MacGyver's Official Thread (Pics, Vids & Taming Stories)

[Scott Hogge]

This is going to be the official thread for everything MacGyver related.

Background:

I got Mac on July 24 (two weeks before this post) from this guy: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tys-Lizards/188828187820956

He was just short of three weeks old when I got him, so he's about 5 weeks old today in the videos below.

This is Mac the day after I got him (3 weeks old):
[attachment=4766]

And these are yesterday (5 weeks old)
[attachment=4767]
[attachment=4768]

At 5 weeks old now, he is eating about 8 pinkies (frozen from rodentpro.com) every day.

He is super active and dog tame. When he is walking around in "explorer mode", he will come to the front of his enclosure when he sees you and will instantly climb up onto you for a free ride if you put your hand inside (videos below). Even when he is in super lazy mode just basking, if you rub his head a little and then let him lick you, he will climb right up onto your arm.

Here are a few good videos I just took. He is always this active & friendly.

This is Mac in "explorer mode" & looking for a way out of his enclosure to have some fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSbEwgcB9yU

And again, climbing right up onto my shoulders: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWrDLW-N3PA

Hanging out on the couch letting me pet him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPTdeoLnu8w

I let him free roam, but sometimes he just circles me looking for a way into my shirt so he can go to sleep: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf_csPC86Uo

And then after he has been free roaming for a while, i lay down and call him, and he comes over to try to find his way into my shirt again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRApqcj4qVI

Not bad for just two weeks of training. Stay tuned for for videos of him learning how to walk on two legs and fly in a few more weeks.

 

[Aardbark]

Cute little guy, and great name. lol

 

[Skeetzy]

I'm no expert, and could very well be wrong, but isn't it said to be bad to feed a mostly whole prey diet to animals? Just wanted to bring this to your attention just in case you didn't know.

But Aardbark said it right. He is very cute lol. The videos were cool, I'll probably be making a ton too. I never knew you could make videos unlisted on youtube, and make them only watchable through the link. That's absolutely awesome.

Also, completely random, but whats on the wall under the swords? Is it a TV screensaver or something?

 

[Scott Hogge]

I'm no expert, and could very well be wrong, but isn't it said to be bad to feed a mostly whole prey diet to animals? Just wanted to bring this to your attention just in case you didn't know.

But Aardbark said it right. He is very cute lol. The videos were cool, I'll probably be making a ton too. I never knew you could make videos unlisted on youtube, and make them only watchable through the link. That's absolutely awesome.

Thanks. I do give him some variation in his diet but it is about 80% mice, 15% superworms & waxworms, and about 5% fruit. I'm going to be mixing it up a little more in the future also... planning on giving him some raw sockeye salmon tomorrow and trying some other things after that.

 

[Skeetzy]

If you look in the Tegu Articles, Varnyard has a diet posted, that many use with success. Ground Turkey is a great way to go. There's other meat you can off too, for variety. www.hare-today.com has a great selection. Someone posted a thread about it in the diet section, with what they ordered for some variety ideas. It's helpful too, since they grind up the bones/organs with it, so for a well mixed meal you don't have to shop around for livers/necks/hearts, etc. Shipping was cheap too, $20 for me. Came packed well.

 

[Steven.]

Interesting. Never heard of this breeder. From the looks of mac, he breeds healthy animals. Does he have a website or any info?...

 

[Scott Hogge]

Interesting. Never heard of this breeder. From the looks of mac, he breeds healthy animals. Does he have a website or any info?...

No website that I'm aware of. I found him by a FC ad @ http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1485354#post1485354 and the same add up on kingsnake.

From the look of it Ty does most his stuff through his facebook page & ads on FC/kingsnake for things he has available. He was very responsive and answered emails almost immediately. I never needed to speak to him over the phone. Just a few quick emails back and forth on friday, I paypal'd over the cash, he shipped him monday night and Mac arrived tuesday morning.

From the look of his FB page he breeds a bunch of different herps and doesn't specialize in tegus... I think he may have like 1 nice breeding pair of reds, 1 pair of blues, and 1 pair of b&w or something like that. When I contacted him he had 5 hatchlings left from his red clutch, and I took one.

I have not had MacGyver tested for parasites but I have no reason to suspect that he has any. Short of a stool test, I can confirm everything else was 100%... hes super active and walks/runs/jumps normally, eats and poops daily, and has no missing toes or any damaged scales.

 

[tommyboy]

Ty is a very well known breeder. You made a good choice!

 

[Scott Hogge]

Just served up a variety feast for Mac's breakfast. Cherries, strawberries, grapes, fresh sockeye salmon, scrambled eggs w/carrot, and a few pinkies. He loved the salmon.

[attachment=4773]


The last few days Mac has been making great improvement in the tame category. He is much more confident in his free roaming now. Last week he would spend most of his free roaming time by circling the house along the walls, but now he is hanging out in the center of the room and trying to climb things.

He has also changed his couch behavior. I would usually start off by putting him on the couch when I took him out, and he would eventually get bored of the couch and climb down off it. Now I'm putting him right on the floor more often so he can go do his exploring thing, and when i put him on the couch its like a treat and he will stay there for hours. He loves crawling around in/behind the couch cushions... I set him on one side and go sit myself on the other side... and 10 minutes later he pops out of the cushions right by me and starts licking my arm.

Awesome little dude.

 

[Scott Hogge]

This is my 3 week update on Mac. He's about 6 weeks old now and just shy of 13 inches. He is in shed right now (has been shedding once a week,) so he is pretty dull looking in these photos, but he has been getting redder after each shed.

[attachment=4810]
[attachment=4811]

He's very confident when free roaming now and doesn't even flinch if I walk by at normal speed. He has started developing some amusing habits when roaming, and his latest is trying to dig into the wood floors at a few different spots. He always returns to the same spots to do this, and will do it for up to 30 minutes. He kinda looks like he is training to be the karate kid with these 'wax on, wax off' hand motions.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GITNsVoT-0

Wax on, Wax off close up video.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_wswjMKU-8

Short 4 minute free roaming session start to finish. Climbs up my arm to get out... Climbs down my back/leg to get to the floor. Checks things out for a min, then returns to me and crawls under me. Then he takes off to go find his favorite spot to try and dig through the wood floor.

 

[Steven.]

Mac is one of the most active tegus I've ever seen. Its crazy how fast he's come to remembering you hand.. Its awesome. Keep up the good work.

sent from my phone to your eyes

 

[chitodadon]

You r doing a great job I hope my Tegu is like that baby Zeus is active and wild lol always jumping at my hand and stuff mine was born around July 1st so he still small

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Burke]

Hes a real nice red. I just got mine from Ty last week, and mine won't let me near him. Any suggestions because I'm getting really discouraged?

 

[Scott Hogge]

Hes a real nice red. I just got mine from Ty last week, and mine won't let me near him. Any suggestions because I'm getting really discouraged?

Don't get discouraged, I'm sure he/she will warm up. They go through distinct phases, and the first one (overcoming fear) is by far the hardest... but as soon as you get through that the rest is easy.

Tegus have great memory, and they remember being freaked out. I've found with Mac & and previous tegus (had to give those away to a nice family about 10 years ago when I moved abroad,) that the key is to know your limits and not push them. Some people will try slowly pick up their new tegus thinking that if they just keep trying slowly he will eventually warm up, but the tegu just ends up remembering the incident as the thing that comes in and always freaks me out. So they key with whatever you are doing, is to stop BEFORE the tegu freaks out. If he wont let you come near him, figure out where he will let you be, say 8 feet away, and hang out there doing your own thing (reading, computer, whatever.) He should learn quickly that you are not a threat. Once he is cool with that, try moving a little closer. Just keep getting closer until you are eventually with your hand in the cage and he doesn't mind if you set your hand down in front of him. Let his curiosity bring him to you, and don't try to handle him too soon. Anything you can do to show him that you are not interested eating him will help. If you find yourself in a staring contest, close your eyes and pretend to sleep, and he'll probably stop worrying about you.

Mac's enclosure is in my office where I spend 20 hr a day, so getting him used to me walking around his cage was easy. Just spend as much time as you can with him, without freaking him out at all, and it will get easier every day.

After he isn't afraid of you it becomes much easier. Then all you gotta do is spend time with him and help him out with his little lizard plans he'll love you. Mac started climbing those trees so he could try to escape (he loves being out of his enclosure!), so I started offering up my hand as an extension every time he climbed to the top and wanted to keep going. At first he would only climb up my hands when he was already in the trees, but he soon learned that he could just bypass the whole tree thing and climb up my hands directly. Now he will climb up anybody's hand, even a new person that he has never met.

 

[juliacuunjieng]

He's such a cute little guy! I'm just wondering, how did you manage to make him respond to his name? I've only just been introduced to this world of tegu ownership.

 

[Scott Hogge]

He's such a cute little guy! I'm just wondering, how did you manage to make him respond to his name? I've only just been introduced to this world of tegu ownership.

Thanks =) I think its just the sound of my voice actually let lets him know its me. He will usually come over to me about 80% of the time once he realizes its me. I keep the house at a constant 75 degrees and he knows I'm warm & not interested in eating him.


My RodentPro.com and Hare-Today.com orders just came. I have a freezer full of pinkies/fuzzies and a bunch of ground animals (rabbit, salmon, quail, pheasant, llama, bison, duck, goose.)

[attachment=4826]

I'm going to try feeding the ground animals starting this weekend, but today MacGyver ate 6 pinky mice and a pinky rat. Yesterday he had a few pinkies and a white fuzzy. Unfortunately I think he's racist, as he wouldn't touch the black fuzzies I tried to give him.

He's really fat looking now after this rat pinky. I just took this pic that makes him look huge. I admit its a little cheating though because the wife's hand is so tiny =)

[attachment=4827]

 

[Scott Hogge]

Mac's been out free roaming for about 24 hr straight now. Last night I let him sleep on the couch, and he woke me up this morning by licking my face.

I setup another basking light for him when roaming. He's been hanging out by the balcony door where there is some good sunlight, so I stuck another powersun 150w lamp there and he seems to know already its his outside basking spot. He's been returning to it regularly to bask, then he goes and runs around the rest of the house for a while.

[attachment=4834]


I think that I'm going to get rid of the enclosure and let him start free roaming 100% starting next month. I would like to do it now, but I'm going to be at Burning Man for the last week of this month and I'm scared my tegu-sitter is going to step on him.

 

[Scott Hogge]

This is my 4 week update on Mac. He is 7 weeks old now and just broke 14 inches.

He has been free roaming since friday afternoon, so almost a week straight now. He knows where his basking spot is, and will spend most of the day there. He takes lots of little breaks to go explore the rest of the house and play with the bathroom drain cover (one of his favorite things to do.)

He has been sleeping on the couch every night. He still can't climb up it by himself, but he tries. He can climb up my all my beanbag chairs though, and he will do that a few times every day.


Mac returning to his basking spot after some exploring:
[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3H5yEonHOo&feature=plcp[/video]

 

[chitodadon]

Great job with taming only if Zeus was like that

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Murkve]

Is he still skittish when the big hands come after him, or with fast movements?

If not, tell us your secrets!