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Issues with sudden snap of aggression due to "freedom"

Ashley Bridges

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15
Since this is behavior related I'll try and give some backstory. I've wanted an Argentina black and white for years, have quite a bit of reptile experience including more advanced species like red foots. Finally broke down and got a 6 month old female towards the end of June. She was about 6inches and while I haven't measured her lately about a month ago was 2 ft so growing really well. She's in a 6x2x2 enclosure(temporary enclosure) currently.
The food list that's on here I keep on my phone and she's tried just about everything on it. She gets a really good variety(I'm really weird and enjoy prepping meals way to much for my animals). I haven't done it the past few weeks, I've just cut up the fruit, but before I would take different fruits and veggies(ex. mango, papaya, kale, kiwi, apple, peas) and grind it up and just mix that in with her meat(turkey, venison, beef, chicken, rabbit, cray fish,ect). Although one of my concerns is I was doing about 50% meat and 50% a mix of the fruits and veggies or just fruits, which now after some more research may be off? I've been told shes a bit on the chubby side and I should cut back the amount of meat product? So advice on that would be great

The major concern is the other night for the first time she figured out how to open her enclosure. I ended up finding her behind my 30bin breeding rack and actually had to use a thawed mouse to lure her out because moving that rack without help was to dangerous. She came right out and gobbled up the mouse. I let her poke around a bit to relax. Instead she wandered around and as I was sitting down on the floor charged me, but stopped in front of me mouth open. I ended up having to put my legs on either side of her body and press my forearm against the top of her head and used just enough pressure to hold her to the floor(no more pressure than when she burrows under my arm to snuggle). After a minute or two of trying to wrestle free, she gave a couple huffs and relaxed a bit. I sat and stroked her head down to her back as I let off her. Still cranky she did let me pick her up, but was still squirmy. I didn't want to put her back in her enclosure after that, since growing up with horses the idea was if you get thrown off, always get back on otherwise they'll learn how to get out of work. I figure it may apply here(correct me if I'm wrong though, I wasn't sure how applicable it is).

I brought her upstairs and sat on the sofa curled up in a blanket like normal and she started to doze and be herself again. Then I had to get up and go into another room, came out and she was wandering the living room so I let her for about 5 mins. Once I had to make dinner I went to get her and suddenly she was threatening to bite me again. This time I just ignored her threat and scooped her up. She got over it pretty quickly, but was still really weird for her.

The escape was all late enough that the stores were closed so I tried wedging a piece of wood against the slider on the outside of the enclosure so it would last until I got home from work. Well..she popped the board off(still amazed by that) and got out. This time only my husband was home. Luckily she was out but when e went to scoop her up she actually charged and tried to bite him, thankfully only hitting his hand. I got the lock all set now, but he had to use a bin just to get her into her enclosure.

I tried spending a lot of time working with her, every day usually for at least an hour to upwards of 3. She 's always been a bit odd if I let her roam around by herself(I tegu-proofed the office and have basking spots setup so she can get out while I'm working). But the most I get is a huff. Otherwise she's a complete puppy dog, even the other week she was wandering on the sofa and ended up coming over to me all on her own and snuggling me(yay!). I've had other people handle her, and she lets me do just about anything to her, including clip her nails. She loves head rubs and neck rubs and can be such a snuggle bug. But obviously something I'm doing is wrong because any sort of extended "freedom" seems to make her turn almost wild, but it's never been this bad.

I'm going to be changing her feeding so she never sees us involved with her food, but the only thing I can think of is the way I feed. I mix it up, sometimes in the enclosure sometimes out, sometimes hand feeding(in which even if I block her food she's very careful to move my hand and then grab the food). I had read many times that their smart enough to know the difference, and for the most part she seems to. But it's all I can think of, although some of the aggression really didn't seem to be food related the second time as there was no food involved. I'm at a loss and I don't want to do the wrong thing, I feel like I'm back at square one and it's very frustrating because I've put in so many hours trying to make her extremely tame. Any advice or feedback would me amazing. If I missed something let me know, I'll provide any extra info I can. Thank you and sorry for the long read!
 

Ashley Bridges

New Member
Messages
15
Also forgot to mention, I did get her with some cage aggression since the kid that had her before me would just reach in and pull out of the substrate without even waking her up first. (he even tried to advice me to be quick otherwise she can turn on you). So I had to spend the first month or so easing her into being ok in the enclosure since she was so terrified every time she heard a noise and was asleep. Now she's good though, I usually uncover her head, talk to her, and rest my hand under her chin so as she wakes up she can lick and tell its me. So she has no problems with that, usually she wakes up now, see me and tries to just doze back off haha
 

Walter1

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Something triggered that, and I'm puzzling over what it was. Seems otherwise tame. Maybe bad past experience outside.
 

Ashley Bridges

New Member
Messages
15
Something triggered that, and I'm puzzling over what it was. Seems otherwise tame. Maybe bad past experience outside.

It could be, the kid who had her seemed to spend some time with her outside the enclosure, she wasn't feral, but she did have some odd aggression and there were quite a few things in his care that disagreed heavily with the research I had done(she was fed just eggs and pinkies, also the whole just yanking her out of the substrate without warning, ect). Like I kind of mentioned, she's always been a little weird when left to roam free. The longer she's out exploring when I'm not right there giving my attention. Especially when she's loose in the office and I'm just doing my work, but the most she usually does it huff and give me the evil eye and gets over it once I give her some rubs. But never anything like that. The only time I was ever charged was when I first got her with cage aggression but it was always a bluff, and if I offered up my hand for her to bite when she threatened she'd actually get really freaked out. I mentally always picture her going "I'll kill you hooman!" and then when I just stick out my hand it turns into "what..no..no you're suppose to be afraid! what's wrong with you!". But this time it was definitely not a bluff...

Otherwise she was getting to the point where I felt I could do almost anything and she'd be fine. I was worried it was a trust issue, and having to pin her to calm her down made me really worried that I had ruined some trust. But even last night when I went in to give her some attention she was completely fine. I've even brought her out a couple of times(small local storees in which I know the owners) just so when she's older she has some outing experience and she's always an angel. Granted, I don't really let anyone pet or interact with her when out just in case, as long as she's in my arms she's ok. She's always falling asleep curled up with me, and even if I move her she won't wake up half the time. Also if she's wandering around if I start rubbing her head she'll stop moving, after a minute just sink to the ground, and a couple minutes later be knocked out asleep, in which I can then pick her up and carry her with her head on my shoulder asleep. From most of my reading I had come to believe that if they're willing to sleep that heavily around you they trust you right? I'm so at a loss and I want to fix this behavioral before she gets bigger and actually bites me or my husband. The only thing I can think of is more free roam time in which I randomly walk up and pat her every now and again.
 
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Walter1

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Yup. Bad association with something going on in free roam. I like your suggested remedy.
 

Tegu Thunder

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Messages
14
Location
Pittsburgh PA
I've been having a smilar problem with my gu, but not quite as bad. She's only charged at me a few times, it's mostly huffing and puffing. I don't know what could have triggered it with mine, I've had her since she was a month old.
 

Roadkill

Active Member
5 Year Member
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497
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Earth
I see this all the time, and all I can say is clearly people have the wrong impression of what a pet tegu is. They think "once tame, always tame", and I think that's completely wrong. I don't think these animals actually are tame in the sense that a dog is, they are more accurately called habituated. Don't get me wrong, they can be wonderfully social and even appear appreciative of human interaction. However it is very common to see some sort of change in their environment (getting out of their cage, going outside, larger enclosure, etc.) and all of a sudden the always wonderful and cuddly tegu becomes nasty. This is their instinct kicking in. Think about the situation you're describing: the tegu got out on its own, and is roaming a novel environment - what's going to happen? By default, instinct kicks in and caution & aggression kicks up. Having been habituated to you, I'm pretty sure the aggression is no where near what it would be like in a fully wild tegu (simply put, I doubt you could get your hands on a fully wild tegu and write about the tegu calming down). As you are doing, though, I think this is roughly the right idea: getting the tegu to recognize that free-roaming doesn't need to be stressful and that you are a natural part of that environment. Many tegus readily habituate to this, but some do not. Just always keep in mind that the smallest of cues can kick in that natural instinct.
 

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