus like ants

  1. #1

    Default Do Tegus like ants

    If I get one of those little mail-order gel Ant farms with the light-up thing on the bottom and I order some ants, what kind should I get?

  2. #2
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    I wouldn't suggest getting your tegu any ants. They are hard to keep in the cage and they could get out and into your house and...well you get the idea. Crickets, mealworms,waxworms and small roaches are the better route to take

  3. #3
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    Plus ants just might be small enough to be ignored.
    Laura R (FL)
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  4. #4
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    not only are they small but they all bite bad.
    was fishing once set my drink down on the bank a few mins later i took a drink & BAM full of ants the latch on with their jaws half way down my throat..... i would wish that on any one or any animal
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  5. #5
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    On one hand, I would state that tegus will not likely be even the slightest interested in eating ants and as far as ants biting the tegu and causing harm, in most cases not even slightly remote. Tegus have an immensely thick hide. In my studies on tegus in Brazil, one of my artificial burrows with a pair of tegus became "infested" with a large, black and very nasty ant. I really had to watch myself when I opened this up for instrument maintenance and such because those ants were painful and aggressive. However, they didn't bother the tegus one bit from what I could see, and the tegus certainly didn't seem interested or concerned with them.

    That being said, however, I still would not advocate ordering ants and giving them to your tegus. The most common ant that can be ordered for those ant farms is the carpenter ant, which is also the primary dietary component to Phrynosoma sp. (horned lizards) diets. I once ordered a large batch of these ants for my Phrynosoma collection as well as my Tropiduris lizards which also eat ants. The supplier of these ants not only sells them for ant farms, but also specifically for the diets of ant eating reptiles. Every one of my Phrynosoma lizards was dead within days of eating them, and any of my Tropiduris lizards that ate some (they ate fewer than the Phrynosoma) suffered convulsions and were paralyzed. Essentially, there's no control for the quality of ants, they're harvested from the wilderness, and you have NO IDEA whether they are contaminated or not (as appears to be the situation in my case).

  6. #6
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    i wasnt talking about them biting the skin but latching on to their tounge or the inside of their mouth and some ants secrete toxins (not harmful to some but harmful to other animals) so even if you did get ants u'd have to make sure the tegu would & does eat them in the wild
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  7. #7
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    Pikey, you have a fair point there. Those lizards that eat ants not only have the physiological means of dealing with the ants' inherent toxins, but perhaps overlooked by many they have also evolved specific ways of "handling" and consuming the ants to avoid exactly what you're talking about. This is something tegus do not have.

  8. #8
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    That being said, however, I still would not advocate ordering ants and giving them to your tegus. The most common ant that can be ordered for those ant farms is the carpenter ant, which is also the primary dietary component to Phrynosoma sp. (horned lizards) diets. I once ordered a large batch of these ants for my Phrynosoma collection as well as my Tropiduris lizards which also eat ants. The supplier of these ants not only sells them for ant farms, but also specifically for the diets of ant eating reptiles. Every one of my Phrynosoma lizards was dead within days of eating them, and any of my Tropiduris lizards that ate some (they ate fewer than the Phrynosoma) suffered convulsions and were paralyzed. Essentially, there's no control for the quality of ants, they're harvested from the wilderness, and you have NO IDEA whether they are contaminated or not (as appears to be the situation in my case).
    Wow this is horrible...how many Phrynosoma and Tropiduris lizard did you lost? Also, did you call the company after that? Because I am sure to 100% that all of your Phrynosoma didn't die because of your husbandry, that might be because of those ants. What did you do after that? (if there was something to do) Because if yours die, that would mean, that there are still (if this company is still active) Phrynosoma and Tropiduris that are dying because of these problematic ants.

    thank you
    again, sorry for all of those lost.
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  9. #9
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    6 Phrynosoma, 3 Tropiduris itambre. Didn't call the company, but sent them an email explaining what happened and that they need to be careful where/how they collect. Never got a response. As for the T.itambre, I nursed them by hand feeding and watering them near daily. After about 6 months they had recovered some of their mobility back, but they were never the same again. The species is avid climbers, but the 3 that ate some ants could never climb again, and for the longest time could not right themselves if they fell over onto their backs. They were all males (the ones that ate the ants that is), and although they still courted and mounted, I never got a successful clutch from them again (and these guys were prolific, used to get clutches of 8-12 eggs about every 6 weeks).

  10. #10

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    So, in other words, not so much on the ant thing huh?

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