Interesting behavior

[Lee W]

Wanted to give an update on my tegu, Tengri. They’ve been doing real well! They’ve been learning the routine of things and slowly are becoming more curious. There’s one behavior in particular they do every time I interact with them though, that I found interesting. Often when I put my hand in the enclosure, they will sit on it. At first they were just walking across it, which I assumed was only because I put my hand in spots where they like to chill. But now they will seek out my hand to sit on. My hands are usually cold so I don’t think they are looking for warmth. I’ve been using this opportunity to slowly bring them out of the enclosure, but I’ve only been able to have about 30 seconds or so of them running through my hands outside of the enclosure, before they hop back into it. They are still skittish in that regard, but if I don’t move my hand they are content to stay on it, so what could this behavior mean?

 

[Debita]

I think they like you.....but they are skittish animals that can be influenced by small things. I think it's so cute. I had a terrible time trying to get my male to do anything like that. He's 3 yrs now, and comes to me to sit with me, and lay his head on me. He trusts me, and it sounds like your little ones are at a minimum used to you and probably trust you too.

 

[Lee W]

I think they like you.....but they are skittish animals that can be influenced by small things. I think it's so cute. I had a terrible time trying to get my male to do anything like that. He's 3 yrs now, and comes to me to sit with me, and lay his head on me. He trusts me, and it sounds like your little ones are at a minimum used to you and probably trust you too.

I hope that’s the case! However today I had to do a full clean of their enclosure and boy has it been a day. Unfortunately I had to wake them up to transfer them to another tank so I could clean, which even though they didn’t squirm around, I’m sure it put them on edge. When I put them back in they immediately went to the bathroom and had a prolapse! It went back in on its own after a few minutes but the poor guy was definitely uncomfortable, I’m not sure what to do going forward about that. They then got super flighty for a few hours, running away if I even turned my head in their direction despite being across the room. By the time evening came they recognized me again so I just sat by the enclosure as I usually do with the door open annnd they decided to sprint out of the enclosure which is a first. Luckily I was able to get them back in quickly, but really hope they can settle into the enclosure again, I feel so bad about it all.

 

[Debita]

Yes - they can be very fast when they're young. As far as the prolapse, I would just be checking to make sure that it does go back in, and doesn't dry out. Gently nudging the protrusion back to where it belongs is not hard to help with, and it doesn't hurt to have it back where it belongs!