taming my tegus

[bubbasherps]

I have 6 tegus . 1 red Tegu -3 Argentine B&W -and 2 - blue/red crosses I HAVE NOTICED that my female tegus have been very hard to tame. ive tryed every thing under the sun and soon as my one female sees me shes hissing tail whiping she jumps to bite. and shes still a baby about a foot in lenght. I did try many different tricks and gentle handling and have got bitten so many times and have actually got a infection from her bite...and im thinking a animal grabber is my best bet. I love all my tegus but not all are the same maybe she does not want to be Tame and shes not breeding. anyone have any pointers or tricks?

Bubbas Herps
10.20 crested geckos
1.1 vorax geckos
1.2.50 veiled chameleons
1 red Tegu
1.2 argentine B&W Tegus
1.1 red/blue Tegus
1.1 leopard geckos
1 yellow tree monitor

 

[DaveDragon]

They're small, you're big. To them you're going to eat them. Give them time to get accustomed to seeing you (maybe a few months??). Or maybe you just taste good!! :mrgreen:

See the other Taming thread. Some good stuff in there.

 

[KoreanDeathKid]

my friend's way of taming animals is a little cruel, so i don't suggest that, but if you want to see it, you can look at nat's thread, i don't remember the title of it tho
but where in the world do you get the time to take care of that many animals?

 

[bubbasherps]

taming

handling is gettin a little better im trying bitter apple spray which was sugested by a dog trainer friend and has worked spraying some on my glove that i now wear she bite once and for the past 2 days she has not bite the glove..a step forward...ive have been biten by alot of herps boids, rattlesnake ,monitors Tegus by far have nasty bite.. even though gettin biten by a 5 foot croc monitor is not pleasant

 

[VARNYARD]

I want to say, if you push her, she will never learn to trust you. Think about the things you are doing with your animal, is it going to build trust?

As for cruel ways to train an animal as KoreanDeathKid speaks of, is this going to build trust? At some point you must use common sense, your friend seems to be trying to force the animal into doing what he wants, it will not work. Tegus are way too strong willed and smart. You will have an animal that will hate you in the end, look for a lot of bites and tail lashings. This is all that will come from cruel ways of training. In the end, you will not trust him, and he will not trust you.

 

[bubbasherps]

taming

Most of the time, I sit and talk to my tegus and sometimes petting them. my tegus are in hibernation except 2 tegus i got just a week ago..i give them space if they are in their hide i dont bother with them. i have notice when i have them outside in a large cage they come to me. but now im keeping them inside in smaller cages.. and notice a change in the tegus inside compared to keeping them in larger cages outside. i dont want to lose trust with her. and want her to trust me I know they are defensive of their nest..she seems defensive of her cage and herself. I still love her all my tegus I kepted and bred alot of herps moslty lizards and tegus are the best responsive lizards ive kepted.

 

[Swtbrat]

Bubba,I got a Blue&Red cross also and teguboy77 has two unless he sold one which he said he was.
I can't wait till they get bigger. :wink:

Brat!

 

[bubbasherps]

blue /red cross

blue/red cross are awesome looking tegus the ones i have are tame little cuties also cant wait they get bigger..

 

[bubbasherps]

update

:-D tegus are dog tame now no aggression :-D i did buy one from Bert that was 2 foot that was wild but shes a baby now :-D buy one tegu end up with 20 :lol:

 

[VARNYARD]

Re: update

:-D tegus are dog tame now no aggression :-D i did buy one from Bert that was 2 foot that was wild but shes a baby now :-D buy one tegu end up with 20 :lol:

Well how did you tame them? I know at one point you really had questions if they would get tame.

 

[DZLife]

Yeah...also, that seems like pretty quick for going from being totally scared of human interaction to being dog tame, but hey, if you say so!
I am also curious about your taming methods; care to share?

 

[DaveDragon]

Yeah...also, that seems like pretty quick for going from being totally scared of human interaction to being dog tame.

Our 3 year old male Blue was wicked cage aggressive fore the first month and a half and one day he suddenly decided I was OK. Dog tame after that. I even reached blindly under the coach to pull him out about that time. He didn't even flinch.

All of our Tegu's were wicked cage aggressive for a period of time. It's up to them when they think it's safe to trust us.

 

[DZLife]

Oh, maybe that explains how one day, (2 days ago), Mike's female B&W argy decided that she hates people. Up until that day, she had been one of the most docile tegus I have ever encountered. She was out sunning, and all of a sudden she bolted, found a way out of the yard that I didn't realize existed, and went and got stuck in my neighbors fence. I got her out, she was fine, didn't have any aggression. She came back and sunned...even crawled up onto my shoulder, and then I put her away. I took her out the next day, and I blocked off that exit to my yard. She sunned for about an hour, then I had to leave, so I went over to pick her up. She lunged at my hand, missed, and went behind a bush. I tried for about an hour to get her out.....I really didn't want to freak her out, but what was I supposed to do...leave her outside? In the process, she got my hand several times....gave me some nice lil gashes. I didn't have any gloves. After about a half hour of trying to coax her out, I let her be for another hour or so. Mike, her owner, came over, and she did the same to him. Finally, we got her back into her enclosure.
It bums me out that that happened, as now, she is extremely mistrusting of humans. We can't even get near her.

The male sat on my shoulder throughout the whole charade.

 

[DaveDragon]

WOW!! An amazing loss of trust! Ours went the other way. I hope that never happens to us. I guess it doesn't take much, they are smart.

 

[DZLife]

The strange this is, one minute she was sitting there being the sweety that she always has been, and the next minute she was acting like a cornered feral cat

 

[angelrose]

.... cornered feral cat :lol5 , that's ironic

 

[DZLife]

How so?

 

[angelrose]

just the two extremes you used struck me as being funny. I like the irony :lol:

 

[DZLife]

Oh
Yeah, I like similes and metaphors.
I also treasure randomness. Keeps things interesting.

 

[angelrose]

no harm yes, I noticed I think it's funny in a very good way and interesting as well.