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Thread: Our Tegu Journey Begins...

  1. #1

    Post Our Tegu Journey Begins...

    I am a new member. Just joined today after spending a couple of hours on site going through the health threads. My family was drawn to adopt a very sick little tegu (columbian) at a pet shop. He had a terrible start and seemed to call out to us from behind the glass...not even exaggerating. After we held him, he would just raise his little head with all his strength to look out at us. He has most of his digits gone or in the process of going....MBD, servere....very, very thin....etc. although free of parasites. But he was eating so we thought his will to survive was worth the effort. We have many reptiles but never a tegu. I anticipate this website to be invaluable. My question right now is: what is a reasonable estimated time span before we can breathe a little easier...that he's at least stable? We've had him 4 days. He was eating crickets at the pet shop. We have fed him 3 pinkie mice in 3 days. He seems full and is looking better...as good as you can look on the edge of death. Thanks all. We can't wait to see what this little guy has planned for us.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    San Antonio,TX
    Posts
    9,505

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    Hi Wingless . Welcome to our Tegu forum family and congrats on your new Tegu. Thank you for the kind words. God bless you all for taking in that poor little guy. He is very lucky to have you all. It is hard to say how long it would take for him to be fully recovered. But it is a big relieve that he is at least eating .I know you did your research on here but did you check out the caresheet out ? Try to feed him some hard boiled eggs ( without the shell unless you grind it up into a fine powder. The shells are very sharp and I wouldn't want him to get hurt ), some fresh fish filets ( cat fish, tilapia, tuna, cod or salmon warmed up but not cooked ). Please make sure he drinks a lot of water or light colored gatoraid. With the MBD it sounds like they didn't give him any calcium powder or enough rodents or they didn't had that right UVA/UVB lighting. Good luck with everything and please keep us posted. Do you have any pictures of him that you can post for us ? Thank you.

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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Finger Lakes, NY
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    1,362

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    people after my own heart.

    my latest tegu would be my blue, She was in bad shape (not as bad as yours tho)
    I would say size and health wise, as long as you put in the time you can have it a full 180 in a month+/-.
    The MBD could take a little longer get a good MVB or 2/3 florescent tubes (no ZILLA lights, i'd say 10.0 & a 5.0 Zoo-med or 2 8.0 Arcadia lights)
    if it's still nice and sunny out where you are get it out side 2+ hours a day as much as you can to speed the MBD recovery rate.
    (once the MBD is gone you can cut it back to one 10.0 or just keep the MVBulb)
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Central FL
    Posts
    4,349

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    just to add on to the good advice given above....Definitely keep up the calcium supplements on a daily basis for a while. I would use the kind with D3, but no phosphorous. After he's on his feet, you can decide if you want to continue to use D3 or not. The best way to use UVB is to place it in the enclosure without a screen barrier. If you have the long tube variety (a 10.0 would be best), then it needs to be about 6-8" from the basking spot. Any farther and the UVB is insignificant. A MVB bulb needs to be 12-16", depending on the type. Like Pikey said, natural sunlight would be best.

    The lost digits may be from poor shedding, so I would keep an eye on humidity and future sheds. He may be dehydrated as well.
    Laura R (FL)
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  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Chesterfield, VA, USA
    Posts
    265

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    Welcome to The Tegu and congratulations on your new rescued friend. He sounds relatively small considering the pet store you got him from was getting away with feeding him crickets, which is good for you since hopefully that means the recovery shouldn't take too long, about a month or so like Pikey said. I know a lot of pet stores in my area have policies against feeding mice to their lizards but they provide an important staple in this large lizard's diet and shouldn't be ignored.

    A good way to judge is by getting mice about the size of your tegus head, that way you get as big a mouse as your tegu can eat while continually upgrading to calcium the older the mouse is. Pinkies at this stage are invaluable though as your tegu probably needs to be fattened up a bit from only eating crickets. About the time his tail plumpens up is when you can stop feeding him a fattier diet.

    As for the MBD, he'll need a MVB (Mercury Vapor Bulb) or UVB bulb and possibly some natural sunlight. At that age I wouldn't suggest a leash as it may become scared and flighty when he gets his strength back but if you have one of the larger travel tanks (the clear ones you can get for about $20 or so) you can take him outside and give him some sun that way.

    Congratulations and welcome again to The Tegu, and would you mind posting pics of your new friend?
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