Research Project

[herper9]

Okay so I want to breed some Tegus of the T. teguixin variety. I know some people on here have had some success, although it was difficult. Firstly how does one tell if the gu is a male or female? Also what is the best ratio (male to female)? Do they become aggressive after laying like the T. merianae do? What temps have people tried with incubating? Humidity? Are they actually from Colombia? What regions? What size do they get and I know they don't hibernate, but do they "slow" down? Mostly carnivorous? Thanks everyone! Hope this keeps everyone busy while their gus are sleepin'! Oh yeah the whole research project. I was trying to come up with a masters thesis and since the research I have done so far shows that T. teguixin hasn't been bred with much success, I figured I would give it a great shot and run an experiment on the eggs to see what works... Which if I am successful will hopefully stop the WC imports. Thanks again!

 

[mr.tegu]

with all due repsect, i dont feel it is a good idea to ''experiment'' with breeding tegus or any other animals. animals as with humans are mother nature and unless you have the best of intensions of keeping things as real and natural as possible then i would not try to breed anything. i feel that if you want to breed ''anything'' you need to have experiance in caring for the animals first. i hope i dont sound negitive or that im being rude its just my opinion. if you use the ''search'' key on this site you can find massive amounts of info on breeding, incubation,hatching and so on.

 

[herper9]

Firstly I am not experimenting in the sense that I am trying to kill all these wonderful gus. I want to do the research in order to prolong the life of the colombians in the trade. Also to get them going much like Bobby and Bert had gotten the B&Ws going. And of course I would want to take care of them first. I will raise my pairs from the time they are babies. From my understanding this is how we as humans learn about animals. We experiment. I've looked and there is no info on incubating colombians, breeding colombians, or even hatching colombians that I can find. I am thinking that perhaps those who have tried and failed in the past tried to follow too closely to the Args and Reds. I want to find out what the variables need to be in order to breed, incubate and successfully hatch this species. Is that so wrong? I know a member on here successfully bred them, but he said that all of his hatchlings were still borns. I don't want that to happen to me, or my gus. But is he wrong for "killing" all of those babies? I would say no, in fact this next year he will probably get success because of this last breeding attempt.

 

[mr.tegu]

i understand, like i said i didnt mean to make you feel like i was disrespecting you or your ideas. good luck in your breeding project and i hope it all goes well.

 

[herper9]

Bump. Anyone with Colombian Tegu experience would be great! I want to do this right! Thanks everyone.

 

[TeguKid80]

Hmm they are mostly carnivorous I have never kept one but I am looking at golds right now...

 

[herper9]

I know they are mostly carnivorous, also that they don't hibernate. I guess the info I'm trying to find is mostly about breeding.

 

[TEGU_JAKE]

Ive had one and it ate pretty much everything, it would eat mice, eggs, fish, ground turkey, and it would eat some fruits like bananas and berries. I had it from a hatchling and it was also tame. I heard females get bigger than males but im not sure, and I also heard females are a lot calmer than males too.

 

[herper9]

Great ideas everyone! Any clues as to breeding?

 

[mr.tegu]

i know that columbians only go for about 15-20 dollars. maybe you can push 30 but i doubt it. at least thats true in my area. so you wont make a great profit breeding these animals.

 

[herper9]

Understandable. And I'm not looking to make a horribly good profit. I can breed Crested Geckos for that. Like I've said before, this is more to bring CB into the market, and hopefully get rid of the WC.

 

[chelvis]

If you really want information you'll have to trace the wholesellers. I know this sounds wierd but alot of the WC animals are really farmed or ranched in South American now adays. So why arent they called CB then. Simply put these places have large pens with males and females and its natural born out in this pens and then collected.

Your best bet is to find what exact spieces you want to work with. Once thats found out, find any information on thier habitate and there wild behavior. There are alot of small factors that can give you a major heads up for breeding and incubating. Such as if they breed in the early summer maybe its the wet season that triggers this... small enviromental factors could help with breeding. As for incubating try and see where they naturally lay thier eggs. If its a dug nest in a termite mound then constant even mild humitity is needed, verse say a mound of vegitation which changes a bit more over time and keeps the humidity higher.

This is how i would start my base line and tweek with the varbiables as a went.

 

[herper9]

Thanks Chelvis! I've combed the site and have learned that they do tend to put them in termite mounds. So that could be something. I'm talking to some geologists to see if they can find me some info on the soil pH and what not down there. Thanks!