tegu acting out

[herpnerd]

hi,
I have a 4 and a half month old extreme giant (born in July)named Goliath, he is about 24 inches long right now. he has been nothing but a gentleman since I got him... until recently. I am a college student so I brought him home for thanksgiving for the week. He was fine there in a 125 gallon cage that was square (huge footprint) and then I brought him back to school and put him into his normal 125 gallon long (6x long but thinner). He went nuts! He dug everything up and started launching himself at the lights and trying to jump out of the cage endlessly. I changed the bedding (as there were more than a few crickets that had begun breeding in the substrate while i was gone) and even had to take his lights and the fake vines out because he was climbing them and pushing on his lid. So at this point he is in a bare cage with substrate, a water bowl and a hidebox. he is still launching himself towards the top of the cage and seems very uneasy. he is eating less but still eating. Its only been three days but I figured I should do what I can sooner rather than later, he's always been very easy to handle but I'm nervous that he might nip me and that would open up a new can of worms. any ideas on whats going on or what I could try to do to calm the beast?

 

[i0r]

Sounds like disorientation. Tegu's can easily get stressed with environment/habitat changes. I don't think there's much you can do about it. Just let him settle in his new enclosure all over again.
Maybe a little free roaming could calm him down.

 

[laurarfl]

My B/W Kreacher did that when she reached that size. I called it her rebellious teenager stage. It was like she lived to jump at the lid. And she did try to nip my hands when I tried to take her out. Eventually I had to open the lid and let her jump out on her own when it was time to get out.

I don't know if it was a phase or the enclosure (glass tank), but she did stop. Coincidentally, it was when I moved her into a new, larger wooden enclosure. This is a huge, heavy cage made of wood with only a screen drop down door across the front, and a screen opening just large enough for the mercury vapor bulb. When she first went in there, she could get on her hide and jump toward the light. It was awkward, though, and she quit within a week. So, it was either the age or the enclosure.